Latest / Inside Politics / ‘Intergenerational bastardry’ in our tax system: Do older Australians have it too good?
Transcript
- 0:02S1: From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
- 0:05S1: This is inside politics. I'm Jacqueline Maley. It's Friday, August 22nd. Well,
- 0:13S1: this week was a very exciting one in Canberra, especially
- 0:15S1: if you're the kind of person who really digs the
- 0:17S1: philosophy of tax and transfer. We are talking, of course,
- 0:21S1: about the Economic Roundtable, which was hosted by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Meanwhile,
- 0:27S1: Health Minister Mark Butler began the necessary but painful process
- 0:30S1: of reining in the enormous growth of the NDIS. Here
- 0:36S1: to discuss all this, we have our chief political correspondent,
- 0:38S1: Paul Satchell, and as ever, our special guest star and
- 0:42S1: delightful senior economics correspondent, Shane Wright. Welcome, gentlemen.
- 0:46S2: How are you both? And and wannabe Heather Locklear? That's
- 0:49S2: exactly right, jacki.
- 0:50S1: That's right, that's right. Always. Okay, we've been calling it Canberra. Coachella.
- 0:54S1: And I do want to just note for the record
- 0:56S1: that Chris Richardson, independent economist who was an attendee of
- 1:01S1: the Economic Roundtable, has picked up this phrase, and he
- 1:05S1: actually tweeted it this week as he was on the
- 1:07S1: way to the economic Roundtable on a murrays bus.
- 1:10S2: Well, that's the sort of impact you have, Jacqueline Maley.
- 1:13S2: You you're you're permeating the economic and policy ether like.
- 1:19S1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're influencers. We're all influencers. Okay. So
- 1:22S1: the economic roundtable wrapped up on Thursday evening. Paul, tell
- 1:26S1: us what came out of it.
- 1:27S3: There were some conclusions and some were shorter term and
- 1:30S3: some were longer term. So you'll remember weeks ago when
- 1:33S3: we started talking about this economic roundtable, it quickly turned
- 1:36S3: into a moment where there was a lot of commentary
- 1:38S3: that this might be a really decisive turning point for
- 1:41S3: the government, where it might start to look at wholesale
- 1:44S3: tax reform and big new economic reforms that might kind
- 1:48S3: of change the trajectory of the government. Over time, expectations
- 1:52S3: were managed. It narrowed down to a conversation that was
- 1:55S3: about what some would describe as low hanging fruit around deregulation,
- 1:59S3: speeding up approval processes for housing for green energy projects,
- 2:03S3: getting the skills sector to work better to make sure
- 2:05S3: we've got the right people working in our economy, um,
- 2:09S3: improving our migration system to improve, to ensure we're, uh,
- 2:12S3: we're using our migrants in the best way possible. All
- 2:14S3: of those things were ticked off by the government, and
- 2:16S3: there were some real merit in those ideas.
- 2:19S4: There was 29 hours of discussions in the end. Uh,
- 2:23S4: there was, by our count, something like 327 different contributions
- 2:28S4: made over the course of those three days.
- 2:32S3: Uh, very important economists we spoke to last night said
- 2:35S3: that this didn't set the world on fire, these immediate actions,
- 2:38S3: but they gave the government a new menu from which
- 2:40S3: to choose from, some of which could have a serious effect,
- 2:44S3: a real, tangible effect on productivity between now and the
- 2:46S3: next election, because they can be done quickly. I'd describe
- 2:50S3: these this list of actions from the Treasury side at
- 2:53S3: about ten of them as like one percenters, some of
- 2:56S3: which are more than 1%. That's probably a little bit harsh,
- 2:59S3: but quick, smaller things that can be done quickly, which,
- 3:03S3: taken together, can have a tangible effect on productivity. And
- 3:06S3: I think economists will give credit to the government for that.
