This roundtable could have been an email

Federal Treasury has let the cat out of the bag: the erstwhile Productivity Summit, now Economic Reform Roundtable, is the kind of meeting which could have been an email. In a leaked document, the department recommended a set of outcomes for the roundtable, which was – supposedly – to be informed by the 500-odd pages of research conducted by the Productivity Commission covering five pillars laid out by Treasurer Jim Chalmers last year. Spoiler: the recommendations are only tangentially related to those documents, which have taken an army of policy minds at a purpose-built organisation six months to prepare.

That’s not just inefficient – it’s a working case of the opposite of productivity. In fact, the whole process increasingly resembles a dramatisation of the CIA’s 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual. To disrupt the effectiveness of organisations and conferences, the spy manual suggests a saboteur gum up progress by insisting on doing everything through “channels” and “never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions”. Consider that box ticked.

The roundtable is certainly not a shortcut. Especially given the fact that the roundtable attendee list is broad and many are coming armed with their own policy proposals, to complement the work of the Productivity Commission. The CIA advised saboteurs to “make speeches”, specifically, “talk as frequently as possible and at great length”. Given Treasury’s recommendations are, at least as reported, conspicuously limited, it’s already clear there’ll be a lot more talking than listening.

The Business Council of Australia has flagged that it will be “bringing constructive ideas” to the roundtable, which “will assist in identifying policies that can increase investment across the economy through red tape reduction, faster approvals on major projects, future industries’ growth, research and innovation, harnessing AI and tax reform”. Laudable stuff.

But the advocacy body and its members tend to spend more time talking to business forums than selling their importance to the wider public. The timorous prime minister and his pre-chastened treasurer have no incentive to invest any political capital in putting them into practice. Predictably, big businesses will leave the roundtable lamenting a “lack of political will” and go back to individually shaping regulation for their personal comfort. It is telling that big businesses were happier to donate to the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, cosying up to the government in the process, than they are to spend a bit of cash selling the public on a more competitive and productive Australia.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions will have four representatives at the roundtable – a super-majority of three more than any other organisation represented. It has decided that this summit is the perfect opportunity to campaign on a four-day work week for the same pay. At least the peak body is out selling its proposal – though selling the idea of free money really doesn’t take much skill. Four days on full pay would, say the ACTU, be made possible by implementing technological advances, like AI. Never one to shy away from irony, the union peak is simultaneously seeking to stymie the implementation of AI because it fears it would result in job losses. But then, as head honcho Sally McManus famously asserted in 2019, if you don’t like laws, it’s OK to break them. What are a couple of pesky laws of economics to a unionist armed with a populist proposal?

The Australian Council of Social Service will be there to demand workers and savers get taxed more, of course. And the small business representative body will be there for decorative purposes, having never been a focus of an Albanese government which prefers its stakeholders large enough to be unionised. Opposition Treasury spokesman Ted O’Brien also has a seat, but seems increasingly perplexed by the process.

Most significantly, given the leaked Treasury recommendations, the chairwoman of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council is attending, alongside the chairwoman of IFM Investors, which allocates money on behalf of Australia’s biggest industry super funds. Remember Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ proposal to invest your superannuation in social housing? The Grattan Institute said that “no super fund should forego returns for its members by paying the subsidy gap for social or affordable housing out of members’ pockets”. Too bad. The prescript recommendations suggest that’s exactly where this roundtable is heading – toward a policy underwritten by other people’s retirement savings.

Independent teal MP Allegra Spender has been putting on an optimistic face this week, denying that the summit is a stitch-up as opposition leader Sussan Ley has claimed. Spender has held her own discussions on tax reform when the cause seemed lost over the last term of government, and is upbeat about the potential for change. Bless her private sector heart. Everything seems possible when you haven’t spent a lifetime watching good intentions suffer death by committee.

And there will be committees – so many committees. The CIA saboteurs’ guide places special emphasis on the value of these structures in holding up action indefinitely. Where possible, the manual suggests to “refer all matters to committees” for “further study and consideration”.

What began as a productivity process has turned into a masterclass in sabotage. If reform fails, it won’t be for lack of ideas – it will be because no-one seems willing to sell them. The CIA once taught saboteurs how to kill progress. It seems the Albanese government took notes.

Parnell Palme McGuinness is managing director at campaigns firm Agenda C. She has done work for the Liberal Party and the German Greens.

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