It is a real honour to be invited to deliver this address, after it was delivered so ably by Peter Dutton just a year ago.

 

I want to expand today on Peter’s address, focusing on the economic challenges facing Australians today.

 

In particular, I want to speak about the economic priorities of an incoming Liberal Government and the need to apply core Liberal principles to reshape our nation and get back on track.

 

Central to that discussion is the principle that if a government cannot manage the economy, it cannot manage inflation.

 

This feels a fitting topic for this address. In Ian Hancock’s excellent biography of Tom Hughes, he notes that across Tom’s life, “he never shifted from one core belief – a commitment to the free market.”  

 

Let me now reflect a little further on the legacy of Tom Hughes.

 

TOM HUGHES: A LEGACY OF OPPORTUNITY AND RESILIENCE

 

Tom was a person who didn’t just believe in Liberal values, he lived them throughout his life.

 

He was a man shaped by resilience, pursuit of opportunity and striving for excellence.

 

Tom’s life was one of service and achievement across multiple fields, of course, serving our nation in World War 2, at the Bar, in Parliament and in farming. In each of these arenas, he made the most of the opportunities Australia afforded him.

 

As Hancock notes Tom was the sort of man who, “given five talents, invested them and earned five more.”

 

He demonstrated that talent, hard work, and ambition, tempered by firm values, define success in this country.

 

His journey was not pre-ordained, and it was not always easy.

 

Like so many Australians, he faced moments where paths were blocked, where opportunities were limited, where circumstances dictated a different course.

 

Whether it was in his youth: overcoming illness at school to become a model student or placing his studies on hold to serve his country.

 

In his personal life: experiencing crises of faiths or facing the early death of his parents.

 

Or his esteemed professional career: when he was famously sacked as Attorney General following the change of Prime Minister from Gorton to McMahon. Tom recovered by packing up his office and returning to the Bar just one month later

 

Of course he went on to serve at the Bar at the highest level until retiring at 87.

 

In each case, Tom adapted, persevered, and succeeded.

 

As Hancock notes, “Tom never dwelt on what might have been or should have been. He simply immersed himself in the next [challenge].”

 

That is the essence of the Australian story—a country where people can strive, take risks, and build a better future.

 

Where they have the confidence to pick themselves up and persevere.

 

But today, that sense of opportunity—of economic mobility, of personal agency—is fading.

 

Inflation changes economics but it also changes politics.

 

The culture of hard work leading to success is being eroded by economic stagnation, growing barriers to enterprise, a government that too often hinders rather than helps and the escalating challenge of owning a home.

 

On too many metrics: productivity, inflation, living standards, interest rates – Australia is at the back of the pack due to failures of economic management and policy.

 

Restoring this culture of opportunity is the challenge we face today.

 

It is not just an economic imperative—it is a national one.

 

Because a country that is no longer seen to reward effort, to value ambition, that to foster resilience, is a country that loses its dynamism, its optimism, and ultimately, its identity.

 

Tom Hughes understood this. He lived it.

 

And it is in that same spirit that we must re-establish an Australia where opportunity is abundant, enterprise is celebrated, and success is earned.

 

GROWING POLITICAL DIVIDE

 

Political earthquakes across the developed world have central to a sense of lost aspiration and hope

 

At the heart of these upheavals is a widening divide—between the inner cities and the suburbs, between the knowledge economy and the real economy, between those who shape policy and those who live with its consequences.

 

This is a divide Tom knew personally.

 

From his days at Riverview to his time as Australia’s most in-demand barrister – Tom’s career was one immersed in Australia’s urban elite, yet he was never as happy as when he was on his farm at Bannister.

 

Tom valued the beauty of the region where we both lived and the businesses that drove our regions, and in his later years he was deeply frustrated by the determination of some to impose transmission towers and wind turbines on truly magnificent agricultural land. 

 

Tom and I often spoke about this divide, and it was a perspective we shared. I was proud that three generations of Hughes stood on my booths on election day in Goulburn.

