Yesterday afternoon, Emma Griffiths from 612 ABC Brisbane interviewed me regarding PM Malcolm Turnbull’s Cabinet and what it means for the economy:

The future of business under Turnbull

I told Emma that it appears business is very optimistic about the new leadership team, but ultimately it will be actions that matter, particularly actions in major reform areas important to business such as taxation and industrial relations. On these issues, PM Turnbull and Treasurer Morrison will face the same political challenges as the previous team. Business will be hoping the new team is more persuasive about the merits of reform than the previous team, which so clearly failed in persuasion.

While the new Cabinet may contribute to a bounce in business confidence in the next NAB and CCIQ Pulse surveys, any bounce would likely be temporary, and confidence would eventually return to a level reflective of the true economic outlook. Commenting on the briefing the RBA Governor gave the new Cabinet on the economy, I suggested the Governor would have referred to Australia’s recent sub-trend economic growth, concerns over the expected level of business investment in the next twelve months, and the risks from overseas, particularly China. I expect the economy will remain sluggish, and I hope it will not slow down even more. The new Cabinet will not have an immediate impact on this economic outlook.

Finally, I noted to Emma that I have been impressed by the PM’s comments regarding creativity, innovation and disruptive technology. I suggested that it would be good if our State Government had a similarly enlightened attitude to disruptive technology such as Uber. If, instead of cracking down on Uber, the State Government embraced it, there would be huge gains for consumers (see my post from last week and also Graham Young’s opinion piece in the Courier-Mail last week, Taxi industry cannot brake Uber’s run in an old, overregulated market).