Report highlights workplace productivity problem
Sabra Lane: If living standards are to improve, we have to boost Australia's productivity. The nation's independent advisor on the issue, the Productivity Commission, has just published an analysis on it showing that Australians are already working in record numbers and for increasingly long hours, which has led to a slump. There is no quick fix. Employer groups say excessive regulation is stifling business investment. Unions are blaming poor management. National work reporter Bronwyn Herbert has the story.
Bronwyn Herbert: Within hours of Labor's crushing election victory, the Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers pinned productivity as a key second term policy priority.
Jim Chalmers: The first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity. The second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.
Bronwyn Herbert: A new report from the Productivity Commission analysing Australia's workforce performance shows the scale of the challenge ahead. Alex Robson is the Commission's Deputy Chair.
Alex Robson: What we saw during COVID was a productivity bubble where output per hour worked, rose substantially and then fell back to the level it was at in 2016. And the lesson for policy makers is that what is needed for sustained productivity growth is policy reforms in a number of areas.
Bronwyn Herbert: A key finding highlights something counterintuitive. Australian workers are on the job for more hours and this is actively contributing to the stalled productivity growth.
Alex Robson: People having jobs is obviously a great thing but if you want the sustained increases in living standards, you can get more money if you work longer but that's not a recipe for prosperity over the longer term. What you need is to be able to work smarter.
Innes Willox: It doesn't necessarily mean we have to work harder, it just means we have to use all the tools and skills that should be available to us.
Bronwyn Herbert: Innes Willox is the Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group.
Innes Willox: In the year just gone, multi-factor productivity will grow by 0.07 which is just a risable number, it's really a rounding error. The normal rate of growth is 10 times that. And what the Productivity Commission report has really shot a light on is that Australia is becoming increasingly non-investable because of the economic conditions and circumstances that are confronting business on a daily basis.
Bronwyn Herbert: The head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, says quick fix productivity gains are already taking place, including casualising the workforce.
Sally McManus: I am wary about how this gets used by some in business lobby groups basically to hit workers over the head and try and blame us and try and say, well see, workers of Australia, you're not productive enough. Where actually it's on them, it's on their management practices, it's certainly on their refusal to invest in technology.
Bronwyn Herbert: Nick Davis from the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney says the report highlights the need for broad investment.
Nick Davis: It's not just about throwing more money and more AI or cloud services into the mix, it's about making sure workers can really use those, making sure they're well governed and the way we work is redesigned.
Bronwyn Herbert: The Productivity Commission is undertaking multiple inquiries across sectors, including the care economy, technology, workforce and skills, to look for policy solutions. The findings are due later this year.
Sabra Lane: Bronwyn Herbert.
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