Company taxes and regulation must be cut to boost productivity, Australia has been told by an expat head of a leading global economic body.

Matthias Cormann, the first Australian to lead the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and a former federal finance minister, said the nation trails other member countries in attracting investment and this led to poorer productivity growth.

"Australia needs to reassess the international competitiveness of its regulatory and of its tax policy settings," he told the ASIC annual forum in Melbourne on Thursday.

While productivity challenges were common across developed countries, Australia's labour productivity grew at just 0.5 per cent annually between 2010 and 2024, well below the OECD average of 0.9 per cent, Mr Cormann said.

"Aus

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