Our people
Matthew Butlin
Senior Associate
Matthew Butlin is a policy adviser with deep and broad expertise in public policy development and review, regulation and organisation effectiveness. He has advised governments and public and private sector CEO's during a long and distinguished career in both private and public sectors.
About Matthew
Matthew joined ACIL Allen after completing his appointment as the Victorian government’s Red Tape Commissioner from 2015 to 2018. Since then he has completed a range of projects for ACIL Allen clients while also being the founding Chair and Chief Executive of the South Australian Productivity Commission from 2018 to 2021.
Matthew’s long career includes leading more than twenty-five public inquiries into a broad range of public policy areas that include regulation, micro-economic reform, social policy issues and research and development.
As Red Tape Commissioner he worked with Victorian businesses and business associations to identify red tape and poor regulation that were constraining jobs and investment. He applied this intelligence to successfully pursue opportunities for better regulation with the top leadership of many Victorian regulators and agencies.
From 2008 to 2015, Matthew was the Chair of the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC) where he was an independent advisor to the Victorian Government on regulatory, economic and policy issues. At VCEC his many public inquiries included local government regulation, environmental regulation, a State-based reform agenda, school autonomy and Victoria’s regulatory framework. He was also accountable for Victoria’s regulatory impact assessment system, which saved Victoria more than $1.6 billion in avoided regulatory inefficiencies during that period.
Matthew’s career prior to joining the Victorian public sector includes being a Commissioner of the Productivity Commission and senior executive roles in CRA Ltd (now Rio Tinto), Newcrest Mining and management consulting. He also has held senior roles in the Commonwealth, including Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Treasury and the Department of Employment, Education and Training.
Matthew holds a first class honours degree in economics from the Australian National University and a doctorate in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday honours in 2023 for services to economic and social research and for public policy.