Throughout its more than seven-decade history, The Australian Financial Review has consistently championed tax, industrial relations and regulatory reforms that drive national prosperity forward.

In more recent times, it has warned of Australia’s growing economic malaise. That has been characterised by anaemic growth, soaring public expenditure, and a deterioration in living standards. Without a meaningful lift in productivity (the engine of long-term prosperity), the nation’s financial grievances, including a fiscal imbalance, mounting public debt, weak real wage growth and sticky inflation, will only deepen.