Take a long view

Citation

(2012), "Take a long view", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 61 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2012.07961baa.004

Take a long view

Article Type: News From: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Volume 61, Issue 2

Researchers say that neither the Australian government’s Fair Work Australia industrial relations regime nor its predecessor, the Howard government’s Work Choices, have been in place long enough to generate measurable effects on productivity.

Research by economists and the Productivity Commission show it is unlikely that industrial relations have been a major factor in the decline of Australia’s productivity which has been happening since 2005.

The director of the Grattan Institute’s productivity program, Saul Eslake, said it made no sense to measure productivity over short periods and there was no hard statistical data to support assertions that either Work Choices or the Fair Work Act had any discernible influence on the disappointing trend in productivity growth.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics prefers to average productivity over a five-year period, but the latest annual figures show productivity started falling in 2005 with the worst decline, of 1.8 per cent, recorded in the 12 months to 2009, which included the global financial crisis.