Kia ora. Good morning.
I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and the Indigenous people of both our countries and say again how proud I am that an Albanese Labor Government will implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
It means a lot to us so that so many distinguished New Zealanders have travelled here for this Forum, including my friend and now my counterpart Grant Robertson, the Finance Minister and also Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand.
I’m pleased to see you’ve recovered well from COVID, mate, glad you could make it and hope Alf’s on the mend before long as well.
In your absence yesterday I talked about my excitement at being able to work with you and also my pride in representing such as big New Zealand‑born community.
Our two meetings in six weeks speaks to the possibilities of our friendship, one that began some years ago, and one that recognises how much we have in common – our values, our agendas, our interests.
I saw the same affinity between Prime Ministers Ardern and Albanese at our meeting this morning too.
What’s true of their governments is equally true of our countries.
But more important than a shared past: a shared and optimistic future.
The chance to build the best relationship of any two nations, anywhere in the world.
Both committed to facilitating strong, broad and sustainable economic growth.
Both recognising that begins with real talk about the challenges we’re facing, including the issues we’ll be discussing today.
We’ve got a terrific panel to do that with and I acknowledge them too.
All of us are focused in one way or another on high and rising inflation, rising interest rates, skill shortages and global economic uncertainties.
Inflation outcomes have been even worse than either country expected, and we know that the rising costs‑of‑living are a major concern for New Zealanders and in many economies across the world including ours.
The pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the global supply chains that Australians and New Zealanders rely on, and China’s COVID management strategy and the war in Ukraine exacerbated these disruptions.
Now central banks around the world are navigating a narrow path when it comes to raising interest rates from their record low levels while balancing that against all the other considerations.
Low unemployment rates in both countries are obviously welcome, giving more opportunities for more people to participate in the workforce.
But skill shortages that accompany this are acting as a handbrake on business activity, with some businesses still grappling with the lingering effects of past border closures.
From an Australian perspective, improving our skills, training and migration settings are all part of tackling this problem.
This will be a big focus of our upcoming Jobs Summit and part of our efforts to build a bigger, better trained, more productive workforce.
The Prime Minister and I will have more to say about this soon, and we want to engage with you on the central issues before and after it.
The Albanese Government also wants to strengthen our people‑to‑people links and for me that means working with my ministerial colleagues on our commitment to reviewing the unique pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders living in Australia, and how improvements can be made.
Weak productivity growth is another longstanding challenge for Australia, with implications for our living standards and fiscal outlook.
Our productivity growth has slowed since the mid‑2000s and has averaged around 1.2 per cent over the past 2 decades, compared to the 30‑year historical average of around 1.5 per cent.
It’s why our Government is putting policies in place to boost the capacity of the economy, including meaningful investments in cleaner and cheaper energy, cheaper child care, skills, the digital economy and manufacturing.
And we know that the trans‑Tasman business community also plays an important role in promoting innovation and dynamism by embracing new technology, pushing for higher levels of innovation, and creating spillovers for productivity growth.
I think that one of the biggest differences that New Zealand friends will notice between us and our predecessors is our commitment to tackling climate change and providing energy policy certainty.
A better future relied on cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy – which is we have detailed plans to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 in ways that strengthen our economy.
You all understand how critical this is for job creation, lowering emissions and putting downward pressure on energy prices.
We’ve already engaged our Treasury on modelling this, working closely with Minister Bowen’s department, and I want to pay tribute to the businesses here contributing to those efforts as well.
We have also committed to providing greater certainty for industry and investors by progressing work on globally‑aligned climate risk financial disclosures, an area that New Zealand has already made substantial progress – and we want to learn from your experience there too.
We need to ensure growth is broad and inclusive, and given our fiscal constraints that means ensuring our policies are geared towards multiple objectives at once.
At a time of record debt and budget pressures and cost of living pressures, value for money is essential and we judge it by what it means for the right kind of growth, including sustainable incomes growth.
But we should also judge our policies, including our economic policies against agreed markers of progress.
That begins with measuring what matters – not instead of traditional economic indicators but in addition to.
Here we have a lot to learn from the experience of New Zealand friends and I’m looking forward to talking about this again with Grant later today.
His wellbeing approach has significantly reshaped the conversation in New Zealand about the budget and the economy.
I want Australia to have a similar conversation about how we can better improve policy design, evaluation and priority setting.
We’re already doing a heap of work on this behind the scenes and there’s been really encouraging enthusiasm for the direction we’re taking.
I’ve asked Treasury to make measuring what matters, and an Australian approach to wellbeing, a focus of the Budget in October.
The best way to do that is to dedicate Budget Statement 4 to a broad ranging discussion of our options, drawing on best practice around the world, as the basis of our engagement and further development.
In the interim I’ll be writing to my ministerial colleagues to ensure they have portfolio input into our considerations.
This is just one of the many things this Forum can collaborate on.
Because whether it’s inflation, wages growth, wellbeing or climate change, we are stronger and more effective when we stand together and work together in uncertain times.
That’s our task today and I’m looking forward to discussing it with the panel after we hear from Grant.