Roy Green
Emeritus Professor Roy Green AM is Special Innovation Advisor at the University of Technology Sydney, where he was Dean of the UTS Business School. He has pursued a career in universities, government and industry, and has published widely on innovation and industrial policy, including with the OECD. He has chaired the CSIRO Manufacturing Sector Advisory Council, the Enterprise Connect Innovative Regions Centre, the Queensland Competition Authority and the NSW Manufacturing Council. Currently, Roy chairs the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub and the Port of Newcastle, and he is a board director at CSIRO and SmartSat CRC.
Roy's recent articles
22 January 2025
For the world’s biggest coal export port, the future is just beginning
This month my term as chair of the Port of Newcastle comes to an end. It’s been a time of transformational change for the world’s biggest coal export port, with an ambitious growth and diversification plan ready to weigh anchor.
23 November 2024
Science and technology shapes our world
After the second world war there was another bout of industry building. Here, in an extract from his Keynote Address at the 2024 Pearcey Foundation National Awards, Emeritus Professor Roy Green reflects on the creation of Australia’s first computer, and what it can teach us about today’s industry policy challenge.
18 July 2024
Productivity, innovation and industrial structure
The traditional market model of comparative advantage denies Australia the more promising strategic opportunity to identify and capitalise on areas of potential competitive advantage in the high productivity, high-skill jobs and industries of the future, including advanced manufacturing. Instead, with this model we will be locked into low-productivity, low-wage industries, with limited scope for uplift through technological change and innovation, writes Emeritus Professor Roy Green AM.
18 June 2024
How Mike Baird's privatisation almost crippled the Newcastle container terminal
The terms of privatisation included an anti-competitive restriction on the development of a commercial-scale container terminal at Newcastle, primarily to boost the sale price of Port Botany.
29 July 2023
Is the Productivity Commission an institution beyond repair?
The appointment of Chris Barrett to head the Productivity Commission puts its Trade and Assistance Review under the spotlight.
26 January 2023
Reforming the productivity commission
As federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers ponders the future of Australias Productivity Commission (PC), calls for its reform or even abolition have grown louder. Anyone following the media commentary might have the impression that its recommendations have been steadfastly ignored by government for the last two decades.
16 August 2022
Industry policy for a changing world
The Biden administrations ambitious new AUD 400 billion industrial policy initiative once again confronts Australia with the question of whether we want to be in the forefront of science and innovation, or way back in the slipstream.
16 April 2020
ROY GREEN. Australia's Manufacturing Future. Part 2 of 2
The framework for a national industrial strategy can draw with great benefit from the experience of other countries, but it is important to recognise that such a strategy should also be adapted to the specific conditions and prospects of the Australian economy.
15 April 2020
ROY GREEN. Australia's Manufacturing Future. Part 1 of 2
Every crisis provides an opportunity and Covid-19 is no exception. Not only has it exposed the gaps in Australias manufacturing supply chains, but it has also more broadly demonstrated the vulnerability of a commodity-based economy to external shocks and the need to reverse the now all too apparent hollowing out of manufacturing capability.
22 May 2019
ROY GREEN. Labors unloseable election
Was it the message or the messenger? Or a bit of both? This question will occupy the minds of political strategists for years to come. The federal election was a setback to Australias labour movement, not least because it came as a shock, but there is no reason for despair once put into perspective. The route back to political contention should already be clear.
31 October 2018
ROY GREEN. Pricking the balloon of crony capitalism
The Queensland Supreme Court has dismissed Aurizon Networks application for judicial review of a draft decision by the Queensland Competition Authority on rail access, with costs awarded in favour of the QCA. Former QCA Chair and now Chair of the Port of Newcastle Professor Roy Green comments.
30 July 2018
ROY GREEN. World class container terminal for Newcastle and the investigation by the ACCC
Connectivity isnt everything, but its almost everything. Faster, better and cheaper is transforming our daily lives. And connectivity isnt just about broadband access. Its also about fast and efficient freight transport. Even in a digital world where so much of what we produce is intangible, Australias fortunes as an island continent depend on its transport linkages, particularly through our seaports.