The Year 11 and 12 students who attended the Echo Economics Conference at Macquarie University on 22 June represented the future of Australia’s economy. Some will become CEOs, managers, policymakers and as Echo Founder and CEO Chae Jeong pointed out, we may have even had one or two future Prime Ministers in the room.

Speaking to the students, Jeong said, “The fact that we have three amazing keynote speakers here with us, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Dr Steven Kennedy; and Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood, is a testament that you are the future of the Australian economy.”

This year’s theme was Unlocking Australia's Economic Dynamism. All the speakers approached this topic from different angles, giving students an eclectic look at the power of economics.

Professor Leonie Tickle, Executive Dean of the Macquarie Business School, set the scene.

“The theme of today’s conference, Unlocking Australia's Economic Dynamism, couldn’t be more important,” she said. “For roughly two decades, Australia’s productivity growth has slowed to a crawl and the consequences are now hard to ignore.”

Professor Tickle explained that almost every major challenge we face is affected by productivity.

“A liveable climate depends on cheaper, more efficient clean energy. A real rise in wages, income that generally buys more, depends on productivity. And even the question of whether governments can sustain their debts comes back to whether the economy grows,” she said.

“Productivity growth is one of the most powerful tools we have for building a brighter future for every generation.”

The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull continued by explaining the importance of productivity. “Productivity is the key to our living standards, to raising our living standards, to staying competitive,” he said.

“Productivity is about doing more with the resources that you’ve got. It’s about being smarter, faster and sharper.”

As a practitioner, Turnbull provided clear examples from his time as prime minister and highlighted that productivity is the key to building Australia’s resilience. He said there is something we can all do to enhance it – encourage innovation.

Dr Steven Kennedy followed by showing the change in unemployment, inflation, gross government debt as a share of GDP, home ownership and life expectancy since federation and what choices lie ahead for our future economists.

“Understand history, and it will help you navigate change and respond to challenges,” he said. “You’ve seen today the impact of the choices made by governments and individuals in the past and those choices will be yours and they will matter for you and importantly, they will matter for future generations.”

Danielle Wood concluded the keynotes with a presentation on how to boost Australia’s productivity, highlighting AI and innovation as two important shifts.

“The reason I get excited about AI in a productivity context is because it is what economists call a general-purpose technology. It’s got use cases right around the economy, in almost every sector. And throughout history, it has been these general-purpose technologies that have been the really big drivers of economic growth over many decades,” she said.

“Using some pretty conservative estimates, which is just about how AI can improve the efficiency of certain tasks, we estimate that it could add four per cent to labour productivity over a decade.”

The fantastic insights shared by the speakers inspired students to think about the future and their role in it. The best place to start is studying economics, according to the Echo organisers, our keynote speakers and Professor Tickle.

“If you’ve ever wondered whether what happens in the university lecture theatre has an impact on the world, I can tell you that it does. And that’s the spirit that we have here at Macquarie – rigorous research, real-world impact and a deep commitment to our students and the way they learn,” said Professor Tickle.