Roy Green, University of Technology Sydney and Renu Agarwal, University of Technology Sydney
Since the 1990s productivity has been slowing in Australia and elsewhere. We aren’t really sure why this is, but here are a couple of theories that could explain it.
They’re still often more expensive overseas than in Australia.
HelMet-kirjasto/Flickr
The copyright wars are set to continue, with the government releasing a Productivity Commission report arguing for a relaxation of intellectual property laws.
Consumers need more protection when it comes to making complaints about products.
David Crosling/AAP
Headlines pointed to the privatisation of hospital, end-of-life and dental services, but the Productivity Commission’s report is actually a lot less radical.
Indigenous Australians have always done plenty to try to improve their lives.
AAP/Marianna Massey
Waves of policies from successive Coalition and Labor governments have followed a paternalistic lead. This has created further impediments to thousands of Indigenous peoples who are doing plenty.
Official data continues to record substantial failures in improving the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Why, despite substantial spending, do serious difficulties continue to plague efforts to improve Indigenous wellbeing?
With 700,000 vulnerable Australians depending on public housing, any proposal to change its status is likely to set off alarm bells.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The report’s stated goal is to make the social housing system work better. It does not present as a manifesto for an entirely marketised and deregulated framework driven by the profit motive.
Has education spending gone up while student achievement has stalled?
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research and Peter Goss, Grattan Institute
The Productivity Commission has said that education spending has substantially increased over the last decade but student achievement has shown little or no improvement. Is that true?
Greater efficiency does not necessarily flow from greater competition.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
The Productivity Commission report finds that the agricultural industry is overburdened by red tape but there’s still no clear solution for the best type of regulation.
Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been pushing for tighter restrictions on foreign investment in agricultural land.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
The Productivity Commission says existing oversight is adequate to deal with misuse of market power.
Protesters were back on the streets demanding penalty rates be left alone when the Coalition government asked the Productivity Commission to look at workplace relations last year.
AAP/Angus Livingston
Cutting penalty rates can be a vote-changer and the looming Fair Work Commission decision is tricky for both sides of politics. So what cards do the parties hold and how might they play them?
Achieving genuine co-operation in Australian workplaces is difficult.
AAP/Angela Brkic
The Fair Work Act delivers a much more peculiar system of collective bargaining than many realise. It has outcomes that contradict the hopes and fears of both sides of the IR debate.
Recommendations on intellectual property are likely to be filed away.
Flickr/Ross
Improving data quality and accessibility will provide an important platform for business, policy innovation and academic research.
Australia has isolated sustainable development projects, like Adelaide’s Bowden precinct that got Princes Charles’ attention in 2015, but lacks an overarching commitment to sustainability.
AAP
The challenges we face demand profound changes in our thinking and priorities. Replacing the Productivity Commission with a National Sustainability Commission would help us make this paradigm shift.
The Productivity Commission last year recommended that Sunday penalty rates should be brought in line with those applying to Saturday.
Evan Schwarten/AAP
The federal opposition says that reducing penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors would widen the gender pay gap across the economy and hit consumption.
Australia’s anti-dumping regime pushes up prices on everyday products, even though we don’t realise this.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
Incoming Director of the Australian Institute of Business and Economics at UQ, and Professor of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne