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My letter in today’s Australian (below) contains, naturally, only a limited coverage of developments under Labor in productivity and labour costs.  Although these developments reflect various influences,  there is an important question as to why they did not perform better in circumstances where Labor has continually boasted about the growth in the economy  being in line with trend of 3-3.5% per annum and economic growth also being much better than in most other countries.  The following might be added.

Des Moore


Rudd failed to explain the pathway to success
(Letter published in The Australian, 12 July 2013.)

In his address to the National Press Club, Kevin Rudd said that, before falling to annual growth of around 1.5 per cent, labour productivity had improved to 2.1 per cent growth  in the 1990s (“Rudd stand on IR spoils olive branch to business”, 12/7).

He set a target of 2 per cent growth in the future but indicated there would be no change in the Fair Work Act. This despite the adverse effects on productivity of restrictive union actions  under that Act.

In fact, since the Fair Work Act was introduced labour productivity has grown at a much slower rate than before and the more comprehensive measure - multifactor productivity – has actually fallen. Little wonder that OECD data shows that Australia’s real unit labour costs have over the same period also risen by more than 35 per cent relative to other countries.

This confirms that, contrary to Rudd’s claim that the Act “represents a reasonable balance for the future”, it needs to be scrapped.

Des Moore
South Yarra Vic

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