Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

JOURNALIST: All right, well, do you want to start us off then, what are your hopes from the Economic Roundtable?

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: I think this is a great opportunity to bring people together in the Cabinet Room and really work on some of those common challenges and opportunities that are facing the economy. I mean, it doesn't happen very often, and this is really the government saying, come into the room, let's talk about these things, and let's identify if there are areas where there can be an agreed approach or consensus, acknowledging that there might not be consensus on all of those issues.

JOURNALIST: Can we expect reform, or a lot of talking?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think there'll be a fair bit of talking over three days, but hopefully there will be some concrete ideas. Obviously, we've got our agenda that we'll be rolling through alongside of this. But if there are genuine areas where we think there's opportunity to strengthen the economy, to drive productivity, to get the budget and continue to get the budget in better shape, then we will take those opportunities. And bringing together these leaders in a room provides us with that opportunity to get that right.

JOURNALIST: The Productivity Commission in particular is looking at red tape, regulation. How important is it to remove some of that red tape in order to get things like housing through, and will that be something that you are hoping to take out of the Roundtable?

GALLAGHER: Yeah, so we're very interested in the looking at red tape, looking at the deregulation, looking at quality regulation. So often with regulation, it can become layer upon layer upon layer, and you've got to look at it in terms of Commonwealth, state, territory, local government. And when you when you're building that, and looking at that, it can be quite difficult and take a lot of time to get through. Housing is the classic example of that. Where there's regulation at various levels of government and when you put them together, they add cost and they add time, and we're serious about having a look at that and about whether there are ways to reduce it and to drive a more timely approvals process.

JOURNALIST: You've talked a lot about improving conditions for employees. Why won't the government implement a four-day work week?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think what the PM and Treasurer have said on that is we've got no plans. We haven't been looking at that at all. We've done a lot of IR changes in the last term. We are very supportive of workplace flexibility, looking at how workers can align their working life with all of those other pressures they have, whether it be looking after parents or children or, you know, having difficulty with the travel and the commute to work. So, working from home, how you work your hours, where you work your hours, all of that, that is definitely something that we've been very supportive of, but we've got no plans around a four-day week.

JOURNALIST: And why is that?

GALLAGHER: Well we feel that we've built the system, and certainly the IR changes that we put in place are showing that they are working. We've got disputes down, we've got wages up, we've got more people in work. And we know that workplace flexibility is being utilised. So, we feel that we've got the balance right. Thank you.