Commonwealth carrots for faster home approvals and other state-level productivity enhancers will be a key ask from the big business lobby heading into the next federal election.

Incentivising states and territories to pursue productive reform is sorely needed in a country “taking incremental – but noticeable – steps backwards”, Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black says.

The federal government’s workplace changes and steadily increasing regulation are making it harder to run a business, Black will say at the group’s annual dinner on Tuesday night.

He will take aim at “populist” divestiture and tax proposals he said are prompting some members to invest overseas rather than in Australia.

If the Coalition wins the next election, it has vowed to to break up the major supermarkets if they engage in anti-competitive behaviour and floated similar measures to tackle market concentration in the aviation industry.

The Greens want higher taxes on corporations as part of the minor party’s “Robin Hood” reforms.

“My argument is that we have let the balance shift too far away from encouraging Australians to grow, hire, innovate and be more competitive on the world stage,” Black will say.

Addressing business heads as well as the prime minister and treasurer, Black will call for multi-employer bargaining to be abolished.

The Albanese government re-introduced multi-employer bargaining laws in 2022, allowing unions to strike deals covering more than one employer to help workers in sectors such as childcare band together for higher wages.

Black said many employers were “far, far more cautious” about hiring since the government’s raft of workplace changes, including multi-employer bargaining, came into force.

Weak productivity also worries Black, underscoring his calls for a “national reform fund” to incentivise reform at state and territory level.

Such a model was used to drive competition policy reforms in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Black envisions the fund would encourage states to expedite planning processes for housing, replace stamp duty with land tax, and fold payroll tax arrangements into one national system.

“Big business always proclaims the dire risk which never eventuates,” he will say.

“Well, my message this evening is that this risk is here.”

Labor’s Social Services minister Amanda Rishworth said  “of course” the government was working with businesses across the board to enhance productivity.

“It’s not surprising organisations are posturing, particularly at this point in the election cycle,” she said.

“What we’ve actually seen is industrial action down and wages up – that’s a good thing for workers, but it’s also a good thing for business as well.”

Nationals MP Bridget McKenzie said the “economy is being smashed” by the government “and now we are having our biggest employers saying they are cautious to hire” because of Labor’s workplace laws.

The next federal election is due by May next year.

– AAP