Business leaders have failed the national interest by not adequately contributing to the economic policy debate, Industry Minister Greg Combet says.
Mr Combet on Wednesday set out the Labor government's principles on policies to position industry for the future and explained its productivity agenda.
The economy was undergoing a structural transformation, with pressure on many industries, including manufacturing, due to a buoyant Australian dollar.
'Ultimately businesses under pressure during times of structural change have to become more competitive to survive,' Mr Combet said in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra.
'Support should foster investments in capital, skills and innovation to improve competitiveness.'
However, Mr Combet said some industries and large businesses had chosen to focus on their own commercial interests in their efforts to influence public policy.
'Personally I think business needs to lift its game in contributing to national economic policy debate, what is in the national interest,' he said.
'I think we've seen better times in the past where the business leadership has made a wider and better contribution to public policy debate that is in the national interest.'
The government's productivity agenda is focused on investing in economic infrastructure, skills, training and education; supporting innovation for industry and firms; reforming the corporate tax system and business regulation across various levels of government.
'The solution is not to attack workers' rights, as the Howard government did, but to encourage investment and productivity improvement,' Mr Combet said.
The Australian Industry Group, in its submission to a Fair Work Act review, suggested a raft of changes, including a return to individual workplace contracts.
Mr Combet said Labor would adhere to its position of a decent safety net for workers, protection from unfair treatment and the fundamental rights to bargain and have union representation.
'I don't think we should be returning to that sort of (Work Choices) debate and I don't think the business community should be taking us there,' he said.
'We don't want to Americanise our labour market and Labor will not go down that path.
'I think we need a bit more mature discussion about this than shaking the tree and seeing if individual contracts might fall out.'
Concerns raised in other submissions by business to the Fair Work Act review panel were legitimate but there were wider policy issues business should think about, Mr Combet said.
The minister, who also holds responsibility for the implementation of the carbon price and emissions trading scheme, said the scheme was the foundation of long-term competitiveness.
'The fact is that pockets of our modern economy have been starved of capital investment, leaving us with ageing technologies and inefficient energy supply and consumption,' Mr Combet said.
'The clean energy future package will contribute towards modernising these parts of our industrial base.'
Automotive manufacturers and aluminium producers were under pressure in the structural transformation of the economy, due to the high Australian dollar, not the carbon tax, Mr Combet said.
