Anthony Albanese dampens expectations for what might come from Jim Chalmers’ reform roundtable talks

Anthony Albanese has played down the significance of his Treasurer’s reform roundtable later this month, saying it’s merely a meeting in the Cabinet room and no replacement for government decision-making.

The Prime Minister said he expected a flood of ideas ahead of the three-day roundtable later this month but that the Government wouldn’t be responding to all of them.

Hundreds of submissions have already been made to the Productivity Commission’s five inquiries into different aspects of boosting economic growth.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said he’s taking an “open door (and) an open mind” approach to the discussion and has urged people to stop asking politicians to rule things in or out and instead foster debate about the merits of suggestions.

He wants the roundtable to examine tax reforms, boosting productivity and ways to make the economy more resilient.

A core group of 22 people have been invited to join him for three days in the cabinet room, with specialists expected to be invited to individual sessions.

But Mr Albanese dampened expectations for what might come out of the talks.

“To be very clear, it’s not a meeting of the cabinet … it’s a meeting in the cabinet room,” he told reporters on Monday.

“This is a roundtable. Just that. It is not more than that.

“It’s not a replacement of the cabinet, we’re not contracting out our decision-making processes.”

The Prime Minister said he anticipated many views would be put forward, inside and outside the room, “much of which is contradictory with each other”.

But he didn’t intend to respond to every single one of them.

“In a democracy, we shouldn’t be frightened of people being able to put forward ideas,” he said.

The Productivity Commission has started releasing reports into the “five pillars”, which Dr Chalmers has described as a key input for his future plans.

Already it has recommended an overhaul of the company tax system that would cut taxes for most businesses but increase them for the 500 largest operators, and a range of measures to speed up the rollout of renewable energy projects and cutting emissions.