The BGA Australia Team, led by Managing Director Michael “Mick” McNeill, wrote an update to clients on key reforms Australia’s Labor government hopes to advance ahead of the next general election.

Context

  • Australia’s Albanese Labor government is moving to pass key reforms and display a credible economic vision as it prepares to go to the polls by May 2025. The recent parliamentary sittings saw the government reach deals aimed at curtailing growth of social welfare spending and cleaning up a notorious labor union. The government’s signature legislation, the Future Made in Australia Bill, has yet to pass Parliament. Companies should prepare for the introduction of Privacy Act reforms during Parliament’s next sitting.
  • Middle Australia appears unconvinced that Labor is addressing cost-of-living concerns. Such is the case despite a quip from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Labor was focused on “middle Australia, not the Middle East,” when the Liberal-Nationals opposition almost exclusively focused on the screening of refugees from Gaza in parliamentary question time. The business sector remains exasperated at what it perceives as a lack of a genuine productivity agenda, pro-union labor law changes and a stumbling energy transition. Albanese will attend the Pacific Island Leaders Forum Meeting in Tonga this week, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers is preparing to visit China next month.

Significance

  • The August 12-15 and 19-22 legislative sitting saw Parliament address significant fiscal and productivity issues that have been politically difficult. The government passed legislation to tighten eligibility and reduce the growth of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and legislation that allowed the government to take over an allegedly corrupt construction union. Furthermore, the government and opposition struck an in-principle agreement for older Australians to pay more for the costs of aged care. The visit of Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto, which resulted in the finalization of a bilateral defense treat, also displayed a rare show of bipartisanship.
  • The government’s signature Future Made in Australia Bill may come to a vote in September. The opposition opposes it, viewing it as old fashioned “picking winners” industrial policy. The Greens are demanding the government “drop its insistence on opening more coal and gas mines.” A Senate committee is due to report on the bill by September 5. The legislation aims to coordinate a whole-of-government package of new and existing initiatives to drive investment in areas such as rare earths mining and processing, hydrogen and solar energy production. Part of this legislation involves production tax incentives for critical minerals and hydrogen, on which Treasury is seeking views.

Implications

  • A landslide election victory to the conservatives, which campaigned heavily on law and order, in the August 24 Northern Territory election has provided a morale boost to the federal opposition. Indigenous Australians represent 30 percent of the Northern Territory’s population. Dutton, a former policeman, has a reputation as “tough” on law and order and national security, which the opposition believes will play well given the rising level of youth crime and recent lifting of the terrorism alert level to “probable.”

We will continue to keep you updated on developments in Australia as they occur. If you have any questions or comments, please contact BGA Australia Managing Director Michael “Mick” McNeill at mmcneill@bowergroupasia.com.

Best regards, BGA Australia Team

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Managing Director

Mick is a highly-experienced government relations expert and trusted advisor on consensus building, conflict resolution and legislative developments. He has played an integral role in helping parties achieve desired outcomes in areas of national security, health policy, foreign policy and reputational crisis management, as well as media relations, communications campaigns, immigration and human rights. Mick has two decades’ experience working with government as a media analyst, political adviser and NGO advocacy manager. After a stint serving as an adviser to an Australian senator, Mick took on the role of the locally engaged senior political specialist at the U.S. Embassy in ... Read More