 

I grew up in Nimmitabel, a tiny farming and timber town on the edge of the Monaro in South Eastern NSW, where people value hard work, self-reliance, and their tight-knit community.

 

There was always scepticism toward both big government and big business, yet a shared belief in opportunity and aspiration.

 

That same spirit shaped my path. From the farm, to studying economics and law at Sydney University, to postgraduate studies at Oxford, to working in global consulting and as a Cabinet Minister in government.

 

For much of Australia’s recent history, these different worlds—urban and regional, working-class and professional—coexisted.

 

They may not have always agreed, but they found much common ground. Today, that common ground is eroding.

 

Economic stagnation is fuelling growing resentment, deepening cultural divisions and undermining social cohesion.

 

EXACERBATED BY THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE 

 

The current economic challenges only exacerbate this divide.

 

Inflation is still too high, it is homegrown, and Australians will be feeling the pain of price rises for years to come. 

 

Since Labor took office, working Australians have endured a 19.4% rise in prices, a historic decline in real wages, and seven consecutive quarters of shrinking per capita growth with an unprecedented collapse in living standards.

 

Australia is at the back of the pack relative to peer countries in dealing with these challenges.

 

Almost three years of Labor’s economic mismanagement has delivered:

• Worsening budget bottom lines, despite cuts to infrastructure and services;
• Higher taxes, despite tax cuts;
• Increasing debt, despite huge windfall commodity revenues;
• Higher energy bills, despite billions in subsidies

 

While we welcome rate relief for struggling households, the reality is inflation has been too high for too long, from a complacent government.

 

The work done to curb aggregate demand hasn’t been done by government, but Australian families. Families need to cut because governments have rapidly grown spending to record levels.

 

Deloitte Access Economics projects it will take until 2030 for Australians standard of living to recover from this Labor Government.

 

The current cost-of-living crisis and cost-of-doing-business crisis means Australians are razor focused on their personal circumstances.  

 

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE MEANS GETTING OUR ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK

 

The solution is not retreating from Liberal economic principles—it’s standing by them.

 

Our principles are built around the importance of strong economic management empowering a private sector where individuals fulfill their aspirations.  

 

A prosperous society is built on aspiration—on the belief that hard work leads to success, that wealth is created rather than redistributed, and that every

 

Australian has the chance to build a better future.

 

That is what we must fight for and that is how we will bridge the growing divide across our communities.

 

Strong economic management – living within our means, lowering taxes, boosting productivity, and rewarding enterprise and investment – is essential to this.

 

If you cannot manage the economy, you won’t be able to manage a cost of living crisis.

 

Cost of living pressures won’t ease with more short-term subsidies and bigger government. The only way forward is to get back to basics economic management by:

• Unleashing productivity
• Reestablishing fiscal discipline
• Driving private investment & entrepreneurship

 

That is the mission of a Coalition Government. That is how we will get Australia back on track.

 

PRODUCTIVITY AND INVESTMENT

 

For a generation of politicians the two most forbidden words in the staffer handbook were nuclear and productivity.  

 

As part of the Coalition’s commitment to governing in the national interest, we have been prepared to speak about both. 

 

Productivity isn’t about cutting jobs. Productivity is a measure of our economic potential. Without productivity, there is no prosperity. 

 

It means working less for more, not working harder.

 

Higher productivity means attracting investment to enable Australians do their jobs better and faster and to be paid more.

 

Smart investment that embodies knowledge and know-how is essential to raising our standard of living.

 

And sadly Australia is coming up short. 

 

Since March 2022, we have seen labour productivity collapse by 6%.

 

That means Australians are working 6% harder just to keep what they already had.

 

As Shane Oliver has pointed out, Australia’s labour productivity over the last year has been amongst the lowest in the OECD.  

 

Australia is at the back of the pack in achieving our economic potential.

 

Part of this is a crowding out of private enterprise by rapidly growing federal and state Labor governments.

 

I constantly hear small businesses complain that they are losing employees to publicly funded alternatives. 

