If you’ve ever wondered why Australians live more comfortably now than we did 50 years ago, you’ve pondered the history of “productivity”.

Simply put, productivity means producing more goods and services from the same inputs – often with the aid of new skills or technologies, or by coming up with better ways to do things.

Growing productivity is hard and unfortunately, we haven’t done it much in the past decade, and that’s a big part of why many Australians feel their quality of life has stalled.

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have a unique opportunity to turbocharge productivity.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Growing productivity is also absolutely necessary. Without productivity gains underpinning them, wage and cost increases can be inflationary. Indeed, the Productivity Commission estimates that almost all wage growth since Federation has come from higher productivity.

And so, the re-election of the Albanese government, with a significant majority, is an opportunity to finally make productivity progress.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made it clear that productivity is a priority for this term of parliament, and business is keen to roll up its........

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