Treasurer Jim Chalmers has three challenges with his economic reform roundtable, which is all about how to improve Australia’s productivity, budget sustainability and economic resilience.

First, he must manage what has become a tsunami of wish lists.

Second, during the three days (August 19–21) he needs, among the clashing views, to extract some broad agreement on enough meaningful changes to be able to claim afterwards that the gathering was more than a talkfest.

Third, he has to keep the prime minister on side in an exercise the treasurer has very much made his own.

Chalmers is putting an enormous amount of effort into this roundtable. In a fortnight from late July he has met or will meet about 75 CEOs and industry representatives, from the retail, banking, telecommunications, resources, transport, superannuation and technology sectors.

Over a longer period, in the run up to the roundtable there are 41 ministerial mini-roundtables to consider specific reform areas. These cover everything from women’s economic reform, and health, disability and ageing, to home affairs, and housing (with seven roundtables devoted to it alone). The patience of Chalmers’ colleagues must be stretched.

Some 900 submissions have been received for the roundtable, itself relatively small, with participants........

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