Ross Stitt assesses the Jobs and Skills Summit organised by Australia's new Labor government

For two days last week a disparate collection of Australia’s movers and shakers gathered in Canberra for the new Labor government’s first ‘Jobs and Skills Summit’ – 150 politicians, academics, businesspeople, and unionists.  

The purpose of the summit?

Well it certainly wasn’t to address an unemployment problem. The unemployment rate is currently sitting at a 50-year low of just 3.4% and there are more available jobs than there are job seekers. Some argue that there is now effectively no unemployment in Australia. 

Going into the summit, the different groups attending had very different priorities. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) had a raft of concerns, including the failure of government and business to provide adequate training for workers, the country’s overreliance on temporary foreign workers, problems with the childcare system, the need for reform of employer/employee bargaining rules, and, most significantly, the “wage crisis” i.e. falling real wages for most Australian workers in the face of rising inflation.

For the business sector, key issues included the current chronic labour shortages and skill deficiencies in the workforce attributable to poor literacy and numeracy outcomes in the school system and failures in the university and technical training sectors.

For the government, the summit had many purposes, some social, some economic, and, undoubtedly, some political. The first two were covered by the five key themes identified in the ‘issues paper’ released by the government before the summit –

• maintaining full employment and growing productivity
• boosting job security and wages  
• lifting participation and reducing barriers to employment  
• delivering a high‑quality labour force through skills, training and migration  
• maximising opportunities in the industries of the future. 

The government’s political objectives were unstated but obvious. After the frequently confrontational politics of his predecessor Scott Morrison, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was eager to project an image as a consensus builder, someone who can work with employers, unions, and other interest groups for the good of the nation.        

No doubt, he also saw an opportunity to advance his party’s popularity with women. Addressing the gender pay gap, ensuring equal employment opportunities for women, and improving childcare were all flagged as summit goals. (Interestingly, more than 50% of the summiteers were women).

The leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton, condemned the summit as nothing more than a pointless talkfest, a political stunt. He refused to attend.

There was plenty of room for cynicism. What could 150 people – many of them among the biggest egos and windbags in the country – achieve in just two days of talking?

Of course, the reality was that much of the work was done before the summit began. For example, the ACTU and the Business Council of Australia had already had discussions and on the eve of the summit issued a joint statement of “agreed principles and policy suggestions”.

More importantly, prior to the summit the government developed many new policies relevant to employment, training, and immigration. These were announced at or around the summit by the PM, the Treasurer, and other relevant government ministers.

During the two days that the summit took place, the media were awash with reports and commentary. The casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that the summiteers were solving many of Australia’s most pressing problems. There was talk of upskilling workers, welcoming new migrants, enhancing the ‘care economy’, simplifying the industrial relations system, adding more apprenticeships and training spaces, streamlining immigration, and increasing the participation of women and seniors in the workforce.       

No one was surprised then when it was announced that “working with industry, unions and other stakeholders at the Summit, the Albanese Government has agreed to 36 immediate initiatives”. The Treasurer subsequently described them as “concrete” outcomes.

Some are more concrete than others, including –

$1 billion for the funding of 180,000 fee-free TAFE (Technical And Further Education) places in 2023 and the acceleration of 285,000 additional fee-free TAFE places to improve jobs skills.

An increase of 35,000 in the number of permanent migrants in 2022-23 (to 195,000) to ease skills shortages.

A two-year increase in the period foreign graduates can stay in Australia post study and a relaxation of work restrictions for student and training visa holders to reduce labour shortages.

A $4,000 increase in the amount that age pensioners can earn before their pension is reduced to encourage seniors to stay in, or return to, the workforce.

A less concrete outcome was a commitment to establish a new government agency, ‘Jobs and Skills Australia’, “to address workforce shortages and build long term capacity in priority sectors”. An amorphous but laudable goal.

Another important announcement was a fundamental “review of the purpose, structure and objectives of Australia’s migration system to ensure it meets the challenges of the coming decade”.

Immigration is now a major political issue. There is enormous pressure on the government to increase migrant numbers dramatically in the next few years to solve chronic labour shortages and drive economic growth. The Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is acutely aware of the international war for talent and the pressing need for Australia to attract the world’s skilled migrants. As she said at the summit, 

Those best and brightest minds, who are on the move around the world, they are looking to live in countries like Canada, Germany and UK, and those countries are rolling out a red carpet to welcome them in.

Perhaps the greatest uncertainty arising out of the summit is what it means for Australia’s industrial relations system, and employer/employee bargaining in particular. The 36 initiatives include some fine words about ensuring that all workers and businesses “can negotiate in good faith for agreements that benefit them” and “have flexible options for reaching agreements”. The government, employers, and unions agreed at the summit to consult further on these potentially divisive issues.

Predictably, Dutton was scathing about what the summit means for industrial relations - “The unions are being revitalised. … They’re emboldened and it’s going to be a dangerous period for the Australian economy.” 

Equally predictably, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the summit as the “beginning of a new era of co-operation and consensus”.

Time will tell who’s right.  

*Ross Stitt is a freelance writer with a PhD in political science. He is a New Zealander based in Sydney. His articles are part of our 'Understanding Australia' series.