Australia's peak business lobby group says the Abbott government's focus on balancing the federal budget is not enough to create a vision for the nation's future.
Business Council of Australia (BCA) president Catherine Livingstone said government had a key role in setting a growth agenda.
"Balancing the budget is not a vision, it is a means to an end - a necessary step to enable other changes to be made," she said in an address to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Sydney.
Returning the federal budget to surplus has been a central goal of the Abbott government.
The call comes two weeks after treasurer Joe Hockey told global business leaders at the B20 summit that governments needed their help to lift the economy.
"It is a very important role of government to set a vision for the country," Ms Livingstone said.
The Telstra chair called on government to develop a renewed understanding of its role.
"The idea that governments don't have a role in wealth creation and can leave it all to business ignores the reality that government controls key inputs into growth," she said.
Ms Livingstone announced a new BCA scheme under which 20 leading Australian companies would be asked to offer secondments to senior public servants.
The aim of the scheme will be to "close the gap between what government thinks and what business knows", she said.
Ms Livingstone also launched a discussion paper and a BCA-commissioned report by consultants McKinsey outlining the challenges facing Australian businesses from global competition.
Australia faces challenges from online technologies, demographic changes, exposure to globalisation of supply chains and competition from emerging technologies, the BCA report said.
"We need to choose now between a path of purposeful action or a path of painful adjustment," Ms Livingstone said.
If Australia had considered looming challenges in the 1980s the country may still have a viable role in the global car industry supply chain, she said.
Ms Livingstone also said reform had to show a proven benefit to the economy, mentioning the federal government's much-vaunted red tape repeal program.
"Government can pursue $1 billion worth of red-tape reduction but if the reform program isn't substantive at the sector level, if it doesn't fundamentally improve our global competitiveness, it is a wasted opportunity," she said.
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