The new line from the business lobby is that our economic growth is "just luck". In fact the refusal of politicians to obey their demands has been crucial to that "luck".
A new OECD report suggests Workchoices-style industrial relations deregulation doesn't help wages growth or employment.
While the economy continues to rack up moderate growth, there are some weak points.
We talk a lot about productivity but rarely with any seriousness. And we might not even be looking in the right place for growth.
Business claims that wages growth will only happen when there's productivity growth. Except ... productivity is still growing, and stronger than under WorkChoices.
Conservatives and business leaders assured us that WorkChoices would increase productivity and Labor's Fair Work Act reduce it. So what happened? The Productivity Commission has the answer.
The mining lobby wants a new round of punitive industrial relations reforms, at a time when real wages are falling in the sector and productivity booming. But that's the way neoliberalism operates.
The lack of real wages growth had prompted a rattled Treasurer to devise a whole new basis for industrial relations, Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer write.
The focus on the ABCC bill now before parliament distracts from the grim reality that the government has no real economic agenda and is allowing others to drive the policy debate.
A new paper from the Productivity Commission revisits an old topic on improving our economic performance. Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer write.