Category: Australian News

The Jobs and Skills Summit has brought Australians together to agree on immediate actions to help build a stronger economy and a stronger Australia.

Government, employers, unions and the broader community will take forward initiatives to help build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce, boost real wages and living standards, and create more opportunities for more Australians.

The Albanese Government will ensure full employment, productivity growth and equal opportunities for women are central objectives of its economic and fiscal policy.

We will work towards reducing barriers to employment so that all Australians have the opportunity to participate to their full potential.

Working with industry, unions and other stakeholders at the Summit, the Albanese Government has agreed to 36 immediate initiatives including:

1. An additional $1 billion in joint Federal-State funding for fee-free TAFE in 2023 and accelerated delivery of 465,000 fee-free TAFE places;
2. A one-off income credit so that Age Pensioners who want to work can earn an additional $4,000 over this financial year without losing any of their pension;
3. More flexibly utilising $575 million in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to invest in social and affordable housing, and attract financing from superannuation funds and other sources of private capital; 
4. Modernising Australia’s workplace relations laws, including to make bargaining accessible for all workers and businesses; 
5. Amending the Fair Work Act to strengthen access to flexible working arrangements, make unpaid parental leave more flexible and strengthen protection for workers against discrimination and harassment; 
6. Improving access to jobs and training pathways for women, First Nations people, regional Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse people, including equity targets for training places, 1,000 digital apprenticeships in the Australian Public Service, and other measures to reduce barriers to employment;
7. An increase in the permanent Migration Program ceiling to 195,000 in 2022-23 to help ease widespread, critical workforce shortages; and
8. Extending visas and relaxing work restrictions on international students to strengthen the pipeline of skilled labour, and providing additional funding to resolve the visa backlog

We thank those who stepped up and spoke up at the Summit and the more than 100 roundtables held prior to the Summit in communities across the country, for their fresh ideas and open and constructive approach to addressing our nation’s big economic challenges.

Many of the ideas and suggestions raised will be explored further over the next 12 months as part of the Employment White Paper, which will further help shape the future of Australia’s labour market.

The Albanese Government will release the terms of reference for the White Paper and begin accepting submissions later this month.

The Summit and roundtables have proven there is a genuine desire across our country to come together to have a mature, forward-looking debate and to look for common ground.

The Albanese Government will seek to maintain this spirit of cooperation and collaboration in the months and years ahead.

The Jobs and Skills Summit outcomes document can be viewed in full at www.treasury.gov.au/employment-whitepaper/jobs-summit

Age and Veterans Pensioners will be able to earn an additional $4000 over this financial year without losing any of their pension due to the Albanese Labor Government providing a one-off income credit designed to give older Australians the option to work and keep more of their money.

Following the successful Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra, an immediate $4000 income credit will be added to the income banks of Age Pensioners from December to be used this financial year.

The temporary income bank top up will increase the amount pensioners can earn from $7800 to $11,800 this year, before their pension is reduced.

The measure is designed to enable pensioners who want to work to immediately boost the supply of labour to help meet shortages.

Pensioners will be able to do so without losing their pension, either in short stints or over the course of a year.

The $4000 temporary credit will be available until June 30, 2023, subject to the passage of legislation.

The Government will also look to strengthen legislation to ensure pensioners who are working don’t get unnecessarily kicked out of the social security system.

The Government will expedite legislation to ensure pensioners don’t have to reapply for payments for up to two years if their employment income exceeds the income limit. Currently their connection to social security is cancelled after 12 weeks of exceeding the income limit.

Pensioners will also retain access to their Pensioner Concession Card and associated benefits for two years.

These changes will give older Australians the option to take up work if they wish to do so.

This is an important measure to ensure older Australians have the option to remain in the workforce if they wish to without losing access to their pension and benefits.

It will mean if they wish to work for short periods of time they can also, broadening their choices.

The Greens welcome the joint agreement of business groups and unions, and support the ACTU and Business Council of Australia in urging the government to expand paid parental leave to 26 weeks.

The Greens’ PPL plan called for 26 weeks with payments that match salaries up to $100k pa, super paid on leave, and ‘use it or lose it’ incentives built in to encourage shared parenting, and we’re glad to see these groups coming onboard.

Greens deputy leader and spokesperson on women Senator Larissa Waters said: 

“The Labor government knows that we need a fairer paid parental leave scheme. They have made the right noises in the past, but have no current plans to extend leave, increase payments, add superannuation, or incentivi\se shared care. If they are genuine about increasing women’s workforce participation and closing the gender pay gap, we need action on this now.

“The current parental leave scheme tends to lock mums into the role of primary carer and the loss of work opportunities that comes with it. We need to do much more to encourage both parents to share the parenting load, and to normalise working arrangements that help families juggle work and caring responsibilities. 

“We know from the experience in other countries that more equitable parental leave, coupled with free childcare, has a significant impact on women’s workforce participation. It also helps to shape long term sharing of childcare and unpaid household tasks.

“The current system allows parents to share parental leave, yet only 1 in 20 dads takes more than two weeks. “Use it or lose it” provisions create real incentives for both parents to take leave.  We know that it works because when countries like Sweden and Iceland introduced “use it or lose it” they saw a huge jump in shared care and that has been sustained for more than a decade.  

