Overview

• The three-day Economic Reform/Productivity Roundtable opens in Canberra on August 19 to tackle years of weakening productivity growth and its threat to wages.
• Jim Chalmers has rejected critics’ 'talkfest' label, framing the summit as the start of a sustained reform agenda rather than a one-off event.
• Treasury and ministers drew on roughly 900 submissions and 40 preparatory meetings to assemble participation from business leaders, unions and regulators.
• Regulators have lodged about 280 red-tape reduction proposals aimed at expediting approvals for housing, renewable energy and infrastructure projects.
• ASIC’s review of RG 97 could unlock up to A$8.7 billion in institutional housing investment and add approximately 35,000 homes, while reforms to the EPBC Act are being prioritised to speed environmental permitting.