Amongst those was waning competition, the depreciation of real disposable incomes as post-pandemic inflation surged and large government spending that needed to be reeled in amid growing pressures from an ageing population and energy transition.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien said the government now needed to be bold and utilise its large majority for vital economic change which might not be popular in the short term.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, what I see today is a government that is very short term focused and focused only on the politics,\u201d he told Business Weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand their timidity. You have a government which does have a whopping big majority and yet they are completely averse to making some hard decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re completely averse to having ambition for the country and if you don\u2019t have ambition for the country then you don\u2019t have ambition to raise the living standards for everyday Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n
The OECD\u2019s report arose as Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down a record $47.8b upward revision in the cost of government services earlier this week.<\/p>\n
This revised figure is larger than the forecast budget deficit and just shy of the $51b the government plans to spend on defence this year.<\/p>\n
Economist Chris Richardson noted the average revised costs in the six years prior to the pandemic averaged $0.7b.<\/p>\n
This grew to an average of $18.4b after the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien said reeling in government spending and allowing the private sector to dominate could bolster life for all Australians.<\/p>\n
![\"Reserve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/05a9cde113dc635840b160afee788ad7.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we can have the private sector doing the heavy lifting and growing the economy, rather than government, then you\u2019ll see all boats lift,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we want to see because that is what raises the living standards of everyday Australians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s going to raise productivity. That\u2019s the task that lies ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The OECD report also stated there was \u201cno longer any strong need for fiscal support to households or firms\u201d, a finding at odds with Labor’s major outlay on electricity rebates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith federal and state budgets projected to be in deficit for years to come and growing fiscal pressures coming from population ageing and the climate transition, there should be a greater sense of urgency about improving the public finances,\u201d the OECD said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe planned gradual fiscal adjustment should be implemented by raising spending efficiency and improving the functioning of the tax system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report included a series of recommendations which could help bolster the tax system.<\/p>\n
These included reducing concessions to superannuation, indexing tax brackets, phasing out negative gearing, removing some capital gains tax discounts, and changes to road user charges and inheritance tax.<\/p>\n
Mr Richardson said the damning picture the report painted of Australia\u2019s economy echoed complaints many economists had been making for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a whole bunch of things that could be done that would make Australia more productive and more prosperous,\u201d he told Business Now on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They) would push our living standards up (and) would have our political classes\u2026 giving a tailwind to our living standards instead of a headwind.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, you know, we haven’t seen much of that from either side for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shadow treasurer Ted O\u2019Brien has joined calls for the government to use its massive majority and enact ambitious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164,20309,42086,13576,227430,185521,227431],"class_list":["post-435539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-government-spending","tag-jim-chalmers","tag-oecd","tag-shadow-treasurer-ted-obrien","tag-ted-obrien","tag-treasuer-jim-chalmers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}