Every five years,the Productivity Commission is required to produce a report into areas of potential change to lift the economy’s speed limit. Its last report in 2017 made a series of recommendations,covering the federal and state governments,which the commission estimated could increase the size of the economy by $80 billion a year.
The proposals,most of which have never been acted upon,included road user charges,competition in the pharmacy sector,axing so-called “low-value health interventions” and a price on carbon emissions.
Chalmers,in an address to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia,will reveal the latest commission report – to be released on Friday – shows productivity growth over the past decade has slumped to its lowest level in 60 years.
Productivity growth is now 22 per cent below that of the United States,with Australia slipping 10 positions to 16th in terms of growth rates.
Without a change,the commission projects future incomes will be 40 per cent lower over coming decades and the working week five per cent longer.
“Australia has a productivity problem,” Chalmers will say.