![]() | |
Agency overview | |
---|---|
Formed | 1998 |
Preceding agencies | |
Type | Statutory agency |
Jurisdiction | Commonwealth of Australia |
Headquarters | Melbourne |
Employees | 164 [1] |
Annual budget | A$34,189,000 [1] |
Minister responsible | |
Agency executives |
|
Parent department | Treasury |
Key document | |
Website | pc |
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 Productivity Commission was created as an independent authority by the Productivity Commission Act 1998, an Act of the Australian Parliament. Productivity Commission reports often form the basis of government policy. However, the Commission does not administer government programs or exercise executive power and governments are not required to act on its recommendations; although in practice, many recommendations are accepted.
The Commission operates within the Treasury portfolio and its core function involves responding to references from the Treasurer, which can request a commissioned study or a public inquiry. References to the Commission stipulate the length and terms of the project and may cover any sector of the Australian economy; address a particular industry or cut across industry boundaries; and involve wider social or environmental issues.
Most projects are specified for nine or twelve-month duration, although some may be six or fifteen months. Both studies and inquiries accept submissions from members of the public, although inquiries are additionally required (under the Act) to undertake formal public consultations. All reports are publicly released.
In addition, the Commission acts as the secretariat to the intergovernmental Review of Government Service Provision, and produces annually the Report on Government Services, as well as regular reports that contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of government services provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Commission can undertake Commission-initiated research, and operates as the Australian Government's competitive neutrality complaints mechanism.
The Commission is headed by a Chairperson and between 4 and 12 other Commissioners, who are appointed by the Governor-General for periods up to five years. Some commissioners are required to have particular skills and experience:
Associate Commissioners can be appointed by the Treasurer on a full or part-time basis. Commission staff are Commonwealth public servants. The average number of employees in the 2021-22 financial year was 164. [1]
The Commission reports formally through the Treasurer to the Australian Parliament, where its inquiry reports are tabled. Final inquiry reports must be tabled in Parliament within 25 sitting days of the Government receiving the report.
What makes the Commission unusual among public sector institutions around the world is the combination of three core principles which it embodies:
Name | Dates |
---|---|
Gary Banks AO | 17 April 1998 – 31 December 2012 |
Peter Harris AO | 11 March 2013 – 10 September 2018 |
Michael Brennan | 11 September 2018 – 10 September 2023 |
Danielle Wood | 13 November 2023 – 12 November 2028 |
Name | Dates |
---|---|
Richard Snape | 24 February 1999 – 4 October 2002 |
Mike Woods | 8 October 2008 – 22 December 2014 |
Patricia Scott | 24 February 2015 – 8 April 2016 |
Karen Chester | 9 April 2016 – 27 January 2019 |
Alex Robson | 28 March 2022 – 27 March 2027 |
Name | Dates |
---|---|
John Cosgrove | 17 April 1998 – 7 May 2002 |
Helen Owens | 17 April 1998 – 14 April 2006 |
Richard Snape | 17 April 1998 – 4 October 2002 |
Judith Sloan | 17 April 1998 – 16 April 2010 |
Mike Woods | 17 April 1998 – 22 December 2014 |
Neil Byron | 15 July 1998 – 16 April 2010 |
David Robertson | 13 December 2000 – 12 December 2003 |
Tony Hinton | 27 March 2002 – 26 March 2007 |
Robert Fitzgerald | 27 January 2004 – 26 April 2019 |
Philip Weickhardt | 1 January 2004 – 11 December 2014 |
Gary Potts | 17 April 2006 – 30 April 2008 |
Steven Kates | 17 April 2006 – 16 April 2009 |
Angela MacRae | 19 March 2007 – 9 December 2020 |
Matthew Butlin | 1 May 2008 – 30 September 2008 |
Louise Sylvan | 1 August 2008 – 20 September 2011 |
Wendy Craik | 4 June 2009 – 31 December 2014 |
David Kalisch | 4 June 2009 – 10 December 2010 |
Siobhan McKenna | 4 June 2009 – 3 June 2014 |
Patricia Scott | 7 September 2009 – 8 April 2016 |
Alison McClelland | 8 December 2010 – 31 March 2016 |
Warren Mundy | 8 December 2010 – 7 December 2015 |
Jonathan Coppel | 28 July 2011 – 27 July 2021 |
Karen Chester | 12 December 2013 – 27 January 2019 |
Melinda Cilento | 27 November 2014 – 25 August 2017 |
Paul Lindwall | 1 July 2014 – 31 December 2022 |
Ken Baxter | 30 April 2015 – 31 December 2020 |
Julie Abramson | 10 December 2015 – 9 December 2025 |
Stephen King | 1 July 2016 – 31 December 2026 |
Richard Spencer | 27 October 2016 – 28 January 2022 |
Jane Doolan | 8 December 2016 – 7 March 2022 |
Romlie Mokak | 25 March 2019 – 24 March 2024 |
Malcolm Roberts | 1 May 2019 – 10 November 2023 |
Elizabeth Gropp | 1 May 2019 – 31 July 2024 |
Catherine de Fontenay | 1 July 2019 – 30 June 2029 |
Martin Stokie | 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2027 |
Joanne Chong | 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2027 |
Natalie Siegel-Brown | 18 April 2022 – 17 April 2027 |
Barry Sterland | 25 June 2024 – 24 June 2029 |
Alison Roberts | 25 June 2024 – 24 June 2029 |
Selwyn Button | 25 June 2024 – 24 June 2029 |
The Commission traces its lineage back to the Tariff Board, which was established in the 1920s. On 1 January 1974, the Tariff Board became the Industries Assistance Commission and then in 1989 it became the Industry Commission.
