Last month the Productivity Commission (PC) revealed that Australian productivity growth on the decade to 2020 was the lowest in 60 years. Mining and agriculture were the most efficient sectors, though productivity gains in some services – like medicine and digital services – may be hidden because of improved quality.

To avoid antagonising the dominant political ideology, with masterly understatement, the PC opines, ‘…(carbon dioxide) abatement efforts could, in many instances, increase the cost of production and could put downward pressure on measured productivity, at least in the short term.’