The Australian economy is unusual, in both what it produces and its policy settings. That matters for the response to various challenges including a retreat from globalisation, the low-emissions transition and stagnant productivity growth. Policymakers cannot borrow blindly from overseas. Researchers need to do their part by providing careful analysis of Australian circumstances. In that vein, this report sketches five unusual features of Australia’s economic structure.

1. Australia has high population growth and today has one of the world’s largest construction industries.
2. Australia has one of the smallest manufacturing industries in the developed world, sharply dividing opinion.
3. Australia’s system of award wages are the highest minimum wages in the developed world and uniquely complex.
4. Government cash transfers are exceptionally targeted at the poorest in Australia, providing good ‘bang for buck’ on poverty alleviation.
5. Australians hold substantial private wealth, much of it in housing and superannuation, and yet the average Australian still has access to large amounts of liquidity.