Podcasts
In this episode, Louise McGrath and Dr Jeffrey Wilson unpack Australian Industry Group's Australian Industry Outlook for 2026, revealing a landscape where businesses are juggling rising costs, mixed demand expectations, and rapidly evolving technologies. While the extreme uncertainty of recent years has eased, companies remain cautious as they face tighter margins, persistent skills shortages, and escalating compliance obligations.
The discussion explores how current pressures are reshaping business decision‑making - from “survival spending” on automation, AI and cyber security, to the difficult trade‑offs between short‑term cost control and long‑term productivity investment. It also examines the growing frustration with tax and regulatory complexity, and the need for more consistent rules across jurisdictions to support a more efficient national economy.
The conversation then turns to several expected and unexpected features of Australian Industry Group's 2026-27 pre-budget submission, including tackling the illicit tobacco trade, scrapping nuisance tariffs, designing a fair and enduring road-user charging system, and modernising the National Construction Code to boost housing supply and improve compliance clarity.
Key Takeaways
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In her role as Australian Industry Group’s Head of Industry Development and Policy Louise provides strategic leadership and guidance for Australian Industry Group’s policy agenda in building competitive industries through global integration, infrastructure development and innovation. She ensures that through policy leadership members have a voice at all levels of government, by representing and promoting their interests on current and emerging issues.
Louise represents Australian Industry in several multilateral forums, such as the B20 Taskforces, Global Business Coalition, and the East Asia Business Council working group on RCEP. She advocates for the interests of Australian Industry Group members during Free Trade Negotiations and translates those agreements to support the strategic aims of members. She is a member of CSIRO’s Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence Think Tank and the Manufacturing Advisory Group, the NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub and the Advisory Group of The Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS).
Louise has studied a Bachelor of Arts (Arabic Language and Culture) at Deakin University and an Advanced Diploma in International Trade at RMIT. She has also studied Arabic at universities in Jordan and Egypt.
Jeffrey Wilson is Head of Research and Economics at the Australian Industry Group.
He leads our economics team and provides strategic direction in developing the research program to support our advocacy, service delivery and policy activities.
Dr Wilson specialises in international economic policy, with a focus on how trade and investment shape the Australian business environment.
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