PROGRESS 2050: Toward a prosperous future for all Australians
CEDA's Big Issues project 2009 identified major challenges for Australia over the next five to 10 years.
CEDA's Big Issues project identifies major challenges for Australia over the next five to ten years. In its third year the concerns ranked highest were population growth, water and energy, all major long-term policy challenges for Australia and the world.
The project has been developed by CEDA with the support of IBIS World.
The starting point of the project was a nationwide survey of CEDA trustees and business leaders during October. This was followed by a roundtable where the CEDA Research and Policy Council reviewed and interpreted the issues adding their own ideas. CEDA's Research and Policy Council is comprised of eminent Australian business and academic leaders.
The top six issues identified through the survey were:
In the subsequent roundtable discussion, population strategies emerged as a key theme together with infrastructure and associated governance issues. The need for substantial new reform agendas was flagged, noting lessons from the successes and failures of the 1980s and 1990s.
On the paramount issue of population, policies that can make expansion attractive were regarded as essential in underpinning Australia's economic development. If reform agendas and regulatory reforms use appropriate structures and incentives, Australia could beneficially cater for 35-million, perhaps 50-million people by 2050. However this would require a reassessment of a wide range of institutional settings relating to infrastructure, retirement ages and labour markets, for example, which would all need to reflect longer working lives and life expectancy. While health care may be expensive and in need of reform, the extra years of active lives suggests investments in health care to be highly beneficial.
The 2010 CEDA-Business Spectator Big Issues survey has revealed widespread support for an end to stimulus spending, and for tighter budget discipline on the part of the Federal Government.
Read more Economy January 30, 2017The 2011 CEDA/Business Spectator survey revealed that productivity and infrastructure are the key topics the business community want Governments to focus on in 2012.
Read more Economy November 29, 2012The results of CEDA and Business Spectator's 2012 Big Issues survey have revealed that ensuring Australia is positioned to take advantage from the rise of Asia and the need for continued productivity improvement are the big issues confronting business, with significant implications for the Government's agenda.
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