The New Zealand Productivity Commission | Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa has recently completed two reports to support
ongoing work to address the productivity challenge we face in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Productivity Commission Chair, Dr Ganesh Nana says, "Facing up to the productivity challenge remains ever present and
work to address the challenges to lift productivity must continue".
The decision to disestablish the Commission should not mean the lessons from previous investments are lost.
Consequently, the scope of two projects that were underway prior to the public announcement of the closure of the
Commission were adapted to ensure lessons and findings can be used by other individuals and organisations encouraged to
pick up the productivity wero.
The Commission’s report, Looking to the future brings together implications from Productivity by the numbers coupled
with a horizon scan of the major issues likely to impact on New Zealand's productivity over the medium to long-term.
This report was informed by a range of stakeholder views to identify the key productivity challenges that would benefit
from deep exploration.
Another report, How inquiries support change examines the value delivered by inquiries and sets out some key lessons
that may be of value for other organisations conducting similar work in the future. Since its establishment in 2011,
each of the Commission’s 18 inquiries have had their own impact, but previously have not been reviewed to assess the
overall impact of inquiries and identify changes to improve the Commission’s "inquiry model". Engaging with a wide range
of stakeholders and hearing as many voices as possible as were highlighted as important to any inquiry. "Commitment
devices" to encourage government take accountability for commissioning an inquiry were also raised as a potential
improvement for future work.
Dr Nana added "engagement with a range of business, community, Māori, worker, academic, and policy personnel, and
interrogation of available data, knowledge and evidence have been the foundation for our inquiry model. These traits
will continue to be necessary for future individuals and organisations, should any inquiry model be adopted to tackle
the range of complex and connected challenges facing Aotearoa in the 21 st century.
"The context of a global economy with a waning appetite for the rules-based order for global trade, alongside
increasingly-binding climate and other resource-based constraints to activity, make a considered, strategic and
evidence-informed view of productivity policy critical.
"These reports will be an important resource given the ongoing need to raise New Zealand’s productivity, and the
interest by Government, and other public and private sector organisations who must continue to work in this area," says
Dr Nana
Both reports are available on the Commission's website - see Productivity Commission | Research