We all know that statistics can lie ... but we also know they are useful sources of information and stimulus for discussion and debate. The difficulties with taking them "without question" were highlighted recently in Australia. According to figures in a speech by Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens recently, labour productivity in all industries improved at an annual trend rate of 2.1 per cent over the 14 years to the end of 2004, but then slumped to an annual rate of just 0.9 per cent over the six years to 2010. This is what had big business fomenting over the productivity crisis. Spurred on by the press, chief executives queued to attribute the crisis to the Labour Government's "reregulation" of the labour market, its failure to cut the rate of company tax, plus anything else they didn't approve of.
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