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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.
Australia’s competitiveness ranking increased three spots to number 19 out of 63 countries in the annual IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook. It comes after Australia received its lowest ever competitiveness ranking in 25 years in 2021.
Read more Economy April 21, 2020This is analysis prepared for CEDA by former senior Federal Treasury official Greg Smith, a member of CEDA’s Committee on Economic Policy. It outlines key economic issues that the Australian Government should be addressing, including why there is an urgent need for an economic statement to the nation.
Read more Economy April 28, 2014On 30 April 2014, CEDA released its policy perspective Advanced Manufacturing: Beyond the production line at an event in Melbourne. The report examines where Australia's opportunities for advanced manufacturing lie and how they can play a role in supporting Australia's long-term growth.
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