Manufacturing still receives 80% of net government assistance, largely due to the remaining small levels of tariff assistance, plus some budget measures.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Under current government policy we are penalising the sector of the economy where there is the largest proportion of existing employment and the best prospects for future growth.
Australian governments of all persuasions have shared three common beliefs about the economic value of home ownership in later life.
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The promotion of home ownership as a way of funding care in later life is part of a broader policy trend toward making people individually responsible for the opportunities they have.
Many people who are dissatisfied with the scheme have reported they couldn’t find care providers to deliver their funded and approved plans.
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The Productivity Commission has described the roll-out to the full scheme as “highly ambitious” and expresses concern it risks not being implemented as intended.
Australians should be able to do more than just access and transfer their own consumer data.
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The Productivity Commission’s report on data availability and use is disappointing for consumers, who won't be able to stop firms collecting their data or challenge automated decisions made using it.
The lead claimant in an equine influenza class action managed to avoid incurring a substantial costs order being made against them.
AAP/Sergio Dioniso
The failure to regulate litigation funders is becoming more problematic. This is because more funders, particularly from overseas, are entering the Australian market.
The latest snapshot of Australian health funding reveals who’s footing the bill, among other worrying health statistics.
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The latest Productivity Commission health report reveals some serious problems with out-of-pocket health expenses as well as disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health.
Why isn’t new technology reflected in our productivity stats?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
Incoming Director of the Australian Institute of Business and Economics at UQ, and Professor of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University
