The national employer association Ai Group today congratulated newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his victory in Saturday’s federal election.
“Ai Group and our members look forward to working with Mr Albanese and the new government as it builds support across both houses of parliament to address Australia’s challenges and to capitalise on our tremendous opportunities, Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said.
“We look forward to working with the Government and with others in the community to achieve the shared objective of raising real wages and profits. Most fundamentally this will require a firm commitment to raising productivity both through government policy initiatives and in Australia’s workplaces.
“The Government has a clear mandate to bring an end to the damaging ‘climate wars’ and to concentrate on giving coherence and momentum to the substantial transitions Australia must manage to reduce our greenhouse gas missions to net zero.
“Ai Group and our members stand ready to assist the Government as it further develops its approach to these foundational issues and as it addresses the immediate challenges of locking in the strong recovery from the pandemic; navigating the geopolitical and economic fallout from the war in Ukraine; and ensuring that current inflationary forces are brought back to target levels in a timely and orderly fashion.
“We will also be providing our input as the Government prepares for the foreshadowed federal budget ensuring the views of Australia’s employers are brought to the table.
“Mr Albanese and his team have the opportunity to change the country and Ai Group will maintain its long-standing approach of working constructively with the government of the day, and across the parliament, to ensure that our contributions to representing business and community interests are at the forefront of decision making.
“Outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team served Australia very effectively over the last three years. Three years ago, the then new Government could never have expected to be dealt the hand it picked up early in 2020 when the global pandemic struck.
“Mr Morrison and his Government can proudly point to their critical contributions to Australia’s top-of-the-league-table economic and health outcomes and they hand over a community and an economy in much better shape than anyone could have anticipated at the start of the pandemic,” Mr Willox said.
