In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Bowen outlined the government’s vision for a “new competitiveness agenda” and to transition the economy from its reliance on the resources sector – singling out financial services as a core aspect of the strategy.
“Our challenge is in improving our productivity and competitiveness to assist in this transition,” Mr Bowen said. “I’m not talking about picking winners or subsidies – I’m talking about breaking down barriers to competitiveness. What we’re doing in financial services is a good example of what can be done.”
Mr Bowen, who served as minister for financial services in the first Rudd government and resumes responsibilities for the portfolio area in the new cabinet, said that while the local financial services industry is strong, “our exports and imports of financial services are low by international standards” and therefore the Johnson Report agenda needs to get back on track.
In 2010, as financial services minister, Mr Bowen unveiled the Australia as a Financial Centre Report (Johnson Report) despite that at the time “it was pretty unfashionable for governments around the world to announce they wanted to promote financial services”.
The report – named after former Macquarie Bank deputy chairman Mark Johnson who heads up the government’s Australian Financial Centre Taskforce – found that while “Australia has arguably the most efficient and competitive financial sector in the Asia Pacific region”, a greater focus on import and export is required in order to transform the country into a “financial services hub”.
“There is a great opportunity for the financial services industry to become more outwardly focused,” the treasurer said. “We know positioning Australia as a financial services centre in the region means that we would be able to offer increased job opportunities for a range of skilled workers in the financial sector.”
More broadly, the speech pointed to the legislation to simplify corporate bonds issuance – which recently passed the House of Representatives – and laws enabling trading of Australian government bonds as further example of reform items that go towards the Johnson report objectives.
The treasurer also made a more party-political point, claiming that “only Labor is interested in taking advantage of these opportunities”.
However, in a statement earlier this month, shadow minister for financial services and superannuation Mathias Cormann said acting on the recommendations of the Johnson Report and turning Australia into a global “financial services hub” was a top Coalition priority.
