To restore Australia’s economic health post coronavirus, wise old heads like John Howard and Peter Costello have prescribed slashing red tape and other unnecessary costs on the private sector that stand in the way of recovery. And now the Morrison government’s own Productivity Commission is reinforcing that remedial message. It has come out with a draft report calling for the removal of ‘unnecessary (and costly) regulatory burdens’ on a resources sector that, in providing two thirds of Australia’s exports, is central to lifting us out of a government-generated recession.