 

McKinsey’s report Reviving the ‘golden goose’ of Australia Inc. has laid bare the challenge facing Australia:

• It’s too expensive to build
• Too expensive to power
• Too hard to finance

 

How can Australians pursue the dream of home ownership when they can’t access finance, they can’t heat their homes and builders can’t build?

 

We have a choice: accept these as the status quo or commit to making the changes that are necessary to achieve our economic potential. 

 

As Peter Dutton has said, this will require economic surgery. Not economic Panadol.  

 

FISCAL POLICY

 

Every part of government must be part of the solution.

 

Culling wasteful government bureaucracy is crucial, but we must make life and business easier across the entire economy.

 

Fiscal policy has an important role to play in driving a low-inflation, high-growth economy.

 

Jane Hume and I have announced that a Coalition Government will restore the Howard-Costello fiscal guardrails, including ensuring that the economy grows faster than our spending.

 

This does not just ensure that we can repair our budget position – it will also safeguard against crowding out private enterprise.

 

Today I can announce we will go further.

 

Productivity reform needs to be the foundation of our economic growth strategy.

 

To that end, a Coalition Government will embed in our fiscal strategy a whole-of-government productivity goal seeking to return productivity to its historical average over time.

 

We will elevate productivity as the primary growth lever for the Australian economy.

 

While we should protect the employment gains achieved under the Coalition Government, with participation at record highs, we need to acknowledge the limits of further participation.

 

Similarly, while skilled migration will always have an important role, we cannot rely on population growth as the only means to grow our economy. That is growth without prosperity.

 

No-one is pretending this is easy – but it is the right thing to do.

 

The Coalition will commit to ongoing structural reforms to boost economic growth and productivity growth as the key driver of Australians’ living standards.

 

FINANCIAL SERVICES

 

But we cannot increase productivity and drive investment if we accept the status quo.

 

In particular, the construction, energy and financial service sectors play a crucial role in supporting and enabling Australian businesses and households.

 

Much of what we buy relies on one or more of these services

 

We have already outlined significant steps to boost our construction industry and our energy sector.

 

Restoring the ABCC, de-registering the CFMEU, freezing the national construction code, removing the nuclear moratorium, and adding gas to the capacity investment scheme will all play a crucial role.

 

Today I announce a Coalition Government will reform our financial services industry to drive productivity and investment and support aspiration.

 

Our mission is to make Australia a leading financial hub which is both stable and innovative.

 

That means removing barriers, unlocking investment, and ensuring our financial system works for every Australian.

 

Whether it is starting a business or buying a home – financial services are the arteries of our economy and the enablers of aspiration.

 

Overzealous regulators, risk averse corporations, and unintended consequences of well-meaning regulation has seen those arteries clogged.

 

Compliance costs in the financial services industry now exceed $1 billion.

 

This is a hidden tax on consumers every time they open a bank account, buy a share or apply for a loan.

 

Increasingly, Australians are under-insured, under-advised and under-banked. 

 

If finance becomes the domain of just a privileged few, we will just those divisions I spoke of earlier.

 

Today I will outline three key initiatives as a beachhead for this agenda.

 

1. Reform our prudential settings

 

First, we will reform our prudential settings. We will reset APRA’s statement of expectations, balancing its primary focus on financial system stability with internationally competitive access to finance for Australian households and businesses.

 

In particular, we will focus on:

• Increasing banking competition through more proportionate regulation for our regional, mid-tier and smaller banks;
• Making targeted adjustments to lending criteria to support home ownership, including adjusting serviceability requirements across the interest rate cycle;
• Encouraging growth in small business lending, acknowledging the Productivity Commission’s finding that prudential settings are the biggest obstacle to small business finance. You should not need to own a home to start a business;
• Avoiding overcapitalisation of insurers to better reflect the underlying risks of their portfolios –lowering costs for consumers and freeing up capital for investment.

 

Financial stability will still be paramount, but we need to facilitate investment and innovation not hinder it.