- 3:09S3: There was another element that the treasurer hinted at, which
- 3:13S3: and Shane will get to this. And Shane's been writing
- 3:14S3: about this this week, which I'd describe as kind of
- 3:17S3: the holy grail, maybe of economic reform, these big picture
- 3:20S3: items around, um, ensuring that the intergenerational compact between younger
- 3:25S3: and older Australians is fixed, that we, uh, take away
- 3:29S3: the burden of income tax from younger Australians and working Australians,
- 3:33S3: that we potentially tax assets and wealth more at a
- 3:37S3: higher level so that we can, uh, share the spoils
- 3:40S3: of the Australian economy and wealth more equitably. The treasurer
- 3:44S3: got to this, this final point on the tax system
- 3:47S3: right at the end of his about 25 minute preamble.
- 3:50S3: And what he said was that at the roundtable, there
- 3:52S3: was consensus that the tax system is not fair that
- 3:56S3: younger people, he hinted at this, pay too much income tax,
- 3:59S3: that older people have too good a ride, and that
- 4:01S3: something needs to be done to look at the tax system.
- 4:04S3: He didn't commit to any items, but he said Treasury
- 4:06S3: would start addressing these issues. This is obviously something that
- 4:10S3: will create huge, contentious debates about potentially taxes on superannuation,
- 4:15S3: on removing the capital gains discount, potentially looking at negative gearing,
- 4:20S3: as well as doing something on the tax mix, potentially, uh,
- 4:23S3: and trying to ease the burden on younger Australians. We
- 4:26S3: don't know where he wants to go with all of that.
- 4:28S3: He said this would be a matter for cabinet, but
- 4:30S3: the debate's been started and there was another another item
- 4:34S3: that we knew also that was in the works, which
- 4:36S3: was the at least pausing and potentially redrawing of the
- 4:39S3: national construction code, which builders and many other experts say
- 4:43S3: is making it too difficult to build a house. So
- 4:46S3: effectively streamlining the rules that are prohibiting house building happening
- 4:51S3: more quickly. One of the.
- 4:52S2: Can I stop you there for one second, Paul. Like
- 4:54S2: because this is the like the national construction code and
- 4:57S2: this goes to the whole oh they've these things we
- 5:00S2: knew this wasn't an issue at like this issue had
- 5:05S2: come up during the election where the coalition said, we're
- 5:08S2: going to freeze it for a decade. And there was
- 5:10S2: a real big pushback from the industry. But you go
- 5:14S2: back even two months ago, it had disappeared. And it's
- 5:18S2: only because of the of the roundtable that it's really come,
- 5:21S2: come to the fore very quickly. Like most people had
- 5:25S2: no idea that this 3000 page behemoth existed, except if
- 5:29S2: you're a poor builder having to work out what size
- 5:33S2: or what depth of a firewall you had to put
- 5:35S2: into a house. So this is it's interesting about how
- 5:39S2: we go, oh, this is a thing we knew. But
- 5:42S2: go back eight weeks, you and I and Jackie would
- 5:45S2: not be discussing the ins and outs of the national
- 5:47S2: construction code.
- 5:48S1: I mean, I guess it's particularly important for the government
- 5:50S1: now politically, because they've made promises very concrete, firm promises
- 5:54S1: about how many houses they're going to build. And they've discovered,
- 5:57S1: perhaps belatedly, that it's really hard to build houses because
- 5:59S1: there's too many regulations.
- 6:01S3: Yeah, I think you're probably right, Shane. I mean, we've
- 6:03S3: read stories about it for weeks now, and so we've
- 6:05S3: been accustomed to it being on the menu, but it
- 6:08S3: has certainly come about into public debate only in the
- 6:10S3: last few months. I think you're right about that.
- 6:12S1: Okay. So so we had some agreement on some of
- 6:14S1: these topics. I mean, it's pretty small beer. We're not
- 6:17S1: talking about major tax reform. Major economic reform. Shane, what
- 6:20S1: was your impression of the conference?
- 6:23S2: I was always a bit cynical, especially around tax, because
- 6:27S2: tax is the one of the most contested spaces going around.
- 6:32S2: And you actually saw the way that the business lobby
- 6:34S2: reacted to the Productivity Commission's idea of a cash flow
- 6:38S2: tax like it, like they were trying to kill it,
- 6:41S2: probably within about six hours of it going live. So
- 6:45S2: and that's just around company tax where there's like every
- 6:50S2: business bar five the 500 largest. We're going to get
- 6:53S2: a tax cut, including some really substantial firms with turnover
- 6:57S2: between 50 million and 1 billion. No matter what you did,
- 7:01S2: they were going to get at least a 5% tax cut.
- 7:04S1: But they were saying the overall tax burden was going
- 7:06S1: to be higher on business.
- 7:08S2: For 500 firms. Yes. Not for the other couple of million. Ultimately,
- 7:14S2: because so much of tax we know about the problems. But, uh,
- 7:18S2: the way and Paul and myself picked this up on
- 7:21S2: the in the press conference that Chalmers gave was the
- 7:23S2: fact that, yeah, the him conceding there's intergenerational issues. Um,
- 7:29S2: and it's, it's whacking younger people. We've heard say Ken
- 7:31S2: Henry has been talking about the international intergenerational bastardry of
- 7:36S2: the tax system, but now he's actually like he's like
- 7:39S2: the Pied Piper. He's finally got a team on his side.
- 7:42S2: And they're singing from a similar, uh, hymn book now.
- 7:46S1: Yeah. So you wrote a really compelling piece about this
- 7:49S1: this week, And you basically, I think, came to the
- 7:51S1: conclusion that this intergenerational bastardry, we don't usually use vulgarity
- 7:56S1: on this podcast, but we're quoting Ken Henry. So it's okay. Yeah.
- 7:59S1: That's right. Yeah. So basically the intergenerational inequity where the
- 8:03S1: tax burden is much higher on working age and younger
- 8:05S1: people than it is on older people. And you basically
- 8:09S1: came to the conclusion that not much is going to
- 8:11S1: be done about that huge structural issue out of this roundtable.
- 8:15S1: Is that is that what you think?
- 8:17S2: Yes. Although the fact that he's conceded that there's a
- 8:20S2: problem and it depends on how you go about it.
- 8:23S2: Like this government is still like the noise around the
- 8:26S2: government's change on superannuation, which is affecting just tens of
- 8:31S2: thousands of people, you would think is the end of days. Yeah.
- 8:34S2: Amongst some of the criticism. And you go, oh come
- 8:37S2: on fellas, let's calm down a little bit. But it's
- 8:40S2: that's the sort of noise when it's an issue around
- 8:43S2: the globe where so many people, the wealth, wealth is
- 8:47S2: the like. We've always talked about income inequity. Yeah. But
- 8:51S2: now we're getting into like, people have realized. Hold on.
- 8:53S2: It's where wealth is, where we have so many multi-billionaires
- 8:58S2: people have sort of. What the hell's going on? Yeah.
- 9:01S2: And the working age population, particularly if you're in your
- 9:04S2: 20s or 30s, you feel like you've absolutely been rogered over.
- 9:07S2: And they and these people have absolutely every right to
- 9:11S2: believe that. So that argument about where how wealth is
- 9:15S2: treated as opposed to income is, I think it's something
- 9:18S2: that's going to keep gathering, gathering attention.
- 9:21S1: And Shane, you wrote a piece this week basically saying,
- 9:24S1: you know, it's easy to be cynical about the Productivity
- 9:26S1: Roundtable that, you know, not enough has come out of it,
- 9:29S1: or that we didn't get a lot of kind of
- 9:30S1: actionable things that are going to happen straight away. But
- 9:33S1: you also pointed out that genuine economic reform takes a very, very,
- 9:37S1: very long time. And if you don't build consensus over
- 9:39S1: a very, very, very long time, then it just won't succeed.
