The decadence of entitlement

This brings me back to the Prime Minister’s Summit where we discussed, among other things, whether we have a level playing field here in Australia and, indeed, in the world.

First of all, let me say that I enjoyed participating in the Summit and feel that, contrary to media reports, the discussions were not dominated by the government, and I reckon that at least 60 delegates got to make a speech and every one of us was able to take part in discussions at our respective tables - there were eight to a table. I was fortunate. I was able to make three brief speeches.

Many of the scheduled speakers were excellent. Gail Kelly of Westpac was one. She outlined a devastating perspective of Europe which she described as a patient requiring urgent and drastic surgery, but which is receiving only band-aids.

She predicted that Europe would have a decade of negative growth of GDP. She also said that the property market in Australia would not see another boom for quite a while, but would remain flat except for occasional softening, while avoiding a crash. Her most interesting comment was that Australians on the cocktail circuit no longer boast about how big a house they own, but how small their overdraft is. This attitude is a very sensible one in a troubled financial world, but it will not stimulate economic growth.

Another significant comment by Glen Stevens was that he expected the current percentage of our GDP that derives from mining to level out, while the dominant feature of the economy would be service industries - all of which can be exported. This caused me to comment to the Summit that Australia could export services to the Ageing as Japan, India and China are all experiencing a massive growth in their population of people over 60. This especially applies to China, where the one-child policy has caused a significant reduction in the number of its citizens under the age of 40. We could earn more money in China with aged care services than we currently do from mining.

The Summit had some interesting sidelights. Ted Bailleau of Victoria, was the only conservative State Premier to turn-up. The others made a dreadful mistake in staying away. Most delegates felt that they played petty politics. It meant that Bailleau was the only conservative politician from any parliament who was present and for this reason he was very popular with the delegates. Whenever I looked in his direction, he was surrounded by people wanting to chat with him. Quite often, he drew a bigger crowd than the Prime Minister, and his speech to the Summit was a sound and solid effort that won praise.

The delegates from Trade Unions were interesting. They appeared to go out of their way to be conciliatory to employers who were present and seemed to have heard the message that poor productivity is the big defect in the Australian economy. We are behind many G20 nations in our unsatisfactory scale of productivity.

I hope that their attitude at the Summit translates itself into action out in our mining industry where the level of industrial confrontation is appalling - not all of which is the fault of the Unions.

At the end of the day, I noted that the Carbon Tax had not been mentioned very often in the debate, and then the comments were muted. Most of the attendees were of the opinion that there were bigger issues facing Australia and the world.

Very little was said about whether or not the minority government was working well. There was a general acceptance that the government would last the full distance and it was noted that, despite its problems, more than 200 bills have passed through both Houses since the 2010 Elections. The best option appeared to be for business and union leaders to work with Julia Gilliard in a partnership to achieve good results for Australia over the next 12 months, after which the voters will have their say.

The reality expressed by many delegates, a lot of whom were conservatives, is that the world has changed drastically since the turn of the century and will change even more rapidly as the digital era creates more globalisation and innovation.

We need to get with it instead of arguing about trivia and zealously guarding entitlements that can’t be justified.