Politics With Michelle Grattan: Business Chief Urges Government To Use More Means Testing

This week, mortgage holders were hit with more bad news as the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the fifth time this year.

Businesses too are feeling the pinch, from increasing costs, high rates, and low consumer confidence.

Critics of the government call for policy changes, notably that public spending should be reined in to help fight inflation.

CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, joined us on the podcast to discuss ACCI's prescriptions for the country's economic ills, some of it very strong and unpalatable medicine.

McKellar says first and foremost the government should set out strong fiscal rules:

McKellar says reform is needed on industrial relations, where some of the government's changes have added to the burden on business:

He suggests what he says would be a small but useful change:

To improve the budget, the government should be going through line by line:

In contrast to the opposition, ACCI supports the European Union free trade deal, and is lobbying senators to have parliament pass it. McKellar says it is not a“perfect deal” but it's“unequivocally in the national interest”.

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