Frustrated by endless trench warfare in Canberra, the country's peak business, union, welfare and seniors' organisations have signed up to a "national reform summit" next month to seek consensus among themselves on policy roadblocks which they say are putting the nation's living standards at risk.

Unlikely bedfellows at the summit include the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Business Council of Australia, the Council on the Ageing (representing some half a million seniors) and the Australian Industry Group, as well as the welfare sector.

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott lashed major political players in Canberra. Credit:Christopher Pearce

BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott​ minced few words on Sunday, when she lashed the major political players in Canberra for failing to act on the "burning" need for reform in areas such as tax, retirement incomes, budget sustainability, and workplace productivity.

"For too long, our politicians have been engaged in bitter personal conflicts, across different parties and within them," she said. "They have been forgetting that what the people of Australia want and expect is to see our country being well run."