The staff working paper 'Stranded Irrigation Assets' (Roper, H., Sayers, C. and Smith, A.) was released on 28 June 2006. Prior to the National Water Initiative (NWI), irrigation authorities imposed restrictions on outward trade of water entitlements partly to protect remaining irrigators against...

The conference proceedings, 'Quantitative Tools for Microeconomic Policy Analysis', were published on 6 October 2005. The conference, organised by the Productivity Commission, was held in Canberra on 17-18 November 2004.Policy modelling has played an important role in the work of the...

The terms of reference for the inquiry on First Home Ownership asked the Commission to evaluate the affordability and availability of housing for first home buyers.The Commission's preliminary findings were released for public comment in December.In its final assessment, the Commission...

The Productivity Commission reports that local governments in Australia perform an important role through their provision of infrastructure, service delivery, and planning and regulatory activities. Amidst calls by local governments for increased funding from the Australian and State...

While Australia's consumer policy framework has considerable strengths, parts of it require an overhaul.The current division of responsibility for the framework between the Australian and State and Territory Governments leads to variable outcomes for consumers, added costs for businesses and a...

The Commission's modelling indicates that there would be economy-wide benefits from further reductions in assistance to the automotive sector, particularly for tariffs. It also suggests that the benefits would be larger under the current assistance reduction program than options entailing lesser...

The Productivity Commission's inquiry report into the 'Conservation of Australia's Historic Heritage Places', was released on 21 July 2006. The Commission was asked to examine the policy framework and incentives for the conservation of Australia's historic built heritage places.Some key findings...

The Productivity Commission's 2009 roundtable was organised around the topic Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy in the Australian Federation, and held at Old Parliament House in Canberra on 17-18 August 2009.Participants included government officials, academics, consultants and representatives...

There is a need for wide-ranging reforms to remove unnecessary burdens and costs faced by the not-for-profit sector and improve its accountability. This is the key message of a research report released today by the Productivity Commission. Better regulation, improved funding arrangements and...

The Productivity Commission's final report on executive remuneration was released in January 2010.Commenting on the report's release, Commission Chairman Gary Banks said: 'Substantial feedback was received in response to the Commission's preliminary proposals. Our final recommendations are...