NAB CEO warns Australia’s productivity gap is harming key sectors

InvestorDaily

Speaking on NAB’s Morning Call podcast, Andrew Irvine said the biggest issue Australia has is lack of productivity. “That’s the first, second and third issue that we face. And that’s manifested across the board,” Irvine said. He warned that Australia’s productivity problems are also making the country less attractive to global mining and energy companies, with concerns over sovereign risk and unclear regulations.

“You can also translate that to the mining and energy sectors. We’re seeing Australia becoming a little bit less attractive on a global basis because companies feel they have a bit of sovereign risk with Australia. They don’t know what the rules of the game are,” Irvine said. “That’s not good. Australia is so blessed with the resources that the world needs to grow and to frankly decarbonise, and we should rightfully be the top of the pile when global organisations and miners are looking to make investments, and right now we’ve fallen down the pecking order.”

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