Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ announcement last week of a new chair of the Productivity Commission comes not a moment too soon. The commission’s recently released FY2022 Trade and Assistance Review entirely misses the mark.

In calling for Australia to “maintain the free-trade rage” and decrying “poorly designed industry assistance”, it mischaracterises efforts to deploy capital support and spending programs to rebuild Australian manufacturing and value-add our world-leading renewable resources pre-export as high-cost protectionism. The report barely mentions the costs of the growing climate crisis.