The head of the Australian government’s top advisory body on economic and social issues warned in a speech on Monday that young generations may live worse lives than their parents.

Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, Productivity Commission (PC) chair Danielle Wood said that younger Australians are facing a future of lower wages unless the nation can boost stagnating productivity.

Ms Wood said that Australians who were born in the 1990s were the first generation not to earn more than those born a decade earlier.

They would bear the cost of addressing climate change and an ageing population more than their parents.

She said, “Overwhelmingly, young people today believe they won’t live better lives than their parents did. As chair of the Productivity Commission, I’m worried too.’’

Ms Wood was speaking ahead of the federal government’s economic reform roundtable, which would begin at Parliament House on Tuesday.

The three-day summit convened by Treasurer Jim Chalmers will bring together business groups, trade unions and economists to discuss reforms that will boost productivity.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, labour productivity grew by an average of 0.9 per cent annually in the 20-year period from 2022 to 2023.

It is compared to an average of 1.8 per cent in the 20 years from 2009 to 2010.

In updated forecasts released earlier in August, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut its medium-term assumption for annual productivity growth from 1.0 per cent to 0.7 per cent.

Ms Wood, who will attend the economic reform roundtable, said on Monday that economic growth has fallen down the list of priorities for governments of many wealthy nations in recent decades.

She said that in order to stimulate productivity, governments must “embed the importance of growth in every decision they make” and work to reduce administrative burden. 

(Xinhua/NAN)