Twenty ideas for a Morrison government

To lower electricity prices immediately it should:

5 Bring forward the cancellation of Large Scale Renewable Energy Certificates.

6 Terminate schemes providing capital grants and other subsidies to intermittent renewable energy generators, particularly as the proponents of those schemes say they provide the cheapest form of power.

7 Adopt the ACCC recommendation to underwrite new commercial baseload electricity generation.

8 Introduce measures to lessen market power of large electricity generators and retailers by limiting the market share that single companies can have.

2. Immigration

Work we have done shows that there is no correlation between the size of a country and its wealth, so there could be a lower ceiling on our immigration without harming our prospects. Other research we have done shows that people in regional Australia would love more neighbours, while people in the city (ironically more the inner suburbs than the middle to outer ones) would like a limit to the number. A scheme which directed immigrants to regional areas, twinned with a stringent set of criteria to ensure that we only get the best migrants from around the world, would do a lot to reduce concern.

It is important that Australians, in general, accept the percentage of immigrants coming into the country, otherwise the immigration program becomes socially divisive.

We recommend:

9 The number of immigrants being accepted into Australia be restricted for as long as it takes the government to assess public acceptance of various types of migration programs, as well as the ability of local, state and federal government to meet the financing task.

10 Preference should be given to immigrants prepared to live in regional communities, in addition to having skills or capital that the country needs.

3. Budget

Economic reform is frustrated in the Senate because the ALP plus the Greens and a few independents can exercise a veto over budget reform. There is no recognition that allowing good policy through will be beneficial for the next government, no matter which side it comes from. This process is facilitated by there being no agreement on key issues, such as the percentage of GDP that should be paid in tax, or the level of debt. Consequentially policies can be cherry-picked to be opposed.

We recommend the government: