NAB CEO Ross McEwan has highlighted migration, small business regulation and housing affordability as key challenges that Australia and the new Labor government need to address.
Speaking at the AFR Banking Summit on Tuesday, Mr McEwan acknowledged that there are “no silver bullets” to tackling Australia’s labour and skills shortages.
“Net migration turned negative last year with 70,000 more people leaving Australia than arriving. There are 500,000 fewer temporary migrants and half as many international students in the country now compared with 2019,” he noted.
“It’s no wonder that we have 400,000 job vacancies in this country right now – that’s the highest level on record and almost double the pre-pandemic peak.”
However, Mr McEwan argued that upskilling workers and encouraging people to join or rejoin the workforce would help tackle this challenge, with restored migration seen as being critical to both easing the shortages and contributing to economic growth.
“In my mind, this is one of the most urgent issues that the new government should focus on,” he suggested.
“We acknowledge efforts underway to do exactly that. Ultimately, we need a lot more people coming into Australia to work and study – and to stay long term.”
On small business regulation, Mr McEwan said that sustainable economic growth must be underpinned by business investment.
While NAB recorded its highest ever month of business lending during March, the bank’s customers have indicated that more can be done to encourage more investment.
“The first is to cut red tape and give business owners time back. Time to work on their businesses which will help lift productivity,” explained Mr McEwan.
“One in four small business owners work more than 60 hours a week. Twelve of these hours are spent navigating government regulation.”
Turning to housing affordability, Mr McEwan said that Australia needed to consider the impacts of a growing population.
“Helping more people to buy their own home is core to our business. For most people, it is the biggest financial commitment they ever make,” he said.
“Unfortunately, over the past 40 years, just getting a deposit together has become harder and harder. This is particularly the case for those on low incomes and essential workers, who need to live close-by to the hospitals, schools and emergency services that employ them.”
Despite the current home loan deposit guarantee scheme and the potential new federal shared-equity scheme, which he described as “welcome initiatives”, Mr McEwan warned that the broader challenge of improved accessibility to housing remained.
“Some of the areas that need fixing are improved national consistent state planning rules to allow more homes to be built in inner and middle ring suburbs of our larger cities,” he said.
“Secondly, we need more small info projects with light council planning approval. And finally, we need more rental accommodation. We want to work together with our customers and with the government to help solve these problems.”
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
