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Abbott heads to Davos to spruik G20 agenda

Pat McGrath reported this story on Monday, January 20, 2014 12:05:00

SCOTT BEVAN: Tony Abbott is on his way to a meeting of world leaders in Switzerland to outline Australia's priorities for its G20 presidency this year.

The Prime Minister says boosting global trade and strengthening international tax systems will be a focus of the G20 leaders' forum when it's held in Brisbane in November.

But the PM's being urged to ensure that the talks produce solid agreements and solutions to problems facing the global economy.

Here's our business reporter Pat McGrath.

PAT MCGRATH: Before leaving for this week's world economic forum meeting in Davos, the Prime Minister was keen to spell out Australia's priorities for its G20 presidency.

TONY ABBOTT: We want to see specific actions that promote freer trade, that try to ensure we have less leaky national taxation systems that explore innovative ways of financing investment in infrastructure, that try to ensure that our banking systems right around the world are proof against any future economic shocks.

PAT MCGRATH: The meeting will be Tony Abbott's first opportunity to spruik the agenda for this year's G20 summit in Brisbane.

It will also be one of the first chances for Australian officials to start discussing agreements for the November summit with their foreign counterparts.

Mike Callaghan is the director of the Lowy Institute's G20 Studies Centre, and has attended G20 summits when he was an official with the Treasury.

He wants more detail on Mr Abbott's priorities.

MIKE CALLAGHAN: The specific areas, the specific aspects within those broad objectives, that the Prime Minister is seeking to achieve in 2014 where Australia is going to make its mark.

PAT MCGRATH: Mike Callaghan says time is running out to get an agenda for the G20 talks finalised.

MIKE CALLAGHAN: If these things don't happen overnight you can't wait until the evening of the summit and turn up and say right let's sort of sort some things out. A lot of preparation has to be done beforehand and a lot of consultation, a lot of outreach is done, there's outreach with business, with civil society, with other countries. But really you have to start now.

PAT MCGRATH: And he expects Tony Abbott to attempt to make up for some lost time.

MIKE CALLAGHAN: Because we just came into office at the end of 2013, he really starts late in terms of having those personal relationships with other leaders, having been through some of these issues on the G20.

He has to get out there and he has to make his mark, he has to establish his relationships, he has to be setting out what he is going to seek to achieve and he has to really engage leaders. Let it be known that this Brisbane summit is really going to seek to achieve some things. Leaders, when they come to the summit, they should be recognising that Australia's aim is to achieve some significant outcomes and all this takes preparation and it takes a lot of hard work.

PAT MCGRATH: Last year's summit in St Petersburg coincided with an escalation in the Syrian conflict.

Susan Harris-Rimmer from the Australian National University believes those events created a distraction from a course set at the G20 summit in London in 2009, where a number of reforms aimed to reduce the risk in the global financial system began to be negotiated.

SUSAN HARRIS-RIMMER: I think they need to finish what they started really back in London. They need to finish the response to the global financial crisis. They need to fix the too big to fail banks. They need to fix shadow banking. They need to strengthen banking regulation. They need to make sure that the global financial crisis that we experienced in 2008 doesn't happen again.

PAT MCGRATH: There's also a push for world leaders to find a way to stop businesses from avoiding tax by shifting profits between jurisdictions.

Mike Callaghan believes Tony Abbott is right to make tax reform a focus of the November summit. But he says change across a range of areas will only come if Australia can propose concrete agreements and practical solutions.

MIKE CALLAGHAN: It can be that, for example, in the case of trade it might be that right now what we need is for leaders to sort of set what is the strategic direction for the multilateral trading system in a post-Doha world? That might be the number one drive. And pointing to some specific areas where progress should be made, like a services agreement; as I say, going back, making sure that you do get better compatibility between these regional trade arrangements and the WTO.

What you need to focus on is really giving that strategic direction as to where things should be going. And then let the doers, be it the WTOs, the IMFs, the multinational development banks, to get on and do it.

SCOTT BEVAN: The Lowy Institute's Make Callaghan ending Pat McGrath's report.

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