Australia’s productivity woes stem from more than tax or regulatory inertia. As Emeritus Professor Roy Green argues, decades of industrial decline, underinvestment in research, and a failure to embrace strategic transformation have left the economy exposed to global shocks and wage stagnation. Green outlines a pragmatic agenda for industrial renewal—joining up policy, innovation, and workforce development—to secure Australia’s economic future.

Ministerial speeches at the start of a new tenure rarely change the course of history, but they do set the tone and expectations. When Senator Tim Ayres addressed the CRA Collaborate Innovate Conference on 20 May, he stepped into a familiar ritual in the ebb and flow of policy leadership: the scene-setting speech. For a minister with just a week on the job, the question is not “Did he deliver a new vision?” but “How well did he manage the balancing act between expectation and