Anthony Albanese sits through one of the most awkward speeches of his life as business titan roasts him

Anthony Albanese has pushed back against accusations that his government is strangling Australian businesses with red tape, telling a company dinner that the Labor Party is “proud to be pro-business and pro-worker”.

The Prime Minister was welcomed like a fish in a sea of ​​sharks at the Business Council of Australia (BCA) annual dinner in Sydney on Tuesday night. Both the chief executive and the BCA chairman said the federal government fully regulated business.

There was a dull applause in the dim ballroom as Mr. Albanese entered the lavishly decorated hall.

Despite the tense atmosphere, Albanese maintained a cordial tone in his speech, saying he was “optimistic that the government and the business community” could tackle the economic challenges together.

“By recognizing each other’s strengths, respecting each other’s points of view and appreciating each other’s contributions,” he said.

‘We have different responsibilities that require different approaches, so it is inevitable that we will have disagreements from time to time.’

The Prime Minister said “points of disagreement have never defined or diminished the engagement between his government and business” because Labor “serves all Australians.”

“We pride ourselves on being pro-business and pro-worker,” he said.

‘And we don’t see this as a tension, we see it as a matter of logic.’

Among the executives seated at the prime minister’s table were Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes, Commonwealth Bank’s Matt Comyn and Shell Australia’s Cecile Wake.

Next to Mr Albanese was BCA chairman Geoff Culbert, who made sharp comments about the government shortly before the Prime Minister’s speech.

Mr Culbert pointed to the government’s decision to limit the number of international students as part of a plan to tighten rules in the international education sector, one of Australia’s largest export markets.

The proposal is intended to stop rising property prices and rents. The large number of students, many of whom never leave, is a major part of the rising demand and therefore causes a price spiral.

However, business is benefiting from rising property prices and other increased consumer demand due to mass migration. Mr Culbert spoke out against restrictions on the number of students.

“Over the past two decades, our university has developed a product that is truly world-class and is now our second largest export market after mining and raw materials,” he told attendees at the dinner.

But instead of celebrating that success and supporting our most globally competitive industries, we are trying to hold them back.

‘To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the story for doing business in Australia cannot be: ‘If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.’

“But that is the direction we are heading.”

Mr Culbert’s comments echoed those of BCA Chief Executive Bran Black, who also said that “many CEOs feel we are losing our way” and “taking small but noticeable steps backwards.”

He said top executives across the country had told him that “they are much, much more cautious about hiring after the recent series of changes to the workplace by the government.”

“And this underscores the point that a good job can only pay well if it exists first,” Black said.

‘Instead, we are gradually tightening regulations, rather than eliminating them, making it increasingly difficult to run a business.’

The coalition has promised to reverse a number of workplace changes in the Albanian government if it wins next year’s elections, including the recently introduced “right to be offline,” which prohibits bosses from expecting their staff to monitor workplace communications outside of working hours.

But Albanese said his government understood that job security and decent wages depend on good business performance, just as the government understood that productivity gains depend on “skilled workers and safe workplaces.”

He said his government had opposed “some quite extreme anti-business policies” coming from independent parties, in a thinly veiled attack on the Greens.

“We have stood up for some of Australia’s largest employers, while others have attacked you for having a different view to them,” Albanese said.

He further said that in a democracy there is ‘room for everyone’s opinion’ and that opinion ‘must stand on its merits and withstand public criticism’.

“You must be prepared to explain your position, to account for your priorities and to demonstrate how the proposals you put forward will improve the lives of the people you seek support from,” Mr Albanese said.

‘Because economic and social change does not come through ultimatums, but through consensus and reinforced by the mandate of the people.’

The prime minister said he was not at the dinner to “demand” the BCA to defend its agenda, like “many” of his predecessors.

“Tonight I encourage you: keep improving your performances,” he said.

Albanese’s comments on democracy appeared to be aimed at the BCA president, who previously warned of a “growing danger of populism”.

Culbert said populism undermines “trust and respect for the institutions that run our country,” a problem facing countries across the Western world.

“I don’t think I’m alone in being concerned about the state of democracy in Western countries,” he said.

‘You only have to look around you, around the world, to understand what I’m talking about.’

Mr Culbert said he was keen to share the “popular idea” that problems that exist elsewhere in the world would never reach Australian shores, but that “what we are seeing around the world is an important lesson in how quickly unity can crumble when self-interest takes precedence over national interest and populism takes over.”

“A robust and respectful debate is essential,” he said.

‘It is the cornerstone of functional democracies. No one would disagree with that.

‘But the purpose of that debate must be to find solutions that are in the long-term interest of the country.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be trapped in an endless cycle of short-term thinking and blame-shifting.”