Musk-like efficiency role 'strange' call for Australia

Australia has a red tape problem and even the boss of the corporate watchdog acknowledges it.

But introducing an Elon Musk-style Minister for Deregulation is a "strange" way to go about it, Jim Chalmers says.

The treasurer was responding to a suggestion by the business lobby on Tuesday to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump and slash clunky regulation to boost productivity.

The finance department was already working on streamlining government spending and regulation and creating another department to do the same thing was a "strange way" to seek efficiency, Dr Chalmers said.

"Without doing that, we've found $92 billion worth of savings in our budgets and budget updates," he told reporters.

Even regulators have identified excessive red tape was stifling business and making life harder for enforcement agencies, with ASIC chair Joe Longo calling for a national de-regulation agenda.

The Business Council warned Australia could get left behind and experience a decline in living standards if unwieldy regulatory systems were not stripped back, particularly for environmental approvals and business licensing.

Fixing it had to be a national priority, the council's chief executive Bran Black said as he unveiled the council's priorities for the 2025 federal election.

"This election and the period beyond must prioritise reforms that will make our economy stronger and more resilient, boost living standards and, overall, make Australia a better place to invest and do business," he said.

Mr Black said Australia should follow the US in increasing regulatory efficiency - a nod to Mr Trump's appointment of the world's richest man Elon Musk to lead a Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with slashing red tape and government spending.

In a pre-election reshuffle in January, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton named Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as shadow minister for government efficiency - a role closely mirroring Mr Musk's appointment.

The council said the parties vying to lead Australia over the next three years needed to answer five questions threatening the economy.

They were: how to ease the cost-of-living crisis; tackle housing unaffordability; achieve net zero by 2050 with affordable and reliable energy; develop a skilled workforce for the future; and deliver health and care services for an aging population.

Making these priorities more urgent were anaemic economic growth and plummeting labour productivity, which has fallen back to 2016 levels.

Dr Chalmers acknowledged Australia's economy was at risk of being impacted by another of Mr Trump's policies - the imposition of tariffs on major trading partners.

"We've got a very trade exposed economy, so we're not immune when there's escalating trade tensions," he said.

Unlike Canada, Mexico and China, Australia runs a trade deficit with the United States, boosting Australia's case for avoiding tariffs, Dr Chalmers said.

But even if Australia is not directly hit by tariffs, the flow-on effects of a trade war on China's economy could hit domestic businesses.

"The challenge for us there is a risk with respect to jobs," Mr Black said.

"Making sure as much as we can that we are resilient to that risk is important, and that means doing everything that's within our reasonable control.

"Being as competitive as possible, having the right type of regulatory settings: that's something we can control."

The Business Council's other regulatory-busting recommendations included following deregulation measures of global peers, assessing productivity impacts of all new regulation, fast-tracking housing approvals and removing regulation duplicates across government.

Reforming Australia's inefficient tax system was also essential to increasing productivity growth, Mr Black argued.