By Peter Roberts Australian economists have long been seen by manufacturers as the enemy as, led by those staffing the Productivity Commission, they have vigorously fought against any form of activist industry policy by government. The view is that policing backing even new industry such as green energy technologies, 3D printing or critical metals processing…
By Roy Green, University of Technology Sydney This week’s appointment of Wayne Swan’s former chief of staff Chris Barrett to head the Productivity Commission puts the annual Trade and Assistance Review it released this month under a more searching spotlight than usual. Remarkably, the Commission used the review to target one of the key policies…
In recent days @AuManufacturing readers have critiqued federal governments efforts to ‘reform the Productivity Commission (see below). Here in our final part of a series, Tim Buckley argues Australia cannot afford more of the same from the PC, which continued to misread profound societal and economic change underway globally. Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ announcement yesterday of…
The federal treasurer Jim Chalmers has given the new chair of the Productivity Commission Chris Barrett an impossible job, argues John Sheridan. If we can no longer measure productivity in a digital age – and we can’t – how can any amount of reform of the PC help boost national productivity? Workplace productivity comparisons mean…
By Peter Roberts That old industrial relic the Productivity Commission has released its latest Trade and Assistance Review, 2021-22 (TAR), and you have to hand it to them, they are really on the ball. Having spent past decades searching out the evil of tariffs and non tariff trade barriers, they have now woken up to…
What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading. 5) Rio Tinto to bring iron ore rail car manufacturing to the Pilbara Mining company Rio Tinto will partner with Gemco Rail to bring local iron ore rail car manufacturing and bearing maintenance to the Pilbara region in…