- 9:42S1: And Ken Henry knows that better than anyone because, you know,
- 9:45S1: he put forward the mining tax and a carbon price,
- 9:48S1: and both of those died in a big political fight.
- 9:51S1: So do you think that's what the government is trying
- 9:54S1: to do? Basically use this as a groundwork for a very,
- 9:57S1: very long process of political consensus building for some major reforms?
- 10:01S2: Yeah. Paul Circle might be on the aged pension by
- 10:04S2: the time it gets all done. Yeah. But, um, and
- 10:07S2: he's a very young man right now. Let's let's make
- 10:10S2: that clear for those who can't see him. However, maybe
- 10:13S2: it's the world that we live in that we get
- 10:15S2: instant gratification from everything. Policy change does take time. It
- 10:21S2: really does. Like, as you notice the column I wrote,
- 10:24S2: the GST took 25 years from being explained to being
- 10:29S2: put in place. And Paul Keating, someone who really does
- 10:32S2: know how to communicate and bring people, bring people with him.
- 10:36S2: On reform he lost. People forget that in 1985, he
- 10:40S2: wanted a consumption tax and got beaten by his own
- 10:43S2: government on that introduction. So it does take time. You
- 10:47S2: mentioned Henry the Standard. One of his proposals was the standardized, uh,
- 10:52S2: tax refund for people who line up every year, go
- 10:57S2: down to a tax accountant to get their tax done.
- 11:00S2: That was in Henry and finally made it into the government's, uh,
- 11:05S2: election agenda. And we and already you can see some
- 11:08S2: there's some big name tax agents saying, oh, this is
- 11:11S2: end of days, right? Um, we're talking about something that
- 11:14S2: will like, this is where Paul's absolutely correct, where Saul
- 11:18S2: Eslake talking about one percenters or, or uh, Danny, Danny
- 11:22S2: would talked about just making a change that might give
- 11:25S2: you an inch of improvement.
- 11:27S1: Um.
- 11:27S2: After a while, you get to a full yard. Maybe
- 11:29S2: you'll go the, the full nine yards to go into
- 11:32S2: a movie analogy, that sort of thing. It it just
- 11:36S2: takes time. And people want to see everyone and I
- 11:38S2: understand want to say, ah, we've got the whole solution.
- 11:42S2: Here it is. We'll put in place by the end
- 11:44S2: of the week, it'll be all done. That's not how
- 11:47S2: society works at all.
- 11:49S3: And they say there's a lot of, uh, there'll be
- 11:51S3: a lot of talk, uh, in coming days about how
- 11:54S3: this moment failed to match the Big bang moments of
- 11:57S3: economic reform, particularly from the Hawke-keating era, and then in
- 12:00S3: part from the Howard era and what Jim Chalmers would
- 12:04S3: say if he was on this podcast and being honest,
- 12:07S3: which he may not be if he was on this podcast,
- 12:09S3: would be to say that there are no, you know,
- 12:12S3: floating the dollar ideas that the government can easily enact
- 12:16S3: to do immediate big change.
- 12:19S1: Yeah. So what happens politically from now, Paul? I mean,
- 12:22S1: will this just kind of fade into oblivion? Will they
- 12:24S1: make these changes and we might get some incremental improvements
- 12:27S1: on productivity. And they can sort of point to those
- 12:29S1: or will they use it for. I don't know, some
- 12:31S1: sort of agenda building exercise or to actually do something
- 12:34S1: major over the next two and a half years, something
- 12:36S1: major that might upset people but might also really benefit
- 12:38S1: the economy.
