Now we can really call ourselves ‘Down Under’

Now we can really call ourselves ‘Down Under’

I was interested to read the recommendations from Infrastructure Australia of selling $220 billion of “lazy assets owned by the federal and state governments to plug the nation’s infrastructure gap, reduce debt and lift productivity”.  82 profit-making government assets could be sold relatively quickly, according to the report.

Meanwhile, I hope our nations political leaders are paying attention to another report; one which puts Australia’s positioning into a global context.  According to the World Economic Forum, Australia has slipped in terms of the global competitiveness index, from 16th place (out of 142 countries) in 2010/2011 to 20th place in 2011/2012.  In terms of quality of infrastructure we rank a disappointing 37th place, with the quality of our ports coming in at 40th place, a travesty for an island continent dependent on commodity exports.

While Australia ranks highly in health and education, in the category of “burden of government regulation”, Australia unsurprisingly is placed below half-way in 75th place.

Regarding key performance indicators (KPI’s) for our political leaders, I believe their focus should be on laying out and executing a plan for taking Australia from 20th place in the global competitiveness index to a top ten place over the balance of this decade.

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Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery Investment Management, David Buckland has over 30 years of industry experience. David is a deeply knowledgeable and highly experienced financial services executive. Prior to joining Montgomery in 2012, David was CEO and Executive Director of Hunter Hall for 11 years, as well as a Director at JP Morgan in Sydney and London for eight years.

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