Productivity Commission should be given more indpendence

Comments on Bill Carmichael "Expand the reform agenda and let Productivity Commission be heard", 20/02/2013, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/expand-the-reform-agenda-and-let-productivity-commission-be-heard/

I think it is important not only that the PC should be fully utilised in developing big policy items, but also that it should be well funded to the degree that it has the capacity to initiate its own policy review/research to deal with any areas where it sees there is big potentials in addition to government initiated reviews.

To do that, PC should be more independent and should be reporting to the Parliament as opposed to the government of the day.

Of course, government initiatives should have priority, should there is a conflict between government initiatives and PC's own.

In this way, it will be ensured that productivity will be in the centre and heart of government policies irrespective which side of political parties is in government. It will make Australia will be more efficient, more productive, more internationally competitive and less wasteful in spending government resources.

It might be called the Australian Parliamentary Productivity Commission, in a similar fashion to the newly established Parliamentary Budget Office.