The Australian productivity performance has been stagnating for years, and the treasurer Jim Chalmers has stagnated that the confession is a second term.
“Productivity” is now a further a part of the duty of the deputy minister Andrew Leigh in addition to his responsibility for competition, charity organizations and financing matters.
It is an area through which Leigh brings some specialist knowledge. He is a former professor of economics on the Australian National University and did his doctorate in the general public order of Harvard Kennedy School.
He joins us to debate productivity and more.
Leigh outlines some frequent misunderstandings in regards to the concept of productivity.
Many people consider productivity to work longer or work harder as an alternative of working more intelligently.
Really, productivity must be how much you may produce per hour, not how much you may produce a yr, because I don't imagine that one in all us feels productive after we are forced to work at night and on the weekend we don't want. Improving the way in which we use technology may be necessary.
Leigh says why it took so long to extend productivity, says Leigh:
The measures normally remained. And it's about changing the structure of corporations, and sometimes it takes some time to make it effective. In the pc revolution you don’t see this immediately in productivity statistics. Same story for electrification a couple of generations earlier.
These so -called all -purpose technologies take some time for the work around them to be revised. We too also can have problems that take some time before we will embed, after which it could take some time to get out.
According to Leigh, there may be great potential: However, there may be great potential for the emerging artificial intelligence technology: although they’re aware of the concerns:
I feel we’re all concerned in regards to the effects on privacy. I feel there are reasons to maintain the potential competitive facets if the AI engines consolidate in the approaching years. However, it is usually very clear that this can be a technology that has great potential to remove parts of our work and enable people to focus on essentially the most stimulating types.
Without exception, there are work instruments of all technologies that occur, and artificial intelligence doesn’t differ from it. We usually are not superb as an economist to predict exactly where the roles of the longer term are coming and where they are going to go, but we all know that this could have an effect, and this will be such a big general technology because the others that we now have seen up to now.
As a member of the Parliament from the Australian capital area, Leigh still stays because each areas receive more representation within the Senate.
I feel the law (and) sends the northern territory representatives of the strong caliber to the federal parliament. And more representation for the areas can be an ideal thing.
I feel it will be an ideal thing to have more act sensors. We saw a relatively wild attack by the conservatives in Canberra within the last elections, and so it will be great to have more votes within the federal parliament.
