Following is Sussan’s address to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) – Business Leaders Summit – at Old Parliament House, Canberra.

Introduction

It is a real privilege to join you here this morning at the ACCI’s Business Leaders’ Summit.

I want to thank Andrew and the whole team at ACCI for the work you are doing to advance the interests of Australian enterprise and the Australian people.

People in this town and people up on the Hill too often forget that all of this, the buildings, the public servants, the programs, the infrastructure, our national security and our social supports – all of it is paid for by Australian enterprise and the taxes of working Australians.

So I want to acknowledge you all for what you do. Thank you for building the prosperity of this country.

Old Parliament House

Friends we meet this morning in an historic building, now resident to the Museum of Australian Democracy. This is of course, Old Parliament House.

It is a beautiful building and it was not long ago that this building was the centre of Australian political power and it was not long ago that the big names of Australian politics strode these halls.

Howard, Hawke, Menzies and Curtin – names we all know – Australians who made an impact and wrote chapters of our national story.

But this morning I do not want to focus on the big names and the historic moments I want to focus on everyday Australians, the countless Australians who have built this nation.

Australians who have laid the foundations of our country and those who continue to do so in the face of difficult times.

It is perhaps best capture by a picture of the construction of this building titled Construction workers leaving Old Parliament House.

The image, taken in by William James Mildenhall in 1925, depicts a crowd of workers walking from the Parliament House depot on an unpaved road as they leave work for the day. Some are wearing suits, others overalls, and almost all have hats.

As they walk along they kick up dust and there are corrugated iron sheds in the background.

It is a far cry from the hi-vis and hard hats of today but these are the men who laid the stones that lay beneath our feet.

Many moved here from as far away as Brisbane, Hobart and Perth to toil in the dust, to build this great national building and to create a better life for their families.

They do not have their names on any foundation stones, nor do they appear in the Hansard, but as we sit here in this place we can feel their stories in the stone.

I start with this story because the same sort of no-nonsense Australians are heading to work today as we speak.

They are commuting to job sites, they are taking the train to work at the hospital, they are logging into their computers, they are finishing their overnight shifts or flying out to another stretch at a mine site.

As we speak these are the millions of stories being written by the workers of Australia.

These are the workers who are building this country, just as those men built this building.

And the reality is we have a responsibility to those workers and their families to deliver better leadership than we are seeing today.

Because without strong leadership the fact is life will keep getting hard for those workers.

This is personal for me because it is a life I have lived myself in the woolsheds of Western Queensland.

It is those Australians that I have always sought to speak up for.

Now more than ever demands an urgent effort to stand up for these Australians because Australia is heading in the wrong direction and these working Australians will never get these years back.

The fact is they cannot afford another three years of rising prices and falling living standards.

It is too often lost in the cycle of political commentary that for these average Australians a lost year, is a lost year.

We are far too quick to kick decisions into another parliamentary term or put something in the too hard basket to be dealt with down the track.

And for these Australians who went forward from 2013 to 2022, despite a global pandemic, the past two and half years under Labor have seen them go backwards and we know it will get worse before it gets better.

Those of us in this room know there is one way out of the economic quagmire – we have to grow our way out and that will require new leadership and a back to basics agenda.

And this is an urgent task because Australians will not get these years back.

Australia’s economic data

The data does not lie and when you get under the hood of the Australian economy we are seeing a train wreck.

The latest ASIC data shows the Albanese Government has delivered:

• The worst quarter of business insolvencies on record – 3,633 in September Quarter 2024
• The worst six month period of business insolvencies on record – 3,305 in June Quarter 2024 and 3,633 in September Quarter 2024
• The highest number of business insolvencies in a financial year – 11,053 in FY23/24
• The highest average of business insolvencies during any Parliamentary term – 2,514 insolvencies per quarter; and,
• Over 23,645 business insolvencies since taking office

These are bleak figures, and there is an escalation in them.

These are not just statistics.

Each one of those numbers is a dream that has been shattered, a family under strain and an opportunity that we have lost perhaps forever.

We are seeing this insolvency crisis because business has been crunched by falling demand and rising costs.