- 12:40S3: Well, Chalmers was asked this yesterday, was he, as he
- 12:42S3: was leaving his press conference, the question was asked by
- 12:44S3: a few different people in different ways, and the question was,
- 12:47S3: do you feel like you're exiting this week with a
- 12:50S3: new public mandate to do something more bold as this
- 12:54S3: term goes on? His answer was mixed. He said that
- 12:57S3: our mandate comes from the people being the election, where
- 13:00S3: they had a very thin mandate on economic reform that
- 13:02S3: allowed them to do not very much. But he did
- 13:04S3: say that the nature of this government is that we
- 13:07S3: bring people into a conversation, and that's how we do change.
- 13:11S3: We tell people what we're doing, we bring them along
- 13:14S3: for the ride. And I think what he was hinting
- 13:16S3: at was that this week, for the first time, he's
- 13:20S3: been more honest about what the problem is that needs
- 13:22S3: to be solved, being the tax system moving away from
- 13:25S3: all the low hanging fruit that he's already going to enact,
- 13:28S3: and by being upfront about the problem that needs to
- 13:30S3: be solved on tax, I think he's giving himself a platform. Yeah.
- 13:35S3: Just through using these words to do some more later
- 13:38S3: in the term. The opposition's been very cynical this week.
- 13:40S3: They've called it a stitch up. Ted O'Brien had a
- 13:43S3: probably slightly confected brawl with Chalmers inside the.
- 13:46S1: I know that was that was exciting. That was a
- 13:48S1: little juicy piece of gossip out of an otherwise dry
- 13:50S1: round table.
- 13:52S3: Little, little. My favourite piece of reporting for the week, jacki,
- 13:54S3: for sure.
- 13:55S1: It was. It was so exciting. A little a little
- 13:57S1: exchange of terse words.
- 13:59S3: Well, the background to this is interesting. So Ted O'Brien's
- 14:02S3: The Shadow Treasurer used to be the energy spokesman, was
- 14:04S3: responsible for the nuclear plan, the disastrous nuclear plant in
- 14:07S3: the last opposition. He's now the deputy leader. He agreed
- 14:11S3: to go into the round table as one of the
- 14:13S3: 25 or whatever attendees. He's the only opposition MP at
- 14:16S3: the Round Table. There was quite a lot of pressure
- 14:18S3: from some of his colleagues, his senior colleagues in the opposition,
- 14:21S3: who believe that his attendance at the Round Table legitimized
- 14:25S3: the whole project, which was a Chalmers project, and gave
- 14:29S3: weight to the government's agenda. And so there was some
- 14:32S3: internal pressure on him to show a point of difference
- 14:35S3: in the room. There was some conjecture in the days
- 14:38S3: leading up as to whether he would do a walkout,
- 14:40S3: like a staged walkout to protest it.
- 14:42S1: I love a walkout. I mean, you really capture people's
- 14:45S1: attention if you flounce out of a room.
- 14:47S3: Yeah, it's not really his style to do something like that.
- 14:49S3: So what he did decide to do was on the
- 14:51S3: last day, the Thursday, as they were talking about budget
- 14:53S3: restraint after Jenny Wilkinson, the new finance Treasury, um, gave
- 14:57S3: her spiel on budget management, Ted O'Brien put his hand
- 15:00S3: up and said, I'd like to have a have a say.
- 15:02S3: And he gave a very forceful spiel which cited an
- 15:05S3: op ed that he'd written this week in one of
- 15:08S3: the papers, which effectively said that Jim Chalmers had ruined
- 15:11S3: the budget. He cited a bunch of different statistics, and
- 15:14S3: Chalmers interjected also forcefully and said, quote, according to a source, Ted,
- 15:19S3: this isn't Question Time. And he also said that every
- 15:22S3: number you have just read out there is wrong. This little,
- 15:26S3: this little Barney went on for a little while, apparently.
- 15:29S3: And Daniel Mukhi, the New South Wales treasurer, apparently interjected
- 15:32S3: and said, guys, we need to move on. No one
- 15:34S3: wants to hear this. Can we can we go to
- 15:36S3: the next speaker?
- 15:37S1: Well, cue the great Peacemaker. Um, what a scene. What
- 15:40S1: a scene.
