<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>337580</docID> <postdate>2025-02-04 12:36:45</postdate> <headline>Musk-like efficiency role ‘strange’ call for Australia</headline> <body><p><img class=" wp-image-337581" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250204129968586794-original-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="1056" height="704" /></p> <caption>Business Council of Australia boss Bran Black has outlined a wish list ahead of the federal poll. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p class="wire-column__preview__author"><span class="kicker-line">By <b>Jacob Shteyman</b> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Australia has a red tape problem and even the boss of the corporate watchdog acknowledges it.</strong></p> <p>But introducing an Elon Musk-style Minister for Deregulation is a "strange" way to go about it, Jim Chalmers says.</p> <p>The treasurer was responding to a suggestion by the business lobby on Tuesday to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump and slash clunky regulation to boost productivity.</p> <p>The finance department was already working on streamlining government spending and regulation and creating another department to do the same thing was a "strange way" to seek efficiency, Dr Chalmers said.</p> <p>"Without doing that, we've found $92 billion worth of savings in our budgets and budget updates," he told reporters.</p> <p>Even regulators have identified excessive red tape was stifling business and making life harder for enforcement agencies, with ASIC chair Joe Longo calling for a national de-regulation agenda.</p> <p>The Business Council warned Australia could get left behind and experience a decline in living standards if unwieldy regulatory systems were not stripped back, particularly for environmental approvals and business licensing.</p> <p>Fixing it had to be a national priority, the council's chief executive Bran Black said as he unveiled the council's priorities for the 2025 federal election.</p> <p>"This election and the period beyond must prioritise reforms that will make our economy stronger and more resilient, boost living standards and, overall, make Australia a better place to invest and do business," he said.</p> <p>Mr Black said Australia should follow the US in increasing regulatory efficiency - a nod to Mr Trump's appointment of the world's richest man Elon Musk to lead a Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with slashing red tape and government spending.</p> <p>In a pre-election reshuffle in January, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton named Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as shadow minister for government efficiency - a role closely mirroring Mr Musk's appointment.</p> <p>The council said the parties vying to lead Australia over the next three years needed to answer five questions threatening the economy.</p> <p>They were: how to ease the cost-of-living crisis; tackle housing unaffordability; achieve net zero by 2050 with affordable and reliable energy; develop a skilled workforce for the future; and deliver health and care services for an aging population.</p> <p>Making these priorities more urgent were anaemic economic growth and plummeting labour productivity, which has fallen back to 2016 levels.</p> <p>Dr Chalmers acknowledged Australia's economy was at risk of being impacted by another of Mr Trump's policies - the imposition of tariffs on major trading partners.</p> <p>"We've got a very trade exposed economy, so we're not immune when there's escalating trade tensions," he said.</p> <p>Unlike Canada, Mexico and China, Australia runs a trade deficit with the United States, boosting Australia's case for avoiding tariffs, Dr Chalmers said.</p> <p>But even if Australia is not directly hit by tariffs, the flow-on effects of a trade war on China's economy could hit domestic businesses.</p> <p>"The challenge for us there is a risk with respect to jobs," Mr Black said.</p> <p>"Making sure as much as we can that we are resilient to that risk is important, and that means doing everything that's within our reasonable control.</p> <p>"Being as competitive as possible, having the right type of regulatory settings: that's something we can control."</p> <p>The Business Council's other regulatory-busting recommendations included following deregulation measures of global peers, assessing productivity impacts of all new regulation, fast-tracking housing approvals and removing regulation duplicates across government.</p> <p>Reforming Australia's inefficient tax system was also essential to increasing productivity growth, Mr Black argued.</p> </body>