CANBERRA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told business leaders that building a stronger economy was inextricably linked to improving national security.
"There has been a lot of talk lately of national security and national security is vital but in the end without a strong economy it's very difficult to provide for national security and the whole point of these gatherings is to build a stronger economy," Abbott said on Monday in his address to the Business Advisory Council.
"If we don't have the strong economy nothing else really works and the only way to have a strong economy is to have strong and profitable private businesses."
Abbott said his conservative coalition government had achieved a good deal over the last 12 months, repealing the carbon and mining taxes and making good progress on the budget and infrastructure but had "a lot more to do."
"We have a competitiveness agenda which we are working on and that's I guess the big issue for discussion today; how do we change the rules to make it easier for private businesses such as the ones that you lead and represent to be more effective in our economy -- more competitive in the world.
"That is our task; to make it easier for businesses to compete, to employ, to grow, to prosper."
Meanwhile, his predecessor, the former Labor Party prime minister, Julia Gillard, said setting a target for economic growth should only be a small part of Australia's G20 summit agenda.
She was responding to Abbott's earlier call to G20 leaders, who will meet in Brisbane next month, to lay out plans to meet a target of 2 percent economic growth beyond that already forecast over five years.
G20 finance ministers who recently met in Cairns in northern Queensland were told proposals put forward to date could boost the global economy by 1.8 percent. But Gillard said setting a target missed the point.
"If I was still there as prime minister this opportunity would be one to really deal with the strengthening of the global economy, not just the setting of aspirations but knuckling down to structural reforms within economies that are needed to boost global growth."
She said the G20 had managed the emergency response to the global financial crisis well but risked being perceived as not having the "grunt to push the world through the necessary rebuilding."
"It's very important that this isn't just about target setting but it's about the nitty gritty to bolster global growth."
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