Last week on the CEDA Blog I reflected on how renewing economic growth after the COVID-19 crisis will require ambitious and creative policymaking.

I believe the next generation of reform will need to be different, with frameworks that allow policy and institutions to adjust and adapt to uncertainty and to capitalise on emerging technologies and ways of working. These are issues that CEDA is currently exploring through both our research and forums.

I am very pleased to announce that the Prime Minister, the Hon. Scott Morrison, will be joining our discussions on policy and recovery as the keynote speaker for our State of the Nation forum on 15 June. This forum is being delivered digitally and will take place over two days with leaders from federal and state politics, government, business and the community providing an update on the economy, critical priorities and the path to recovery. A second face-to-face conference focused on long-term recovery is still in planning for later in the year, subject of course to how our approach to social distancing evolves from here. 

In addition to the Prime Minister, other speakers confirmed for the June State of the Nation forum include: CEDA Board Member, Dr Gordon de Brouwer PSM (who led the establishment of Federal Treasury’s COVID-19 business liaison office), AlphaBeta Director, Dr Andrew Charlton; Austrade CEO, Stephanie Fahey; ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus; and Indigenous Business Australia CEO, Rajiv Viswanathan.

You can register for our 15-16 June State of the Nation here.

More immediately, we continue to have a full program of livestreams, blogs and podcasts for members to engage with on a broad range of topics all highly relevant to the current environment.

Watch: This week’s livestream, COVID-19: plotting our economic recovery, is on tomorrow, Tuesday 5 May. With evidence to suggest Australia has flattened the curve of the COVID-19 spread, CEDA will be examining medium term policy needs to plot Australia’s economic recovery.

 Joining me for this important conversation will be:

• Commonwealth Grants Commission, former Chairman, Greg Smith
• The University of Melbourne, Fellow, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Miranda Stewart

As a little pre-event reading, I highly recommend that you catch-up on Greg’s CEDA information paper explaining why we need a May 2020 economic statement. You can access it here. The information paper was released two weeks ago and the Federal Government has subsequently committed to a June economic statement.

You can register for tomorrow’s event here.

We are also seeing strong interest in our event next week on Tuesday 12 May, with former Prime Minister the Hon. Julia Gillard on mental health in the time of COVID-19. You can register here.

Tickets for these online events are free to CEDA members, and available at low cost to non-members. You can also catch up with CEDA’s livestreams on demand on the video archive page of the website. 

Read: the CEDA blog continues unabated. Today CEDA Chief Economist, Jarrod Ball and Senior Economist Gabriela D'Souza examine immigration, highlighting CEDA research last year that found recently arrived migrants had not had a negative impact on the wages or participation rates of Australian-born workers. You can read the piece here and CEDA’s temporary immigration report here.

You can also catch-up on last week’s blogs including Boards will shape how their organisations emerge from COVID-19, by Nous Group Principal, Stephen Teulan. This piece examines how the actions boards take now will affect the state of their organisations moving out of the COVID-19 crisis. Stephen offers practical insights on how boards can best ensure companies remain stable through the crisis. You can read more here.

In part one of CEDA's three-part blog series, ​Trade and supply chains: pressure points in perspective, CEDA Chief Economist, Jarrod Ball, gives a comprehensive overview of the way the crisis has disrupted Australian trade, to inform the ongoing debate about Australia's dependence on global supply chains. You can read more here.

CEDA is examining four topics in addition to our planned 2020 research agenda as part of our Recovery: coming back better research program and trade and supply chains will feature first during May. Look out for our work examining the Federation in June.

The Smith Family Head of Research and Advocacy, Anne Hampshire, discusses the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the 1.2 million young Australians living in poverty in Youth poverty in COVID-19 Australia and argues that the pandemic presents a chance to address the root causes of youth disadvantage. You can read more here.

In The dangers of early access to superannuation, CEDA Senior Economist, Gabriela D'Souza, reflects on the risks of allowing people to access superannuation in crisis situations and discusses the likely consequences of the government's recent COVID-19 superannuation withdrawal policy. Find out more here.

Finally, I’d like to thank our renewing state members:

• AngloGold Ashanti Australia, WA
• CleanCo Queensland, ld
• Corporate Conversation, SA
• Delegation of the European Union, ACT
• Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Qld
• Flinders Ports, SA
• Hastings Deering, Qld
• Health Partners, SA
• Metro South Health, Qld
• Public Safety Business Agency, Qld
• Seeley International, SA

 
Thank you also to all our members and the wider CEDA community for continuing to work with us as we examine what recovery can and should look like.

Until next week,

Melinda Cilento