- 15:41S2: Apart from. I really need to get out more. Jackie.
- 15:43S2: You really are going crazy. It's not Shakespeare, that's all
- 15:47S2: I'm saying.
- 15:54S1: Let's move on quickly to the NDIS, because, um, in
- 15:57S1: terms of budget management and structural budget sort of overhangs, um,
- 16:02S1: the NDIS has been a real headache for the government
- 16:05S1: and for the last coalition government as well, just because
- 16:07S1: of the the rate of growth of the scheme and
- 16:09S1: the enormous, enormous expense of it. So is it coincidental,
- 16:14S1: do you think, Shane, that this week, um, Mark Butler,
- 16:16S1: the health minister, went to the National Press Club and said, look,
- 16:19S1: we're actually going to overhaul this and we're going to
- 16:20S1: do something about this, and we're going to cut that
- 16:22S1: growth rate right down from I think they wanted to
- 16:25S1: do it 8% a year or keep it to 8%
- 16:27S1: a year. But now he's saying, no, we're going to
- 16:29S1: go further and keep the growth to 5 to 6%
- 16:31S1: a year, and we're going to basically kick off a
- 16:34S1: lot of young autistic and kids who are sort of
- 16:37S1: on the ADHD spectrum. Onto another scheme. Tell us a
- 16:41S1: little bit about that.
- 16:42S2: Yeah. It's no coincidence. It has been a very interesting
- 16:45S2: week because there's this. And there's also a change around
- 16:47S2: deeming rates which hit pensioners. Yeah, I think someone tried
- 16:51S2: to describe it. It'll only save $1.8 billion. I look,
- 16:54S2: I would get out of bed for $1.8 billion. So
- 16:57S2: I don't think it's that inconsequential. However, Mark Butler, his
- 17:01S2: proposals as our colleague, the brilliant Natassia Chrysanthos, has mentioned,
- 17:06S2: what he's talking about is a possible saving of close
- 17:09S2: to $100 billion over the next decade if they can
- 17:12S2: get this policy up and going, which is effectively you, grandfather,
- 17:19S2: the kids who are autistic, who are on the scheme now,
- 17:24S2: grandfather them and stop new ones coming on, uh, within
- 17:29S2: the next 18 months or next two years and move
- 17:32S2: them into a much cheaper and much more targeted scheme, which,
- 17:37S2: and Butler's argument is ultimately the NDIS was set up
- 17:41S2: for people with permanent and irreparable disabilities.
- 17:46S1: Severe disabilities, severe disabilities.
- 17:48S2: And and I you can understand parents who've got, uh,
- 17:51S2: autistic children and they there is a spectrum as a
- 17:55S2: as my wife is a teacher and she deals with
- 17:58S2: kids who are across the spectrum in this space. Yeah.
- 18:01S2: You can understand if you had this chance to get
- 18:04S2: some great, like, huge like we're talking huge amounts of
- 18:07S2: money to help them. You can understand why you do it.
- 18:09S2: You do.
- 18:10S1: It transforms people's lives, I think, and particularly for kids
- 18:13S1: who are maybe from lower socioeconomic backgrounds where they wouldn't
- 18:16S1: have gotten that, that assistance originally.
- 18:18S2: Of course, the studies are showing that people, higher socioeconomic
- 18:23S2: parents who are really doing well to get there, they've
- 18:26S2: been able to negotiate the scheme really well and access
- 18:29S2: this scheme, which is actually coming in. And you're right,
- 18:32S2: it is coming at a huge cost to every taxpayer.
- 18:38S2: So yeah, what Mark Butler's outlined. You can see the
- 18:41S2: commitment to it because they understand it has to be
- 18:44S2: done and do. Kudos to the coalition because the coalition
- 18:48S2: did not get any help from labor when the roles
- 18:52S2: were reversed in terms of trying to bring change to
- 18:55S2: the NDIS. The coalition's already signalled, look, we're open to
- 18:59S2: this because they understand that this is a this is
- 19:02S2: a bipartisan problem that they have to address.
