Commissioners

Gary Banks AO

Gary Banks has been Chairman of Australia’s Productivity Commission since its inception in 1998, when it replaced the Industry Commission.

Gary’s other roles include chairing a COAG officials group that reports annually on government service performance, and chairing the Regulatory Policy Committee of the OECD. He is on advisory boards at several universities, including the Melbourne Institute, and is also a member of the judging panel for the national ‘Indigenous Governance Awards’.

In earlier years, Gary worked for the GATT Secretariat in Geneva, the Trade Policy Research Centre in London and then at the Centre for International Economics, Canberra. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2010 and is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration. In 2007 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to the development of public policy.

Murray Sherwin CNZM

Murray Sherwin is Chairman of the New Zealand Productivity Commission and is an economist with 35 years’ experience across a wide range of public policy roles.

His previous roles include: Chair, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission; Chief Executive and Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand; member of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank in Washington DC; member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Group; and a member of the Advisory Board of the New Zealand Debt Management Office. Murray is an accredited member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

Other current roles include: Member of the Review Panel for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, and Member of the Advisory Committee on Official Statistics.

Jonathan Coppel

Jonathan Coppel was appointed as a full-time Commissioner to the Australian Productivity Commission in July 2011.

Immediately prior to his appointment Jonathan was the Economic Counsellor to the OECD Secretary General where he was responsible for the OECD's contributions to the G20. While at the OECD he held a range of positions including head of the Office of the OECD Chief Economist, Executive Manager of the NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative, Senior Economist on foreign direct investment, Deputy Counsellor to the Chief Economist, Head of the EU and UK Desks, and Climate Change Specialist in the OECD Economics Department. He has also been an Energy Analyst at the International Energy Agency.

Jonathan is also currently working on the Australian Productivity Commission’s Barriers to Effective Climate Change Adaptation public inquiry.

Jonathan has previously held senior management positions in the Reserve Bank of Australia and started his career at the Australian Commonwealth Treasury. He has also been a lecturer for the World Trade Institute's Mile Masters Programme in International Law and Economics and at Sciences Po Institute in Paris

Jonathan has a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the Australian National University and a Masters in International Affairs (Economics and Management) from Columbia University in New York.

Dr Graham Scott CB

Graham Scott is a part-time Commissioner at the New Zealand Productivity Commission and the Executive Chair of Southern Cross Advisers Ltd, a company specialising in advising on public sector reform globally.

He is also a Consulting Director of Sapere Research Group (formerly LECG Asia Pacific), a firm providing independent economic, forensic accounting and public policy services. He has worked for a wide range of clients in New Zealand and internationally, including The World Bank, The IMF, and various Australian and New Zealand Government agencies.

His engagements have included the position of Chair on a Government Taskforce established to advise on a bill to improve the quality of legislation in New Zealand, and he also Chaired the recent Review of Expenditure on Government Policy Advice.

Graham is also the Chair of the Advisory Group to the Electricity Authority on Transmission Pricing. He was Secretary to The Treasury from 1986–1993.