The PM’s Productivity Pact.

Upon regaining the crown K. Rudd announced a focus on our productivity. This week he had his first meeting with ‘key stakeholders’, The BCA and the ACTU. Perhaps this is a hark back to the radically successful accord of the Hawke/Keating era but in the current environment it is basically impossible to see where the unions come in.

THERE IS NOT AN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ISSUE CONFRONTING AUSTRALIA THAT AFFECTS PRODUCTIVTY

I’d make that hot pink and flashing if I could. In fact one of the most unproductive things in Australia is talking about Industrial settings and productivity. Rather than go over old ground I’m going to leave this as a ‘based on previously demonstrated knowledge’ claim.

Stake holder one

So the spokes person for one of the key stakeholders, the one who should have been most confused as to his presence, Dave Oliver from the ACTU, said (I paraphrase).

They identified core areas:

* Infrastructure bottlenecks

* Skills & Vocational Training

He then went on to remark that if we wanted to get serious about productivity managers would need to adjust their approach citing a recent survey by the manufacturing sector unions (the ones most under threat currently) that found nobody was asking their workforce about how to improve productivity. He cited two reports that had identified Management Capability and Management Systems as the key factors in improving productivity in Australia. They were, the Carbon report from 20 years ago and more recently, Ray Green’s Mackell Institute’s, report (previously linked in earlier blog posts). Both concluded exactly the same thing. Management aren’t doing what they need to do to fix things.

The unions must be as bemused as me as to why we are involved. This becomes totally bafflement when it turns out that we are the ones who can cite reports, read graphs, understand big ~~flashing hot pink~~ writing and generally steer the debate in worthwhile directions.

Fair enough that’s one side

The other ‘key stakeholder’ was Tony Shepard from the Business Council of Australia. I have previously done a minor hatchet job on both Tony and the BCA so fair warning. What does Anthony (B.Com) have to say post meeting?

“As we have said all along, what we are looking for is decisive, real action on the ground that will genuinely address the challenges we face, not joint statements and superficial agreements.”

Me too Tony. It’s about time you and your mates realised YOU are the fucking problem and actually did something about it. I accidentally coincidentally agree with the need to have more stakeholders and have already questioned what the unions are doing involved at all. I think my reasons are way more compelling than yours though Tony.

“Australia has come a long way from the 1980s and there are many more stakeholders involved in the productivity and competitiveness picture than just unions, who don’t have the influence or the coverage of the workforce that they once had,”

Nice sideswipe there Antony.

So to sum up, a score (clues had):

Side A (Unions – rep D. Oliver ACTU) – Several
Side B (Business – rep A. Shepard BCA) – Zero

And if that wasn’t confusing enough. This is all about ‘Australia’s declining productivity performance’. Here’s the quick and dirty. Like league tables? Globally:

2005 – 15th

2013 – 12th

Clearly slipping.

WARNING these graphs are PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH.

And this is all the while being supported by the mining sector: