The beautiful, useless ideas of Jim Chalmers’ Economic Roundtable

Treasurer Jim Chalmers held his much-hyped Economic Reform Roundtable this week, with politicians and a selective list of experts, leaders and business executives discussing solutions for the challenges facing the Australian economy. Boring? Yeah. But given this three-day meeting will shape the next three federal budgets, it deserves your scrutiny.

Economist Jason Murphy joins readers’ editor Crystal Andrews to explain what ‘productivity’ means, why the roundtable was so fixated on this concept and to talk through some of the proposals on housing, tax reform and Centrelink.

But patience is the name of this game: Murphy thinks any “success stories” from this roundtable won’t be seen for 10 years or more.

Read more:

• Jim Chalmers wants his economic roundtable to rise above party politics. Good luck!
• How Jim Chalmers’ ‘boardroom blitz’ roundtable kicked off
• Reader reply: Is it time for a Universal Basic Income?
• Some taxes are inefficient at any level. Even modest reforms will help
• How the productivity roundtable became a vast gaslighting exercise — and sums up the fatal rot in Australian politics

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