Client: Smartgroup Corporation
Title: Strategic fiscal impact assessment of proposed policy changes
Client’s challenge:
Smartgroup is an ASX-listed business and a leading provider of salary packaging services to employers across Australia. Ahead of the 2025 Federal Election, in an environment where economic growth has been propped up by Government spending while productivity has regressed to 2016 levels, Smartgroup was formulating policy ideas that could help support economic growth in the private sector. Smartgroup needed to present its policy proposals to senior government and opposition party stakeholders and to do so, it required a strategic assessment of the policies’ fiscal impacts.
Our solution:
Positive Economics Advisory conducted a rapid assessment of the economic context, policy context, the various potential policy changes, and estimated the fiscal impacts of the proposed policy changes. In addition to estimating the annual fiscal impact, we also analysed the financial impact for the average employee, for the average business and broke the fiscal impacts down by state. We provided a brief report outlining the economic context, our analysis and the approach to the analysis. A 2-page policy brief was also prepared outlining the key findings in a succinct manner.