Danielle Wood | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of the Productivity Commission | |
| Assumed office 13 November 2023 | |
| Nominated by | Jim Chalmers |
| Preceded by | Michael Brennan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1979or1980(age 43–44) |
| Alma mater | |
Danielle Wood (born 1979 or 1980) is an Australian economist who is currently chair of the Productivity Commission. She commenced as chair in November 2023, and is the first woman to hold the role. Before her time as commission chair, she was CEO of the Grattan Institute from 2020 to 2023.
Wood grew up in the Adelaide Hills, the daughter of Rae and Simon Wood. [1] She attended Walford Anglican School for Girls in Hyde Park, Adelaide. Walford, however, did not offer economics as a year 12 subject, so she took economics classes at Eynesbury Senior College. [2] She then studied at the University of Adelaide, graduating with a Bachelor of Economics with honours in 2001, before attaining master's degrees in both economics and competition law from the University of Melbourne. [3]
After graduating, she began her career as a research economist with the Productivity Commission. [4] [3] She then worked at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and NERA Economic Consulting. [3]
In 2014, she joined the Grattan Institute, a public policy think tank based in Melbourne. When the institute's inaugural CEO John Daley retired in July 2020, she succeeded him in the position. [1] Her role helming Grattan made her a prominent and regular economic commentator in the Australian media, with the Australian Financial Review describing her as "one of the most visible and highly regarded economists in the country". [1] She received particular attention for her keynote address to the federal government's Jobs and Skills Summit in September 2022, which focused on efficiency and women's participation in the workforce. [2]
From 2019 to 2022, she was president of the Economic Society of Australia (ESA). She was the first woman to hold the role, [5] which was established in 1925. [6] She also co-founded the Women in Economics Network, which is linked to the ESA. [3]
In September 2023, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced that Wood would return to the Productivity Commission, this time as chair. She was appointed after Chris Barrett, whom Chalmers had appointed to the role in July 2023, unexpectedly turned down the position. [7] Barrett’s appointment to the role in July drew some criticism, as he had previously been chief of staff for former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan at a time when Chalmers was working in that office. When she commenced in the role that November, [8] she became the first woman to lead the Productivity Commission or any of its precursors since their founding over a century before. [7]
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also appointed Wood as a member of the expert panel that will advise a Competition Taskforce established in Treasury. [9]
The treasurerof Australia, also known as the Federaltreasurer or simply the treasurer, is the minister of state of the Commonwealth of Australia charged with overseeing government revenue collection, federal expenditure and economic policy as the head of the Department of the Treasury. The current treasurer is Jim Chalmers, who was appointed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in May 2022 following the 2022 Australian federal election.
Janet Louise Yellen is an American economist serving as the 78th United States secretary of the treasury since January 26, 2021. She previously served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. She is the first person to hold those positions having also led the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the first woman to hold either post.
The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government's principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy, regulation and a range of other social and environmental issues.
The Department of the Treasury, also known as The Treasury, is the national treasury and financial department of the federal government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The treasury is responsible for executing economic and fiscal policy, market regulation and the delivery of the federal budget with the department overseeing 16 agencies. The Treasury is one of only two departments that have existed continuously since Federation in 1901, the other being the Department of the Attorney-General.
Walford Anglican School for Girls is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls, located in Hyde Park, South Australia.
Andrew Keith Leigh is an Australian politician, author, lawyer and former professor of economics at the Australian National University. He currently serves as the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury as well as the Assistant Minister for Employment. He briefly served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013 and then served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer from 2013 to 2019. He has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2010 representing the seat of Fraser until 2016 and Fenner thereafter. Leigh is not a member of any factions of the Labor Party.
Kenneth Ross Henry is an Australian economist and public servant who served as the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury from 2001 to 2011.
Nicholas Gruen is a prominent Australian economist and commentator on economic reform, innovation and the CEO of Lateral Economics. He is a visiting professor at King's College London's Policy Institute. He was formerly chair of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation, the Australian Government's Innovation Australia and Kaggle. Former Australian Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner called him "Australia's foremost public intellectual" while Martin Wolf described him as "the most brilliant economist you've never heard of".
Grattan Institute is an Australian public policy think tank, established in 2008. The Melbourne-based institute is non-aligned, defining itself as contributing "to public policy in Australia as a liberal democracy in a globalised economy." It is partly funded by a $34 million endowment, with major contributions from the Federal Government, the Government of Victoria, the University of Melbourne and BHP.
Rodney Graham "Rod" Sims is an Australian economist and former public servant. Sims served as chair of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australia's competition regulator, from 1 August 2011 to 20 March 2022.
Frances Jennifer Adamson, is an Australian public servant and diplomat who is the 36th Governor of South Australia, in office since 7 October 2021. She previously served as Australian Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2015 and as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2016 to 2021.
James Edward Chalmers is an Australian politician. He has been Treasurer of Australia in the Albanese government since May 2022. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served as a member of parliament for the division of Rankin since 2013.
Maureen Brunt was an Australian economist and academic who specialised in the field of competition law. She was Emeritus professor of Economics at Monash University.
Kerry Elizabeth Schott is an Australian executive who has had roles in the business and government sectors. She was managing director and CEO of Sydney Water from 2006–2011. She is currently Chair of the New South Wales Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board, Chair of the Advisory Board to EnergyCo NSW, and an Adviser to Aware Super. She is a patron of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.
Daniel Mulino is an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing the Eastern Victoria Region from 2014 to 2018. In the 2019 federal election he was elected as the inaugural Member for the Division of Fraser.
Judith Sloan is an Australian economist.
Michael G. Porter is an Australian academic economist who taught at the Australian National University (Canberra) and Monash University (Melbourne). In 1979, he set up a think-tank at Monash University, the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) supporting freer markets in commodities, finance and foreign exchange along with researching and advocating significant market-improving regulatory reforms. As part of this process CoPS employed leading US and other international economists and industry specialists. He is also the founding director of Tasman Institute from 1990-98
Jessica Cecille Walsh is an Australian politician and trade unionist. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served as a Senator for Victoria since 2019. Prior to her election to parliament she was the state secretary of United Voice.
Caralee McLiesh is an Australian economist who is the current Chief Executive and Secretary to the New Zealand Treasury. She is the first woman appointed to the role, beginning her five year term in September 2019.
The GST distribution dispute is an ongoing political controversy concerning the distribution of goods and services tax (GST) revenue amongst the Australian states and territories and the federal government. The dispute was originally based upon Western Australia's (WA) dissatisfaction with its low returns, which led to reform in 2018. The 2018 reform guarantees all states and territories a minimum return on their contribution.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
