An Australian Productivity Roadmap for Policymakers

An Australian Productivity Roadmap for Policymakers is a UNSW occasional paper outlining options to drive broad-based productivity improvements where productivity benefits flow to all parts of Australian society aligned with the UNSW Progress for All strategy. It calls for a comprehensive, system-wide approach to productivity reform, that focuses on structural change rather than narrow, sector-specific interventions. The proposals span tax reform, welfare support, income growth, research and development, education, and labour market dynamics, reflecting the interconnected nature of productivity growth.

Productivity growth that was once the engine of rising living standards has slowed to a crawl. That stagnation is showing up in wages that struggle to keep pace, cost-of-living pressure, a housing affordability crisis and a sobering reality: for the first time in our history, younger generations are projected to be worse off than those who came before them. Wealth inequality is more extreme than at any point in history and without dramatic changes, those on the bottom of the disparity divide will remain trapped there.

Advances in artificial intelligence, digital systems and advanced manufacturing carry enormous potential to reshape industries and lift productivity. In every research and teaching area of the University, AI is having a massive impact, which will transform the economy and society. But technological progress does not automatically translate into shared prosperity. Without the right policy settings, the gains from innovation can concentrate in the hands of a capital-intensive few, leaving many sectors and most working people, excluded from opportunity and economic participation.

Australia’s productivity problem is complex and multi-factored. It reflects global headwinds, structural shifts in the economy, declining investment in research and development, and uneven adoption of new technologies. It also reflects something more fundamental: a tendency toward short-term thinking. Political cycles, media cycles and business reporting all reward immediate outcomes. Post-budget discussions focus on winners and losers in the next financial year, instead of the impact on future generations.  

Universities operate on a different timescale. Our horizon stretches decades ahead. Each year we welcome a new generation of students—predominantly aged 18 to 24—whose lives will be shaped by the decisions we make today. Increasing the number of graduates alone is not enough. Opportunity without a broad-based, productive, dynamic economy will not deliver the prosperity needed to reduce inequality or sustain social cohesion.

An Australian Productivity Roadmap for Policymakers sets out ten proposals to support that transition. However, it is more than a set of policy recommendations. It is a call to reframe how we think about economic progress. Productivity should not be measured solely by aggregate output, but by whether its benefits are widely shared—lifting living standards across the entire community, not just within capital-rich sectors.

This paper is intended as a contribution to the national conversation. It invites policymakers, industry leaders, educators and the broader community to think beyond immediate trade-offs and towards the kind of economy and equitable society we want to build for the decades ahead.

*One of the recommendations in the report states the 2025 Job Seeker rate.