This week’s appointment of Wayne Swan’s former chief of staff Chris Barrett to head the Productivity Commission puts the annual Trade and Assistance Review it released this month under a more searching spotlight than usual.
Remarkably, the Commission used the review to target one of the key policies on which the Albanese government was elected. With Chalmers signalling plans for a “new focus”, it might turn out to have been one of the last chances for the “old” Productivity Commission to say (again) what it thinks.
The Commission doesn’t like (and has never liked) industrial policy – the idea of governments supporting industries in order to help them grow, and where possible to participate in global markets and value chains.
