Reform vital to boost productivity

Reform vital to boost productivityLast week Property Council president Darren Steinberg delivered a clear message for national policy makers: immediate reform is vital to boost national productivity.Speaking in Perth at The Australian newspaper’s high profile Business Leaders Forum, Steinberg said Australians were complacent about the challenges facing the country and the policies which were needed to confront them.The pace of reform was also the theme of Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s address to 5 members in Brisbane last Thursday. Despite the government’s recent big by-election loss, he assured the industry that asset recycling and planning reform remained very much on his agenda.And to round out another big week of political engagement, I joined 240 members in Adelaide to listen to South Australian treasurer Tom Koutsantonis outline how that state was tackling its budget challenges. The Property Council’s economic development agenda is incredibly relevant for a city with the potential for a much larger population and a state in need of stronger economic growth.