The McKell Institute Address with Dr Andrew Leigh | The Progressive Productivity Agenda | 12 pm, 25 June, 2025
11:45 for 12pm, 25 June, 2025.
Productivity growth is the engine of rising living standards – yet the decade to 2020 saw Australia’s weakest productivity performance since World War II. Australia ranks low on the economic complexity index, our markets have become more concentrated, and student performance on the OECD PISA tests has fallen. How do we craft a progressive productivity agenda, which prioritises investment in people and economic dynamism? How do we avoid the conservative approach of a ‘race to the bottom’ in cutting wages and conditions? In this talk, Andrew will discuss the government’s ambitious competition reform agenda, the need to focus on delivering more homes, infrastructure and research, and how artificial intelligence can be implemented as a tool for expanding opportunity.
Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard, having graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in Arts and Law. Andrew is a past recipient of the Economic Society of Australia’s Young Economist Award and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. His books include Disconnected (2010), Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia (2013), The Economics of Just About Everything (2014), The Luck of Politics (2015), Choosing Openness: Why Global Engagement is Best for Australia (2017), Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World (2018), Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator (with Joshua Gans) (2019), Reconnected: A Community Builder’s Handbook (with Nick Terrell) (2020), What’s the Worst That Could Happen? Existential Risk and Extreme Politics (2021), Fair Game: Lessons From Sport for a Fairer Society and a Stronger Economy (2022) and The Shortest History of Economics (2024). Andrew is a keen Ironman triathlete and marathon runner, and hosts a podcast called The Good Life: Andrew Leigh in Conversation, about living a happier, healthier and more ethical life. Andrew is the father of three sons – Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary, and lives with his wife Gweneth in Canberra. He has been a member of the Australian Labor Party since 1991.
EVENT DATE
25 June 2025
LOCATION
Zurich Tower, 118 Mount Street, North Sydney, NSW