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

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