Calls for action on government reviews

Having set up a new inquiry or review every fortnight since coming to office, the Abbott government faces calls to act on reform.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (right) and Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speak during a joint press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, March 18, 2015. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Prime minister Tony Abbott and assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Business groups fear the flood of government inquiries and reviews is not translating into reform.

But Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says many of the policy areas being examined have not been looked at for years and need careful consideration before the government acts.

Since elected in September 2013, the Abbott government has initiated 38 major inquiries, reviews and white papers.

Corporate executives and business groups have been privately telling ministers they are concerned many of the finalised reports are sitting in in-trays, or have been released but are now gathering dust.

Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox says he is not concerned about too many inquiries because they have the potential to lift economic performance and living standards.

"But that said, the fatigue that too often occurs comes from the dead ends and brick walls the inquiries so often hit," he told AAP on Thursday.

"Reform is frustratingly hard to deliver when there are nervous governments on the one side and politically opportunist oppositions on the other."

Another concern was that some inquiries were merely "politically motivated witch-hunts" that did nothing but settle scores.

Mr Frydenberg said inquiries such as the commission of audit, the financial systems inquiry and the Harper review of competition policy were necessary because those areas had not been examined since the mid-1990s.

The tax white paper was essential because the Ken Henry review released in 2010 did not look at the nation's third-biggest tax, the GST.

The government was commissioning the best people to do wide-ranging reviews to enable policymaking to be made on the basis of considered and comprehensive advice, Mr Frydenberg told AAP.

The coalition has committed to taking at least some of the recommendations of the tax white paper to the 2016 election.

A families package, stemming from a Productivity Commission inquiry report released in February, would be released before the May 12 budget.


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Source: AAP


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