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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A, where we

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Speaker 1: ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.

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Speaker 1: I'm Uchael Thompson, and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael Sean.

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Speaker 1: The International Monetary Fund has released a report analyzing Australia's economy.

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Speaker 1: They do this for every economy, but let's just focus

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Speaker 1: on Australia because it's got you riled up. They pointed

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Speaker 1: out the good things. The economy is gaining momentum, inflation

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Speaker 1: has declined, the jobs market is strong, the private sector

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Speaker 1: is recovering. But but the report then goes on to

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Speaker 1: urge a whole bunch of different things, including significant reform,

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Speaker 1: increasing the gst ending, a bunch of tax cuts, a

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Speaker 1: whole stack of other things. So my question for you,

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Speaker 1: knowing that this is something that gets you a little

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Speaker 1: bit fired up, what's the point. Is this just pie

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Speaker 1: and the sky stuff? Does the IMF have any reason

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Speaker 1: to do this? And is anybody in Australia, including government,

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Speaker 1: actually going to do any.

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Speaker 2: Are they listening? I don't think so. Look, the IMF

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Speaker 2: itself is a great institution and it looks across economies

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Speaker 2: across the globe and you know makes its prognistations on

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Speaker 2: how they could improve. I think it really got me yesterday. Right,

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Speaker 2: So the IMF said Australia should embark on a series

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Speaker 2: of reforms to taxation, the budget, technology, competition, labor markets

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Speaker 2: and the green transition because that will burst productivity. What's

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Speaker 2: of course those things will boost productivity, but seriously, unless

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Speaker 2: you can tell us how to do it. I mean

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Speaker 2: the GST. We have argued this ever since the GST

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Speaker 2: was introduced twenty five years ago. A higher GST rate

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Speaker 2: or a broader GST would be a good economic decision.

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Speaker 2: It isn't necessarily a good equity decision. And it's not

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Speaker 2: a good political decision. Now maybe some government at some

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Speaker 2: point will make a call on that and they'll be

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Speaker 2: able to do it fair enough. Mining tax, I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's kind of the Rudd Gillard given government stuffed up

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Speaker 2: the mining tax. Maybe there's a good argument for it. Similarly,

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Speaker 2: the green transition. We've had this week all the big

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Speaker 2: banks coming out saying hey, we've got to rely on gas,

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Speaker 2: we've got to keep going towards renewables. We've got the

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Speaker 2: Coalition saying we're dropping that zero I mean what the

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Speaker 2: IMF saying. Of course it makes sense, but it's hard

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Speaker 2: like just coming out and saying this is what you

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Speaker 2: should do. Well, you run the country, now you go

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Speaker 2: to keep you go and tell people that you know,

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Speaker 2: the coal mining town community in Queensland that you guys

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Speaker 2: are all going to lose your jobs. Now what is

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Speaker 2: the IMF go and tell on that. And I'm not

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Speaker 2: against the gist of reducing our reliance on coal fired power.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely we do. We need to go to renewables, but

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Speaker 2: it's much harder to do than actually say it. So

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Speaker 2: I'm on reform the labor great idea, let's reform the

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Speaker 2: labor market. But you know, we have a union movement

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Speaker 2: in Australia which does broadly does an incredibly good job

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Speaker 2: as a collective negotiating tool which employers prefer. You have

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Speaker 2: a modern ward arrangements.

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Speaker 1: There are rules.

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Speaker 2: Now, sure you could just totally deregulate the labor market,

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Speaker 2: but what happens to the worker in that instance?

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Speaker 1: Okay, So basically this is as a report that kind

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Speaker 1: of has some broad ideas, is it just entirely devoid

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Speaker 1: of any realistic perspective on Australia's politics? For one thing,

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Speaker 1: because the GST debate. I mean, we have had this

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Speaker 1: year probably the greatest opportunity for meaningful tax reform in

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Speaker 1: this in this term of government. The federal government even

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Speaker 1: had a reform round table in Canberra where they sat

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Speaker 1: down for a couple of days and went through a

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Speaker 1: whole stack of ideas. Reform wasn't even considered. It was

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Speaker 1: ruled out before they got there. And so this is

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Speaker 1: with a government that has a very very significant margin.

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Speaker 1: It has got a very large majority, but there is

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Speaker 1: no political courage here for meaningful reform. So is there

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Speaker 1: any point in a report like this?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, ironically, the IMF said that productivity round

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Speaker 2: table was a good idea, but they've just got to

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Speaker 2: keep going with the ideas. So I appreciate that. I

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Speaker 2: think that's very true. Is there any point? I space,

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Speaker 2: it's not a bad idea about being reminded occasionally of

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Speaker 2: these things. And I totally agree with you. The mandate

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Speaker 2: that this government has should allow it to be a

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Speaker 2: reformist government. I'm not saying they should increase the GST.

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying they should have a mining tax. I

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Speaker 2: think they should reduce taxation on companies and income and

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Speaker 2: personal income taxes. Jim As yesterday that day said well,

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Speaker 2: we have been reducing taxes on personal income, which is true,

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Speaker 2: though that was a federal coalition policy originally. I I

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Speaker 2: suppose it's aka to be reminded on it, and the

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Speaker 2: thrust of it is all makes sense. I don't know.

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Speaker 2: It's kind of listening to the media telling you exactly

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Speaker 2: how you should think.

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Speaker 1: I just find that frustrating, unless it's a podcast.

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Speaker 2: In which God fearing greed, in.

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Speaker 1: Which case you should absolutely think the same way as us.

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Speaker 1: Was highly encouraged. I did enjoy the fact that this

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Speaker 1: report emphasized the importance of fiscal coordination across the federation

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Speaker 1: across climate change and tax reform, and said that the

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Speaker 1: Parliamentary Budget Office should be given oversight of state budgets

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Speaker 1: and everything as well. This is significant reform and it's

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Speaker 1: got absolutely buckley chance of actually being done right.

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Speaker 2: That's kind of why I find it frustrating with the IMF.

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Speaker 2: What do they actually give us stuff that we could

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Speaker 2: work towards. So what they're basically saying is get rid

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Speaker 2: of the states. Yeah, you know, we don't need the

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Speaker 2: states when it comes to a bunch of issues which

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Speaker 2: are state based. Just have the Commonwealth look after that.

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Speaker 2: The whole the renewables debate. Whether you like or dislike

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Speaker 2: the fact that the Coalition has dropped net zero, that

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Speaker 2: is its position that needs to be respected. It may

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Speaker 2: not be your personal view, but it needs to be respected.

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Speaker 2: And I just when these global organizations just come and say, hey,

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Speaker 2: you guys should do this, as you can see, it

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Speaker 2: irks me, Michael. It irks me.

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Speaker 1: And that is why I enjoy discussing it with you

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Speaker 1: so much, because I love hearing that fire and passion.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Sean, thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: If you've got a question that you would like us

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Speaker 1: to tackle, or if you've got something that you think

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Speaker 1: might just get undershoring skin a little bit, then please,

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Speaker 1: absolutely I beg you send it through on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: or at Fearangreed dot com dot au. Let's see if

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Speaker 1: we can rile him up together. I'm Michael Thompson at

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Speaker 1: this Fear and Greed Q and A