This paper outlines five questions that the Business Council of Australia believe should guide national conversation in the lead up to the 2025 Federal Election. The questions are:

1. How do we ease the cost-of-living crisis for Australians?
2. How do we tackle the housing crisis?
3. How do we achieve net zero by 2050 with affordable and reliable energy?
4. How do we develop a skilled workforce for the future?
5. How do we deliver the health and care services Australians need?

For each question, the paper provides background and analysis along with potential policy solutions and 'red herrings', which the authors consider to be unhelpful or distracting non-solutions to the problems at hand. 

The authors caution against the risk of politicisation and the appeal of quick, politically expedient 'policy placebos'. Instead, they call for non-partisan, long-term, systemic solutions that address the underlying causes (such as inflation, lack of housing supply and a growing skills shortage) of current issues. 

Key recommendations

• Tackle inflation by controlling the budget to spend less, more effectively.
• Increase supply, speed up approvals and reduce the costs of new housing. 
• Take a technology agnostic approach to delivering the most efficient, reliable and affordable pathway to net zero by 2050.
• Offer affordable, accessible and quality early childhood education and care.
• Improve integration between schooling, vocational education and training, universities and workplaces.
• Reform healthcare and support consumer choice by embedding transparency in services, treatments, performance and price.
• Create a National Cabinet taskforce to identify state and federal overlaps and inefficiencies in healthcare provision.