Gary Banks

Gary Banks has been Chairman of Australia’s Productivity Commission since its inception in April 1998.  The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government’s principal advisory body on microeconomic policies and regulatory reform.  Gary has headed national inquiries on a variety of public policy and regulatory topics, including the Commission's Review of National Competition Policy Arrangements, and its study for the Council of Australian Governments on the Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia. He also chaired the Australian Government's recent Regulation Taskforce and was a member of the ‘West Review’ of Higher Education.

Gary Banks chairs the inter-governmental Steering Committee for the Review of Government Services, which produces major reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of services provision, and indicators of Indigenous Disadvantage. He also oversees the role of the Office of Best Practice Regulation in monitoring the Australian Government's regulation-making processes.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, the Advisory Board of Monash University’s Centre for Regulatory Studies, and the Board of Advisory Fellows for the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University.

Before joining the Productivity Commission, Gary Banks worked at the Centre for International Economics, Canberra, and has been a consultant to the OECD and World Bank. In earlier years, he was a Senior Economist with the GATT Secretariat in Geneva, and Visiting Fellow at the Trade Policy Research Centre, London.  His recent speeches and papers are available on the Productivity Commission’s website (www.pc.gov.au).