Speech Summary Building on Strong Foundations

The speech considers the economic outlook and sets out the type of economy that Australia should look to emulate, noting that this could be described as a ‘highly productive, globally competitive economy that is operating close to, or at, full employment’.

It suggests that the economy has the ‘foundations’ for a successful future in this way – amongst them, its linkages with Asia, population growth and natural resources. The speech posits that these foundations should provide confidence that new investment will deliver reasonable returns. And it underlines that investment in human capital will be key to realising the benefits of these opportunities.

Going into this in more detail, the speech then suggests that in future, the economy will be increasingly dependent upon high-level cognitive skills and the ability to understand and solve complex problems in order to provide the higher value added products and services that will support higher national incomes, wages and therefore living standards. And it emphasises the importance of developing a culture which promotes innovation and encourages people to take risks with new ideas.

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