 

2. Increase advocacy for competition in our financial system:

 

Second, we need more advocacy for competition in our financial system. The Coalition led the way on rationalisation of financial regulation by calling for the establishment of a financial services regulatory grid.

 

That simply means a process to streamline regulations.

 

This a starting point, not an end goal to itself. 

 

In 2018, the Productivity Commission found we lack a clear competition advocate on the Council of Financial Regulators.

 

This means when regulators discuss priorities, competition and consumer interests often take a back seat.

 

This needs to change, by making the ACCC a permanent member of the Council of Financial Regulators.

 

3. Simplify our corporate law and revive our corporate bond market:

 

Third we need to simplify our corporate law and build our corporate bond market.

 

Australia’s corporations law is confusing, complex and too long, which is harming our economy.

 

Consumers are unsure of their rights and Frontier Economics tells us this hurting productivity.

 

These costs are passed on to Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses and consumers.

 

The Coalition will respond to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2023 report and immediately set to work with ASIC to progressively simplify the laws.

 

There is no need for further reviews.

 

We will start with Chapter 7 of the corporations law, which focuses on product and market regulation, and with reforms to our corporate bond market.

 

Australia’s corporate bond market is badly underdeveloped.

 

Retail investors, particularly retirees, miss out on stable fixed-income options, while businesses face higher borrowing costs due to a lack of competition.

 

We will streamline disclosure regimes, allow more flexible bond terms, and reduce the burden on service providers.

 

According to independent research this could unlock $1 trillion in investment opportunities for Australian retail investors while funding business investment and growth.

 

It will revive our public markets at a time when we are seeing less listings and less accessible investment opportunities for Australians.

 

These three initiatives are only the beginning of our plans to free up our financial services sector to better serve Australians.

 

They build on our existing agenda to allow reasonable access to super for housing, get the Consumer Data Right back on track, and to rebuild our financial advice community by implementing the Quality of Advice Review.

 

Most of all, it will open the door for young Australians to start and grow a business, invest with confidence and buy a home.

 

SMALL BUSINESS

 

To truly restore opportunity, we must also rebuild the backbone of our economy—small and family businesses.

 

Australia’s small and family businesses are the lifeblood of our communities.

 

Under Labor many are drowning with record levels of insolvency across Australia.

 

Labor’s big spending, big government agenda is building bureaucracies but not businesses.

 

The Coalition will stand up for small businesses to deliver better finance, lower taxes, less red tape, cheaper energy, and easier employment to get our businesses thriving again.

 

Our small business tax reforms are important downpayments on this policy.

• Making the Instant Asset Write Off permanent means that 98% of businesses will no longer have to deal with depreciation schedules, for investments under $30,000.
• Our simplified meal tax deduction will streamline FBT complexity with accountants estimating a compliance saving of $500 per business participating.

 

Combined, these policies will free up cash for businesses to invest, take risks and create jobs and opportunities for all Australians

 

We need more small businesses, and we need more small business growing into bigger employers.

 

BACK ON TRACK

 

Tom Hughes’ legacy is one of resilience, service, and opportunity.

 

He believed in an Australia where ambition was rewarded, enterprise thrived, and every generation could go further than the last.

 

His lived his beliefs. From the battlefield to the bar, from Parliament to the farm, Tom Hughes understood that success wasn’t guaranteed. It had to be earned and defended.

 

That is our challenge now.

 

Labor’s economic mismanagement is crushing Australians, particularly in our suburbs and regions.

 

I regularly meet Australians whose dreams are slipping away. Dreams to own a home. Dreams to raise a family. Dreams to build a business.

 

This election is a choice: between a government that has lost control of the economy, or a Coalition that knows strong economic management is the key to prosperity.

 

Because if you can’t manage the economy, you can’t beat a cost of living crisis.

 

Under a Coalition Government, Australia will once again be a country where hard work is rewarded, businesses can grow, and families can plan for the future with confidence.

 

ENDS.