It’s good of everyone to be here and obviously there has been a lot of talk lately of national security and national security is vital but in the end without a strong economy it’s very difficult to provide for national security and the whole point of these gatherings is to build a stronger economy. If we don’t have the strong economy nothing else really works and the only way to have a strong economy is to have strong and profitable private businesses. That is why big gatherings like this are really, really critical.
Obviously, a lot has been achieved over the last 12 months. We have got rid of the carbon tax, we have got rid of the mining tax. We are making good progress on the Budget. We are making strong progress on infrastructure but there is always a lot more to do.
We have a competitiveness agenda which we are working on and that’s I guess the big issue for discussion today; how do we change the rules to make it easier for private businesses such as the ones that you lead and represent to be more effective in our economy – more competitive in the world.
So, that is our task; to make it easier for businesses to compete, to employ, to grow, to prosper and I am just very grateful that I have got such a team assisting me and the Government on this very important task.
So, I look forward to our discussions.
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