Australia’s peak business lobby warns the nation’s project approvals process needs improvement under environmental law reform or significant investment will “amount to nothing”.
In an address to the Business Council of Australia’s annual dinner on Monday, chief executive Bran Black mirrored Anthony Albanese in speaking about the net-zero transition.
The prime minister said the private sector would play a defining role in fuelling economic growth linked to the renewables sector.
But Mr Black said business needed to plan with certainty if it was to have the confidence to invest.
He said while ambition mattered, how it was delivered was critical.
“I stress that that delivery is no more important than with respect to getting the project approvals process right with effective EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) reform,” he said.
“The significant capital investment required will amount to nothing if it gets bogged down in the current approval delays.”
Labor has promised to set up a national environment protection agency alongside reforms to environmental law which it says will restore trust in the rules.
The government will unveil its emission reduction target for 2035 in coming weeks.
Mr Albanese said the global shift to clean energy was the “biggest economic transformation since the industrial revolution”.
“If we act now, if we get it right, we can set our nation up for a new era of growth and prosperity, one built on our strengths as a high-skill, fair-wage economy,” he said.
The remarks follow a report released on Friday by the peak business group, which said cutting emissions by up to 70 per cent would need capital investment of $530 billion.
The business council also said significant progress on building energy infrastructure was critical to reach emissions targets.
Mr Black said the nation’s tax system wasn’t competitive and a good place to start was cutting red tape.
“How is it, for example, that in a modern economy such as ours you need 36 separate licences and approvals just to pour a cup of coffee at a cafe in Victoria?” he said.
The business council would also remain “resolutely opposed” to policy ideas that scare investment away, he said.
These included “inflexible, unbalanced workplace relations settings” such as multi-employer bargaining and legislatively mandated work-from-home rules.
Following better-than expected growth figures, Mr Albanese said the economic approach of the government has been gathering strength.
The latest GDP figures showed 1.8 per cent growth in the year to June, surpassing the forecasts from the Reserve Bank of 1.6 per cent for the year.
“In a time of ongoing global economic uncertainty, there is no major advanced economy growing faster than Australia, and, importantly, this is being led by the private sector,” Mr Albanese said.
“The private sector is resuming its rightful place as the driver of growth in our economy.”
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