On the table
The upcoming Economic Reform Roundtable won’t bring sweeping change overnight. But it could signal the start of a serious shift towards the reform agenda its name implies.
Anthony Albanese wants everyone to know the upcoming Economic Reform Roundtable is just that — a roundtable.
“It is not more than that,” the prime minister said on Monday. “It’s not a replacement for the cabinet, we’re not contracting out our decision-making processes.”
On the surface, that may dampen expectations that Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who is chairing the roundtable, might be talked into sweeping reforms ahead of the event.
But Albanese is also signalling that he wants this event to differ from the much-criticised jobs and skills summit, where some claimed industry groups and economists gave Labor moral licence to push through a pre-cooked industrial relations agenda, including multi-employer bargaining.
