Australia urgently needs to improve productivity growth, Productivity Commission Deputy Chair Alex Robson writes.

Productivity growth is a key driver of improvements in living standards. But in Australia over the last decade, output per hour worked grew by less than a quarter of its 60-year average.

We urgently need to turn this around.

That’s why the government has asked the Productivity Commission – where I am deputy chair – to conduct five inquiries and identify priority reforms.

As a first step to boost productivity growth, we need business to expand and invest in the tools and technology that help us get the most out of our work.

Unfortunately, some of our most important policy settings are holding us back.

Capital expenditure by all non-mining firms is down 3.2 percentage points as a share of the economy since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009.

And the ever-growing thicket of rules and regulations faced by business is a significant handbrake on growth.

The Productivity Commission’s first interim report,

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