- 19:05S1: Yeah. And I think the NDIS, for the most part,
- 19:07S1: is usually been treated as a fairly bipartisan issue because
- 19:10S1: it's so important to, to disabled Australians. Paul, do you
- 19:13S1: think the government's likely to get any political or any
- 19:15S1: kind of public backlash over these cuts to the NDIS?
- 19:19S3: Well, I think the timing is is interesting. This is
- 19:21S3: a few months after the May election that labor is
- 19:24S3: openly admitting that even their 8% growth target means that
- 19:27S3: this scheme is still going to increase at a really
- 19:30S3: eye watering rate 8% compounding when the when a scheme
- 19:33S3: costs nearly $50 billion per year means that a kind
- 19:37S3: of behemoth will double in pretty quick time. Any politician
- 19:41S3: you talk to in private acknowledges this scheme is absolutely
- 19:44S3: nothing compared to what it was meant to be, and
- 19:47S3: that it needs to be reined in. But when you
- 19:50S3: have an election coming up, people aren't willing to be
- 19:52S3: honest about these things in public. Because even when you
- 19:56S3: do try and make reasonable changes to a scheme that
- 19:59S3: creates losers, losers can be loud and losers will be
- 20:03S3: latched onto by politically interested parties to make a political point.
- 20:06S3: But I think Mark Butler's honesty on Wednesday and the
- 20:10S3: way he framed the argument to say to parents, no,
- 20:13S3: no individual family is at fault here. It's not your
- 20:16S3: fault that you have signed up to this scheme. There's
- 20:18S3: a lack of services for autistic kids in schools and
- 20:22S3: in other areas in the community, because everyone has allowed
- 20:25S3: the all states and other parties have allowed the federal
- 20:28S3: government to pay for this thing because the NDIS is there.
- 20:31S3: He's saying no one is to blame. We're not targeting you.
- 20:35S3: But this game doesn't work for the broader public interest,
- 20:38S3: and something needs to be done. So an unencumbered government
- 20:40S3: with a big mandate and a strong political position can
- 20:44S3: be honest and tackle big issues even when they are contentious.
- 20:47S3: I think that's a that's a that's that's one of
- 20:50S3: the benefits of having a commanding election win, which we
- 20:53S3: should be pleased with for the public interest, I think.
- 20:55S1: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, chaps, what are we going to
- 20:57S1: do without the Productivity roundtable in our lives? Like, is
- 21:00S1: there a shaney? Do you feel like a hole in
- 21:03S1: your soul now or never?
- 21:06S2: The the the race for economic reform never ends. That
- 21:10S2: that finish line just keeps going off and off into
- 21:13S2: the distance. And look, given what they've commissioned, this thing
- 21:17S2: is going to keep going and going. And every couple
- 21:19S2: of weeks myself or Mr. Sarkar will ask the treasurer,
- 21:23S2: so how's the roundtable going? Where are you up to?
- 21:26S2: It isn't going to end that soon.
- 21:28S3: And he'll say, he'll say, oh, don't remind me of
- 21:29S3: that thing.
- 21:30S1: Yeah, that. That old thing. Um, well, this is music
- 21:34S1: to my ears, because we can keep talking about productivity.
- 21:36S1: And I love talking about productivity. Chaps, thanks so much
- 21:39S1: for coming on and sharing your wealth of experience and insight,
- 21:43S1: as always.
- 21:45S2: Well, you're a great host, Jackie. You you know how
- 21:47S2: to get the best out of us.
- 21:48S3: Stop it. Have a great weekend, guys.
- 21:50S1: Thanks, guys. Today's episode was produced by Julia Carr Katzel
- 21:56S1: our executive producer is Tami Mills, and Tom McKendrick is
- 22:00S1: head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon
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- 22:22S1: I'm Jacqueline Maley. Thank you for listening.