This year's G20: getting the fundamentals right

No country has ever taxed or subsidised its way to prosperity.

You don't address debt and deficit with yet more debt and deficit.

And profit is not a dirty word because success in business is something to be proud of.

After all, you can't have strong communities without strong economies to sustain them and you can't have strong economies without profitable private businesses.

Above all else, policy-makers need to understand that every dollar government spends comes from the people, either through taxes and borrowings; or, over the past few years, through the process known as quantitative easing which is not indefinitely sustainable.

A certain level of government spending is necessary and good.

In Lincoln's words, government should do for people what they can't do for themselves – and no more.

Richer people, stronger countries and a better world all depend upon policy-makers' grasp of these fundamentals and there's no better place to reiterate them than the World Economic Forum – creator of the global competitiveness index as well as this conference.

As always, stronger economic growth is the key to addressing almost every global problem.

Stronger growth requires lower, simpler and fairer taxes that don't stifle business creativity.

And stronger growth requires getting government spending under control so that taxes can come down; and reducing regulation so that productivity can rise.

In the decade prior to the Crisis, consistent surpluses and a preference for business helped my country, Australia, to become one of the world's best-performing economies.