Pleasers or doers? What leaders choose when the news turns bad

Most economic commentary now points towards the possibility that the federal government either can’t or won’t do what is required to turn the economy around.

It’s the ‘P’ word. Productivity.

Why is this a communication problem? The government cannot land a big idea unless it brings voters along for the journey.

It isn’t for want of a forum. Fourteen months ago, Chalmers convened an Economic Reform Roundtable on productivity, economic resilience and budget sustainability.

Paul Keating put it bluntly at the launch of James Curran’s book Grand Ambition in Sydney on 2 September,

Structural change, he said, stopped after John Howard’s GST in 2000, “We’ve gone 26 years without any structural change fundamentally and of course it shows in the lagging productivity and the lagging growth numbers.”

He gave the government a nod for moving on a couple changes: the legislated changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing on housing.

Both are about housing affordability. Their link to productivity is marginal at best. According to Keating, “You got governments today afraid of change or moving.”

Economist Matt Vickers says the government has to make sure major decisions, taken together, move labour and capital towards their most productive uses.

Keating was clear about where he thinks growth comes from. Recalling the 1980s, he told Kerry O’Brien in 2013,

“My key point was that you could not bring the Australian economy back to growth off the back of public investment and public employment. The primary driver had to be private investment and private employment.”Full Article Here: https://www.wilkinson-group.com.au/pleasers-or-doers-leadership/