Federal election 2025: WA’s biggest CEOs reveal their wishlists for next government

Vision, deregulation and productivity growth top the wishlist of WA businesses ahead of next month’s Federal election amid concerns Australia has become a less attractive investment destination. Businesses want meaningful policy reform that encourages investment, boosts productivity, stimulates jobs growth and builds more homes. But above all, they also want the better certainty that comes with long-term political vision. The West Australian asked local companies what they would like to see from an incoming government in Canberra. NAVITAS The global university pathways education group bemoans the lack of bold policymaking. “Australia lacks a long-term vision,” chief executive Scott Jones says. “There’s hardly been anything markedly bold since Hawke and Keating, and Howard and Costello. We put band-aid fixes on the economy as opposed to being bold” Mr Jones wants “an orderly debate” around immigration levels — Navitas has called out what it sees as “populist caps on migration and international students that affect its business — and more deregulation. “The time it’s taking to get things approved is still huge,” Mr Jones says. “Bureaucracy is holding up the ability to act in a timely fashion, and it’s becoming costly not being able to bring things to market in an expedited manner.” Navitas would also like tax and competition reform, and improved education services, together with a reduction in the government public spending that is blamed for pushing out more productive private sector activity. The mix is vital, Mr Scott says, for improving the supply of housing. “I really worry for the next generation, we just don’t have the housing supply to keep (home) prices down and keep people motivated.” BRIGHTWATER CARE GROUP The century-old not-for-profit worries about Australia’s ability to care for its rapidly ageing population without more action now. Chief executive Catherine Stoddart believes long-term government planning is also vital to building the new homes and developing the technology needed for the 3.5 million Australians expected to access aged-care services in the next 25 years. She wants more clarity on aged care funding models, citing the alarming escalation in building costs that has stymied new residential aged care developments and left too many applicants waiting for beds to become available. Dr Stoddart says low-cost government loans are a potential circuit-breaker, along with improved funding for the mainly not-for-profit providers. “My ask would be around getting the funding levels right, so you actually make enough money to be able to invest and maintain property. “The majority of providers are not for profit, we’re not here to make money, we’re here to invest.” Dr Stoddart also sees investment in assisted technology, such as remote monitoring and support, or an aged care-focused investment hub, as vital to helping future carers and patients. “Gen X turns 60 this year; the bottom line is, we haven’t even thought about what they are going to need (when they enter aged care),” she says. CROWN PERTH The casino and resorts complex has a relatively simple election wishlist — any national policies or investment that support tourism or major events are good for business. “More of what’s already been done,” chair John Van Der Wielen pleads, noting also initiatives by the WA Labor Government. “We’re supporting close to 100,000 jobs when you’re looking at the tourism and hospitality industries,” he says. Not surprisingly, the Crown Resorts WA complex is enthusiastic about the redevelopment and expansion of Perth Airport to handle more flights and bring more potential Crown visitors to WA. “Anything that is continuing the momentum we have already got in tourism and events is what we look forward too.” WESFARMERS As the head of a multi-faceted group serving both big business and households, chief executive Rob Scott wants less red tape and more housing construction. The housing question hinges on improving both the availability of skilled labour and reducing the over-regulation that business sees as retarding supply. “If you speak to anyone building a home or any business, what is clear is that the regulations we are dealing with today are far more onerous than a decade ago,” Mr Scott says. “We don’t have to follow exactly what the rest of the world is doing ... but a commitment for government at all levels to reduce the regulatory burden would help the cost of living and really stimulate investment. “That’s at the top of my wishlist.” Mr Scott called out the protracted delay in the approval of Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf extension project as an example of overly “complex and inconsistent” government oversight. “Now that’s not going to impact the economy this year but that project is incredibly important for the availability of gas required for the WA public ... and manufacturing, and the exports from the NW Shelf are incredibly important to the energy transition in Asia.” AUSTAL Chief executive Paddy Gregg notes the significant investment in naval shipbuilding under the Albanese Government, but reckons Australia needs to follow the lead of the US with more direct support of the industry to build manufacturing capacity. The US Navy and its contractors have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard to build a new steel production line and a submarine module plant to diversify and strengthen naval shipbuilding supply lines. The world’s biggest navy is also “investing significant amount of funding to sustainment (servicing) of vessels so that they are deployed or ready to be deployed”, Mr Gregg says. “Investing in vessel sustainment infrastructure in northern Australia would significantly improve operational readiness of our fleet.” He also believes funding to build autonomous ships would be “strategically shrewd” as it would “solve crew availability issues and autonomy keeps Australian citizens out of harm’s way in the event of conflict”. Austal’s immediate priority, however, is getting the government to sign off on last year’s Strategic Shipbuilding Agreement and contracts to build landing craft, so that the WA company can begin work on the first of an orderbook that could be worth $20 billion over 20 years. DUG TECHNOLOGY The super, or high-performance, computer group is chasing a better deal in Australia. DUG makes most of its money by processing vast quantities of seismic data for oil and gas companies, but HPC is also used in myriad research applications, from designing new molecules to modelling climate change. Chief executive Matt Lamont, however, says Australia has an opportunity to “turbo-charge” research by opening up the HPC market to allow government-funded researchers to use private operators, such as DUG. At the moment, Mr Lamont says, those researchers have to apply to use HPC services provided by the nationally-owned Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Kensington and the National Computational Infrastructure at the Australian National University in Canberra. He has called on the Government to “level the playing field so DUG can provide HPC to anybody”. “Australian research would be turbo-charged right there and right then,” he says. Mr Lamont argues that would be only fair, given that the NCI and Pawsey are competing for private sector work while locking DUG and others out of government research work. “So in the public sector we get no say because it’s not a level playing field, and in the private sector we are competing with groups who don’t pay for their hardware. It’s diabolical.”