The Productivity Commission was created as an independent authority in April 1998 by the Productivity Commission Act 1998, and replaced the Industry Commission, the Bureau of Industry Economics and the Economic Planning Advisory Commission. These three bodies were amalgamated on an administrative basis in 1996.
The Commission's remit may extend beyond Australia, such as when the Commission worked jointly with the former New Zealand Productivity Commission on a study into Trans-Tasman Economic Relations in 2012 [3] and in a 2019 report on Growing the Digital Economy in Australia and New Zealand. [4]
Danielle Wood became the Commission's first female Chair on 13 November 2023.
| Productivity Commission (1998) | |||||||||||||||
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is a statutory authority of the Australian Government and the prudential regulator of the Australian financial services industry. APRA was established on 1 July 1998 in response to the recommendations of the Wallis Inquiry. APRA's authority and scope is determined pursuant to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act, 1998 (Cth).
A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equivalent entity may be termed a commission of inquiry.
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 selected by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in May 2022 following the 2022 Australian federal election.
An Australian federal budget is a document that sets out the estimated revenues and expenditures of the Australian Treasury in the following financial year, proposed conduct of Australian government operations in that period, and its fiscal policy for the forward years. Budgets are called by the year in which they are presented to Parliament and relate to a financial year that commences on the following 1 July and ends on 30 June of the following year, so that the 2024 budget brought down in May 2024 relates to the 2024/25 financial year.
Gary Thomas Johns is an Australian writer and former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1996, holding the Queensland seat of Petrie for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He served as a minister in the Keating government.
The Australian Law Reform Commission is an Australian independent statutory body established to conduct reviews into the law of Australia. The reviews, also called inquiries or references, are referred to the ALRC by the Attorney-General for Australia. Based on its research and consultations throughout an inquiry, the ALRC makes recommendations to government so that government can make informed decisions about law reform.
The Economic Council of Canada was an independent economic advisory body established as a federal Crown Corporation by the Government of Canada in 1963. Its purpose was to report on a wide range of pressing matters relating to Canada's economic development, focusing on five main economic objectives: full employment, sustained economic growth, price stability, equitable distribution of rising incomes, and a viable balance of payments. The council was dissolved alongside six other government organizations in 1993.
The term National Competition Policy refers to a set of policies introduced in Australia in the 1990s with the aim of promoting microeconomic reform.
The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is the principal government agency in charge of managing the Murray–Darling Basin in an integrated and sustainable manner. The MDBA is an independent statutory agency that manages, in conjunction with the Basin states, the Murray–Darling basin's water resources in the national interest. The MDBA reports to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Water, held since June 2022 by the Hon Tanya Plibersek.
The Commerce Commission is a New Zealand government agency with responsibility for enforcing legislation that relates to competition in the country's markets, fair trading and consumer credit contracts, and regulatory responsibility for areas such as electricity and gas, telecommunications, dairy products and airports. It is an independent Crown entity established under the Commerce Act 1986. Although responsible to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, the Commission is run independently from the government, and is intended to be an impartial promotor and enforcer of the law.
The Lyons Inquiry was an independent inquiry into the form, function and funding of local government in England. Appointed jointly by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Deputy Prime Minister in the summer of 2004, Sir Michael Lyons produced several reports over the next 3 years, culminating in a final report on the future of local government published alongside the Chancellor's Budget in March 2007.
The Federal Planning Bureau (FPB) is a Belgian independent public agency that carries out research and makes projections on economic, social and environmental policy issues. It also studies the integration of these policy issues within a context of sustainable development. On 25 November 2023, the Council of Ministers approved a draft royal decree appointing Baudouin Regout as the new Commissioner of the FPB. The Commissioner is assisted by the Deputy Commissioner, Saskia Weemaes.
Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria (CPVV), until 2 June 2018 called the Taxi Services Commission (TSC), is the Government agency responsible for the regulation of the taxi and hire car industries in the State of Victoria, Australia. Before becoming a regulator, the TSC was responsible for conducting a major independent inquiry, the Taxi Industry Inquiry, into taxi and other small commercial passenger vehicle services in the State.
The Transport Legislation Amendment Act 2011 is a law enacted by the Parliament of the State of Victoria, Australia to reform taxi and other small commercial passenger vehicle services in the State.
The wheat industry of Australia has been organised by government regulation, by both the Commonwealth Government and state governments.
The Airports Commission was an independent commission established in September 2012 by the Government of the United Kingdom to consider how the UK could "maintain its status as an international hub for aviation and immediate actions to improve the use of existing runway capacity in the next 5 years". Alongside the proposal to build HS2, the question of how to make best use of and expand airport capacity had become the UK's most significant infrastructure issue over the preceding few years.
Godfrey Alfred Rattigan was a senior Australian Public Service official and policymaker.
The history of fair-use proposals in Australia is a series of Australian government enquiries into the introduction of a "flexible and open" fair use system into Australian copyright law. Between 1998 and 2016, eight enquiries examined, and in most cases recommended, the introduction of fair use in place of the current "fair dealing" system which allows copyrighted material to be used only if it meets one of four specific purposes as set out in the Act.
ACIL Allen is an Australian economics and policy consulting firm, specialising in the use of applied economics and econometrics to analyse, develop and evaluate policy, strategy and programs. It is the result of the April 2013 merger between Allen Consulting Group and ACIL Tasman. ACIL Allen employs 65 consultants in offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Australian governments, both those of the colonies after the introduction of responsible government in the 1850s and the national government since federation in 1901, have had the power to fix and change tariff rates. This power resides in the respective legislatures, with tariffs, being a tax law, is required to originate in the lower house of the legislature.