LIKE any other lobby group worth its salt, Business Hunter - the trading name of the Hunter Business Chamber - has reacted to Sunday's election announcement with a wish list of policies and projects it wants whichever side of politics is elected to power to consider for the Hunter Region after May 21.
Not surprisingly, Powering Business in the Hunter is heavy on matters that go to the heart of concerns held by its 3700 members and affiliates.
Interestingly, the focus is more on infrastructure - including social infrastructure that contributes as much to the region generally as it does to employers in particular - than on the "woe is us" call for tax cut after tax cut that is often the cry of national business lobbies.
The COVID pandemic and the money been spent ameliorating its impacts mean that Australia's national debt is now much higher than it was pre-virus.
As one respondent to Monday's Newcastle Herald election vox pop noted, the figure is about to $1 trillion.
Even after the coal- and iron-ore generated improvement in Australia's balance of payments, reported at last month's federal budget, government debt is still expected to hit almost $1.17 trillion in 2025.
Neither side of politics will canvas tax increases to reduce the debt. Instead, the consensus is on Australia managing its finances most effectively by growing its pie through added employment and the spending that it generates.
The problem with this approach, from a union perspective, is the substantial reliance on casual or "insecure" work, even if the trend does not look as strong in official Australian Bureau of Statistics figures as it manifests anecdotally.powering bu
Using a new ACTU document, Missing In Action: Secure Jobs, the region's peak union body, Hunter Workers, wants policy makers to focus their attention more closely on the workers' side of the employer/employee equation.
Politicians rarely acknowledge international influences during good times, but with the Russian invasion of Ukraine nudging the inflation needle higher, we may yet find ourselves, as a nation, mugged by an international reality we all but escaped during COVID.
It's a hard ask going into an election likely to be fought on the negatives, but Australia does best when we work co-operatively for the best overall outcome.
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