Curbing well-off taxpayers' access to key programs could save billions
The Australian government faces pressure to implement structural economic reforms as productivity growth stagnates and living standards decline. Analysts warn that the economy is structurally exposed, with forecasts suggesting the weakest growth since the early 1990s.
Why it matters
Economic instability and declining living standards are critical issues that influence national policy and voter sentiment in Australia.
Link copied Share Share article John Howard once likened the struggle for economic reform to "the runner who is pursuing an ever-receding finishing line".
"If you don't keep running, you don't try to reach it, then others are going to go past you."
Howard used that line in a 2005 speech in Washington. A little over two years later he and the Coalition's 11-year run in office ended in defeat to Kevin Rudd.
In the lead-up to the 2007 election, Labor accused the Howard government of giving up on structural reform. Of losing the appetite for change. Of neglecting infrastructure investment and allowing the economy to drift.
It's been nearly a year since the Albanese government's economic reform summit which was birthed in the wake of Labor's huge 2025 election win.
Expectations were raised that the government would deliver significant changes, that it would attend to problems.
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