Jobs & Skills Summit Preview

Jobs & Skills Summit Preview

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What is it

• The Jobs & Skills Summit is a two day conference to be hosted by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers on 1-2 September 2022.
• The summit will bring together 100 people from unions, businesses, civil society and government. Tickets are by invitation only.
• The Treasury defines the goal of the Summit as “to find common ground on how Australia can build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce; boost real wages and living standards; and create more opportunities for more Australians.”
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has stated that the key focus is on immediate economic challenges such as labour and skills shortages, industrial relations and productivity.
• Greens leader Adam Bandt has accepted an invitation to attend the Summit, as has Nationals leader David Littleproud.
• Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton rejected the invitation claiming the Summit is a “union stunt”.
• Bandt says he will use the Summit to advocate for the scrapping of stage 3 tax cuts, a move Labor will certainly oppose.
• Littleproud said his attendance is necessary to make sure regional Australia is represented.
• NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, who is attending the Summit, said on the weekend “I’m disappointed it seems to be that the jobs summit to many degrees has been overtaken by the unions… we need a productivity discussion.”
• The Summit comes amidst a global labour crisis.
• Outcomes from the Summit will likely be put into place as soon as the October Federal Budget.

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What to expect

The Summit will cover five broad themes: 

• 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 Treasury has released an issues paper in an attempt to keep careful control over the agenda of the Summit. 

You can download the paper here.

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How to follow it

While tickets are limited, the summit will be heavily publicised by the government through the media. 

Following the Summit, public submissions will be open for the treasury's employment white paper. They can be submitted here: employmentwhitepaper@treasury.gov.au

The employment white paper is expected to be published in the next 12 months and will shape much of the government’s coming labour policy.

Further updates will be posted on the Treasury website: https://treasury.gov.au/

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