What's happening at the Productivity Commission?
The Productivity Commission has two new inquiry topics
A low emissions economy
The Government has asked the Commission to identify how New Zealand can maximise the opportunities and minimise the
costs and risks of transitioning to a lower net-emissions economy. Read more about the inquiry.
State sector productivity
The Commission has also been asked to undertake an inquiry into how the New Zealand State sector can effectively measure
and improve productivity in core public services. Read more about the inquiry.
The Commission will release an issue paper for each inquiry soon. Find out how you can get involved.
The Productivity Commission completes 10 inquiries
In March 2017, the Commission published the final reports for the New models of tertiary education and
Better urban planning inquiries. Both reports received extensive media coverage and the findings and recommendations continue to percolate
within and beyond the public sector. With the release of these reports, the Commission has now completed 10 inquiries.
To date, the Government has formally responded to seven of those inquiries and we continue to see evidence that our
findings and recommendations are having an impact.
Achieving New Zealand’s productivity potential
In November 2016, the Commission published an in-depth diagnosis of New Zealand’s productivity challenge.
Written by Paul Conway, Director Economics and Research, Achieving New Zealand’s productivity potential provides a fresh and practical insight into New Zealand’s productivity performance, including recommendations for
improvement.
The OECD’s 2017 Economic Survey of New Zealand echoes the Commission’s analysis. The OECD highlighted our labour productivity lag and identified improving
productivity growth as a major long term challenge for improving living standards. The Commission will continue to work
with other agencies to research, discuss and provide advice on New Zealand's productivity performance.
The Commission congratulates qualified regulators
In June 2017, Inquiry Director, Judy Kavanagh was invited to present certificates to the first graduates of the New
Zealand Certificate in Regulatory Compliance (Core Knowledge). The development of this qualification was a direct result
of the Commission’s 2014 report, Regulatory Institutions and Practices. In this report, the Commission noted the lack of regulatory qualifications and recommended developing a professional
regulatory workforce with professional development pathways and recognised qualifications. Congratulations to all
graduates on a significant achievement!
About us
The Commission is an independent Crown entity. We undertake in-depth inquiries on topics referred to us by the
Government (our core business), carry out productivity-related research that assists improvement in productivity over
time and promote understanding of productivity issues.