Malcolm Turnbull says Donald Trump’s election to the White House has shown the world the benefits of globalisation need to be shared by the many, not just the few – and he says the environment for reform is getting more challenging.
The prime minister has used a speech to the Business Council of Australia to argue fairness must be a central concept for governments in an atmosphere of rising protectionism.
“Our policies must not ignore the fact that the impacts of change can be borne unevenly across the community,” Turnbull said on Thursday night.
“To overcome the rising disquiet, we must ensure that the benefits of open markets deliver for the many and not just a few.”
“If the results of the recent US presidential election have taught us anything, it is that policy changes must be fair in a very broad sense.”
While making his pitch about fairness, Turnbull also attempted to reframe its definition.
Fairness is generally measured in a public policy sense by analysing the winners and losers from a particular government program, and assessing their specific circumstances as a consequence of the change.
But Turnbull contended on Thursday night that convention needed to shift to an assessment of a system overall, and consideration of the impact of policies over a lifetime.
“Fairness does not mean examining each decision in isolation, looking at a narrow set of winners and losers,” the prime minister said on Thursday night.
“It means making sure our overall system is fair, examining the transfers of goods and services over a person’s lifetime and asking ourselves, does this reflect the benchmarks we set ourselves of an open, fair and just society?”
The prime minister said Australia could not afford to retreat from the open markets model, or from trade liberalisation, because those policies had delivered significant gains in income, employment and living standards, and lifted billions of people out of poverty.
But he said there was currently significant community disquiet about change, and people were concerned their personal circumstances were deteriorating. “Weaker growth in incomes is feeding uncertainty, helping anti-trade sentiment find a foothold.”
“In the past year, we have seen economies introduce new protectionist trade measures at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis — the equivalent of five per week.”
“But retreating from policies that have delivered us prosperity and opportunity is the wrong call. We would ignore the gains from openness at our peril.”
“Instead of looking backwards, we must make the case to increase global economic integration.”
“Instead of retreating from the world, we need to strengthen our engagement internationally and with the fast-growing nations in our region.”
The speech also addressed current policy issues. The prime minister said getting the budget back into the black was a fairness issue, as was lowering the tax burden for young people facing “the twin challenges of getting a foot in the door of the job market and saving for a housing deposit.”
He signalled a pragmatic approach to working on further fiscal consolidation, citing $12bn in budget savings the government passed with Labor’s support earlier in the year.
Turnbull said the ratings agencies weren’t concerned about various policy roadmaps to bring down the debt and deficit, the agencies were concerned about “the belligerence and partisanship that were so dominant in the 44th parliament will put that return to surplus at risk.”
“I am determined that this should not be the case for the 45th parliament. My government’s approach will continue to be driven by pragmatism.”
Turnbull also had a message for business. He said big companies needed to “act in accordance with the values and expectations of society.”
He said the government wanted to be in a position to “look Australians in the eye and say we don’t apologise for wanting businesses to do well in these times of remarkable change.”
Turnbull said the government wanted to deliver policies that allowed companies to attract investment so they can create more jobs, pay higher wages, and pay their fair share of tax – but that required businesses responding to community expectations.
He said one example was business had a responsibility to pursue hiring practices that progress the interests of women, of both older and younger workers, and of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
More needed to be done to appoint women on boards, he said.
The prime minister will travel to Peru on Thursday night to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit before the resumption of parliament for the final two sitting weeks for 2016.
Before his address, the BCA urged the government to press ahead with its 10-year plan for company tax cuts. The business lobby pointed to a campaign promise by Trump to lower the US company tax rate to 15% as a reason for Australia to push forward.
But given there is only limited Senate support for big business tax cuts, which comprised the centrepiece of the Coalition’s election campaign in July, the government has been hastening slowly.
Labor said on Thursday the government should just dump the idea. “What doesn’t generate a brighter future for more Australians is the idea of persisting with Donald Trump-style corporate tax cuts for multinationals and big banks,” the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said Thursday to a welfare conference.
“Labor believes the best way to prioritise jobs is to look after working class and middle class families with a strong safety net, a strong minimum wage, good superannuation, a properly funded pension system, good skills and education for our young people and workers seeking to be retrained, investment in infrastructure.”
