The Albanese Government has formally tasked the Productivity Commission today with five new inquiries focused on identifying ways to materially boost Australia’s productivity.
Making our economy more productive is all about lifting incomes and living standards and creating more opportunities for more people in more parts of our country.
The inquiries announced today will consider the changing nature of Australia’s economy and identify priority reforms that could drive measurable improvements in productivity growth.
Each inquiry will focus on one of the five pillars of the Government’s productivity agenda:
- Creating a more dynamic and resilient economy
- Building a skilled and adaptable workforce
- Harnessing data and digital technology
- Delivering quality care more efficiently
- Investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.
Weak productivity has been a feature of our economy for some time, with average annual labour productivity growth in Australia over the decade to 2020 falling to the lowest level in 60 years.
Australia’s productivity challenge has been an issue for two decades, not just two years, and will take time to turn around.
The inquiries being announced today will identify the next horizon of reforms required to continue modernising and strengthening Australia’s economy.
They build on the Government’s ambitious and substantial productivity agenda across the five pillars, including our competition reforms, our work to incentivise investments in cheaper and cleaner energy, and our investments in skills and training and high quality and more efficient care.
This agenda includes our $900 million National Productivity Fund to drive competition reforms through states and territories, the biggest reform to our merger system in almost 50 years, abolishing nearly 500 nuisance tariffs, boosting competition across our financial system, reforming skills and education, establishing a comprehensive review of R&D, reforming the delivery of aged care, modernising our energy grid and more.
In line with the Productivity Commission’s Statement of Expectations, the new inquiries will have a focus on practical reforms and their implementation, as well as detailed policy insights, and will build on recent Government work to prepare our economy for the future, including the Intergenerational Report and Employment White Paper.
The inquiries will run for 12 months, with preliminary recommendations for productivity‑enhancing reforms due in mid‑2025.
The terms of reference for the inquiries have been published today on the Productivity Commission’s website.
The Productivity Commission will engage broadly, and has already invited public engagement: Engage – Productivity Commission