Ahead of the upcoming Australian federal budget, Westpac’s top economist has sounded a sharp warning about growing government overreach and called for sweeping policy reforms to unlock economic potential for Australian women and older workers. In a high-profile address to the National Press Club, chief economist Luci Ellis made a targeted case for rolling back unnecessary bureaucratic complexity, arguing that ballooning regulation and administrative burdens are disproportionately holding back Australian women, while breeding a culture of “learned helplessness” across the community.
Ellis pointed to the rapid, unplanned expansion of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as a defining example of well-intentioned policy gone awry. Launched with the core mission of supporting Australians living with permanent, severe disabilities, the scheme has since expanded to cover a far broader range of services, creating layers of unnecessary administrative work that falls heaviest on family members — most of whom are women. Even well-meaning additional regulation, she emphasized, ultimately adds unnecessary complexity to daily household life.
“Policy circles are seeing a growing expectation that government must step in to solve every problem, and that expectation has driven exponential growth in the size and scope of the public sector,” Ellis explained in her speech. She highlighted the tangible downstream impacts of this shift: a growing share of household income going toward taxes, an ever-expanding regulatory footprint across industries, and a mounting “life admin” burden that falls disproportionately on women.
Ellis drew on a wide range of examples to illustrate the scope of regulatory bloat, from the multiple layers of approval developers must secure from overlapping government agencies to the ever-expanding length of Australia’s Income Tax Assessment Act. In a memorable, lighthearted jab at the growing complexity of public policy, she referenced a lyric from iconic feminist artist Avril Lavigne: “why did you have to go and make things so complicated.”
Beyond regulatory bloat, Ellis warned that constant government intervention every time a challenge arises risks creating a state of “learned helplessness” across the community. She also called out outdated misconceptions about women’s workforce participation and population ageing that continue to hold back Australia’s economy, arguing that current policy is built on flawed assumptions that do not reflect modern demographic and labor market trends.
“If the government wants to harness the full economic opportunity of an ageing population and a workforce that includes more older workers and more women, it should prioritize removing barriers to women entering, re-entering, and remaining in the workforce for as long as they choose and are able,” Ellis said.
She emphasized that getting the NDIS back on a sustainable footing and refocusing it on its core mission of supporting severely disabled people would go a long way toward reducing the unpaid care burden falling on Australian women, who currently carry a disproportionate share of responsibility for both caring for children and ageing parents. As an alternative to the current NDIS model, Ellis suggested that well-funded school-based support, with training for both teachers and parents, could better support many children currently on the scheme, without adding layers of extra administrative work that require parents to attend multiple provider appointments.
Ellis added that reducing administrative burdens for families should be a non-negotiable core principle guiding all federal and state government initiatives, not just disability policy. She also called for targeted overhauls of tax and retirement policy to better support women who take career breaks for caregiving, noting that much of Australia’s existing economic policy framework is built on the outdated assumption that an ageing population will automatically lead to a shrinking workforce.
“Budgets, intergenerational reviews, and all types of public policy should be revised to reflect actual demographic and labor market trends, rather than outdated first-generation assumptions about ageing,” she said. The Labor government is set to unveil its fifth federal budget on May 12, with policymakers facing growing pressure to address cost-of-living pressures and unlock long-term economic growth.