The Productivity Commission inquiry report, released 8 August 2011, recommends a major overhaul of Australia’s aged care system to improve the wellbeing of older Australians and meet the challenges of an ageing population.<p> Over one million older Australians receive aged care services. The...</p>

The Productivity Commission inquiry report — Disability Care and Support — was released on 10 August 2011. Current disability support arrangements are inequitable, underfunded, fragmented, and inefficient and give people with a disability little choice. They provide no certainty that people...

The Productivity Commission’s inquiry report — Australia’s Urban Water Sector — was released in October 2011. In recent times, the urban water sector has faced drought, growing populations and ageing assets. Governments have largely responded with prolonged and severe water restrictions...

Through the Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), rural industries and the Australian Government together invest some $490 million a year in R&D. This co-investment model has important strengths, including: helping to ensure that public money is not spent on research of little...

In 2008, the Australian Government deregulated the marketing of bulk wheat exports by removing the ‘single desk’ operated by AWB (International) Limited. Wheat Exports Australia (WEA) was established under the Wheat Export Marketing Act 2008 (WEMA) to administer an accreditation scheme for...

This Productivity Commission research report, released on 16 May 2011, has identified wide-ranging differences in the ways all levels of government plan and zone land uses and assess development proposals.<p> In Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Planning, Zoning and...</p>

The Productivity Commission’s report - Early Childhood Development Workforce – released 1 December 2011, finds that many more workers will be required in preschool and long day care. Full implementation of the reforms will require an estimated 15,000 more workers than would otherwise have...

The Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a study on the ‘effective’ carbon prices that result from emissions and energy reduction policies in Australia and other key economies (the UK, USA, Germany, New Zealand, China, India, Japan and South Korea).<p> The...</p>

This Productivity Commission inquiry report was released on 12 October 2012. Default superannuation arrangements for those employees who derive their default superannuation product in accordance with modern awards have provided market stability, and net returns of default funds have generally...

There are almost 140 000 retail businesses in Australia, accounting for 4.1 per cent of GDP and 10.7 per cent of employment. Both current trading conditions and longer term trends are challenging. Retail sales growth has trended down over the past half-decade as consumers save more of their...