The Productivity Commission is urging parliamentarians to pause and potentially ditch moves to mandate guardrails for "high-risk AI", flying in the face of the recommendations of a government department and a union push for pre-agreed employment safeguards.
The Productivity Commission will be seeking feedback on soon-to-be-released draft recommendations for next month's economic reform roundtable, as it calls for the adoption of a "growth mindset" to renew Australia's "sputtering" productivity growth.
Assistant productivity minister Andrew Leigh says Australians have used about a quarter of the post-1980 productivity dividend to "work less", as he revisited a 1930 John Maynard Keynes prediction that people in 2030 "would inherit a world shaped by rising productivity and the promise of abundance".
The "labour productivity bubble" that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic can provide lessons for the future, and hybrid working can be more beneficial to productivity than wholly working from home or the workplace, according to a new Productivity Commission report.
The Productivity Commission's leadership and human resources teams will undergo training in trauma-informed, victim-centred responses, as part of a suite of "significant" changes for the advisory body, after staff told an independent review that HR is a "black box" offering limited insight into actions to address complaints of inappropriate workplace behaviours.
The PC has confirmed its provisional view against augmenting unpaid carer's leave and says the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs changes will "make it easier for carers to negotiate flexible work, perhaps obviating the need for extended unpaid carer leave".
Productivity has far exceeded wage growth in mining and agriculture, but they have largely expanded together across the rest of the economy, and "productivity remains the key to continued wage growth and long-term prosperity", according to a new Productivity Commission report.
Grattan Institute chief executive Danielle Wood is set to become the first female chair of the Productivity Commission, after Chris Barrett turned down the role.
The chief of staff to Rudd-Gillard Government treasurer Wayne Swan is set to be the next chair of the Productivity Commission, as the institution prepares to "renew" its mission, after criticism of its approach to issues including IR.
An IR academic has cautioned against Productivity Commission suggestions that a review of new multi-employer bargaining measures should consider giving the ACCC a role and says he is "surprised" at questions about the public benefit of lifting workers' pay.
