Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics

Dear Committee Secretary,

Institute of Public Affairs (‘IPA’) Submission to the Inquiry Into Promoting Economic Dynamism, Competition, and Business Formation

The purpose of this letter is to share research and analysis conducted by the IPA, with the Standing Committee on Economics’ (‘the Committee’) inquiry into promoting economic dynamism, competition, and business formation. Attached to this are five research reports relevant to the inquiry: 

• Australia’s Green Tape Army: An Analysis of the Growth of the Environmental Bureaucracy and Agricultural Sector (September 2022)
• Australia’s Net Zero Energy Crisis: An Analysis of the Electricity Price Implications of Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (June 2022)
• Australia’s Rising Cost of Living Challenge (November 2022)
• Australia’s Unprecedented Worker Shortage: Causes and Solutions (August 2022)
• Let Them Work: How Criminal Justice Reform Can Help Address Australia’s Worker Shortage (March 2023)

As the chair of the Committee has noted, Australia’s productivity growth has stalled in recent decades. Business investment – at approximately 10.1% of gross domestic product – is now at the lowest level on record. The role of the government in the economy has grown considerably over recent years and is crowding out private sector investment and business formation.

Government actions, instigated by policies such as net zero emissions by 2050, as well as the growth of red and green tape have stifled competition and economic dynamism in critical industries such as energy and agriculture.

Much needed employment reforms are also required to address Australia’s worker shortage crisis, such as eliminating work barriers faced by pensioners, veterans, and students, and reforming the criminal justice system. Yet the government is taking the short-sighted and easy way out through further expanding Australia’s already unsustainable mass migration programme, which will further put pressure on critical social infrastructure such as schools, roads, hospitals, and housing.