Our iconic hospitality and construction sectors are bearing the brunt.

And instead of a proactive government seeking to tackle the cause of the problem, we have seen Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers fail to engage with these deteriorating circumstances.

The fact is, Labor is letting Australian businesses fail.

A reminder of the warning about Labor. Now some of you may recall I addressed ACCI in August of 2022 in the lead up to Anthony Albanese’s much vaunted Jobs and Skills Summit.

To refresh you I might quote myself:

• Tonight, I want to offer you – business and industry leaders – a good faith warning.
• Proceed with caution. Anthony Albanese is no Bob Hawke.
• This Skills Summit next week is not Hawke’s Accord.
• And when this new government’s back is against the wall, and the pressures and stresses of competing interests emerge, you can be very confident of one thing.
• Labor will revert to type. Their instincts are to always back what the unions want first.

Fast forward over two years and I think we can confidently say that Anthony Albanese used the good faith of the business community to advance the agenda of the unions.

It has led to unworkable industrial relations changes making it harder for our businesses to meet this moment of economic insecurity and dislocation.

We have seen reckless spending from Labor Governments which has pushed our interest rates higher and higher, and as other countries like Canada and the United States, are cutting interest rates, here in Australia many economists aren’t seeing cuts until mid-2025.

That is killing businesses and hurting families and it could and should have been avoided.

I am not here to tell you I told you so, but I am here to ask you to reflect on the record of the Albanese Government and consider what they would do if they win a majority again or go into a minority government with the Greens or the Teals.

What risks does that pose to your businesses, to your workers and their families, what risks does that pose?

The Prime Minister’s “Building Australia’s Future” Reset

Now after a torrid month of scandal we have seen the Prime Minister seek to reset his agenda.

As I understand it his education announcements were rushed through ERC last week to be ready for his speech on Sunday.

This is a symptom of a government chasing its tail and not being led by the data or by a proper plan.

Anthony Albanese is chasing headlines and trying to survive media cycles.

This is not what considered public policymaking looks like.

Last weekend we saw Anthony Albanese again try to claim the mantle of the man who wants to “Build Australia’s Future”.

But my simple question to Australians is: Under Labor who is going to Build Australia’s Future?

That same ASIC data I mentioned earlier shows the Albanese Government has delivered:

The highest number of construction business insolvencies in a financial year – 2,977 in FY23/24

This is 600 (or 25 per cent) more construction business insolvencies than the previous peak following the Global Financial Crisis.

The highest number of construction business insolvencies in any 12 month period – 3,090 (December Quarter 2023 to September Quarter 2024).

Over 6,399 construction business insolvencies since taking office

As anyone who has any involvement with the construction sector knows it is tough out there.

And my message to you all here today is it can get worse for all of us.

Conclusion

Within the next six months, but perhaps within the next four Australians will have a choice to make about the future of Australia.

The next election will be critical for the prosperity of our country.

So I want to leave you all with a clear message today.

Australians deserve an honest conversation about the state of the economy.

The urgency of the situation confronting businesses is not being reflected by many who walk around this building with the clarity that it now required.

That must change.

I understand the need to maintain constructive relationships with the government of the day but frankly, when businesses are feeling the pain that we know they are, they expect those charged with the privilege of speaking for them, to be putting the blowtorch on the government.

The Coalition called-out bad decisions around the Jobs and Skills Summit and we will do it again.

This Labor Government is failing Australian businesses, it is irrefutable and needs to be called-out.

So this morning, I am calling on everyone to step-up and redouble their efforts to speak-up.

Because the workers and businesses I have met over recent months are not on the news, not in the papers, and nor do they have the platform those of us here in this room have to share their stories.

They are relying on us here in this place, to speak up for them and I make no apologies for calling-out the failures of this Government.

In-fact, I promised the business owners, I have met that I would do so.

So good luck today at your leader’s summit in this historic building.

But if I can leave you with this message:

All of us need to spend less time worrying about the people who get to have their name carved into the stone, and more time worrying about the person who laid it.

Thank you for your time.

[ENDS]