“Childcare is still not free, care work is still undervalued, and the minimum wage and income support payments, which more women than men receive, are still too low.

“The Greens’ plan will reduce the amount of time women are missing a pay cheque and provide families with more incentives, and more support, to share caring responsibilities more fairly.

National Cabinet met in Sydney today to discuss COVID-19 settings and key joint-actions for the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd provided an update on the pandemic and outlined strategies for combating potential COVID-19 waves.

First Ministers reinforced their commitment to continued collaboration between commonwealth, state and territory governments in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Cabinet agreed to reduce the isolation periods for COVID-19 positive cases from seven to five following a positive test, with the following caveats:

• This would apply to people with no symptoms at five days.
• Seven days isolation remains for workers in high risk setting including aged care, disability care, those providing care in the home.

This is a proportionate response at this point in the pandemic.

These changes will come into effect from Friday 9 September, with the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment (PLDP) eligibility to reflect the changed isolation periods, effective the same date.

National Cabinet also agreed to remove the mandatory wearing of masks on domestic flights. This change will also come into effect from Friday 9 September.

Ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit, First Ministers discussed ongoing workforce shortages impacting Australia’s economy and employers’ access to skilled workers. They agreed on the vision statement and guiding principles for a new National Skills Agreement.

First Ministers discussed the essential role of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as part of the education system and as a powerful lever for increasing participation of women in the workforce.

The National Cabinet agreed on the importance of delivering nationally significant energy transmission projects, and supporting regional communities and workforces to capture the opportunities emerging from Australia’s transition to a net zero emissions economy.

First Ministers agreed:

• Commence work on a new National Skills Agreement in place from 1 January 2024 informed by the vision statement and guiding principles.
• State and Territory Energy Ministers will work towards implementing reforms to accelerate the delivery of transmission projects. Regional communities will benefit from the investment, employment and training opportunities presented by the energy transition.
• Work together on a long-term vision for ECEC to better support parents’ workforce participation and deliver improved early learning and child development outcomes as a national priority.
• That Education and Early Years Ministers will work together to identify priority areas where governments can collaborate to support better outcomes across the system, with a particular focus on Early Childhood Education and Care workforce shortages, and with an update on progress to be provided to National Cabinet by the end of 2022.
• Housing affordability issues will be discussed at the next in person meeting of the National Cabinet.
• The National Cabinet also agreed to task the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to acceleration skills and qualification recognition in key sectors.

The National Cabinet remains committed to working together on national priorities and will meet again next month.

New independent research from the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that Labor’s Stage 3 Tax cuts will give Australia’s richest 1% as much as the bottom 65% of taxpayers in its first year.

Amid a cost of living crisis, the data confirms that the Stage 3 tax cuts will effectively dismantle Australia’s progressive taxation system, and overwhelmingly favour the nation’s richest people.

Women will get around 50c for every dollar a man receives, further increasing gender inequality, and a huge proportion of the $243.5bn will go to people in the top tax bracket. 

Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens said:
“Labor’s Stage 3 tax cuts for billionaires and the wealthy will turbocharge inequality and widen the gender pay gap. 
“This week’s Jobs Summit must reconsider the Stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy, or everyday workers will fall further behind.
“In their first year, these tax cuts will give the top 1% of income earners as much as the bottom 65% combined. 
“Labor’s Stage 3 tax cuts cost a fortune, and the wealthiest 20% get close to 80% of the money.
“Labor’s Jobs Summit and the October Budget must deliver cost of living relief for everyday people now, axing the tax cuts for billionaires and funding dental into Medicare, free childcare and affordable housing instead.”

Other major takeaways from the PBO costing released today include:

• The cost of the tax cuts has blown out to $243.5 billion
• $188 billion or 77% of the benefit of these tax cuts will go to the wealthiest 20% of the population (and over the coming Budget estimates period, the inequality is even worse, with the top 20% getting 80% of the money)  
• $160bn will go to men, with just $80bn to go to women

Australian Greens spokesperson for social services, Senator Janet Rice, has scoffed at Minister Rishworth’s assertion this morning that there is simply no room in the October budget to lift income support.

Senator Rice said:

“Poverty is a political choice.

“This ‘would that it were’ pretence of having no room in the budget to raise Jobseeker because of the former government, but that otherwise Labor would love to help struggling Australians, is as absurd as it is hypocritical.

“Labor can find plenty of room in the budget to give billions in welfare to people like Clive Palmer, but nothing for Jobseekers.

“Here’s an idea: instead of handing out over $243 billion in Stage 3 tax cuts for the rich, raise the rate of income support payments for people living in poverty. 

“We are in a cost of living crisis and people can’t even afford the basics to get by. Minister Rishworth is choosing to make life harder and more stressful for people on income support.

“Labor is about to host the Jobs Summit, yet they’re ignoring people on starvation-payments and have no plan to help people on Jobseeker cover the costs associated with looking for a job.

“There’s no daylight between Labor and the Coalition when it comes to the millions of Australians living in poverty. 

“Parliament must respond to the cost of living impacts for people on starvation wages and income support. The Greens are fighting for a livable income guarantee that would raise payments to $88 a day, above the poverty line.”

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has expressed deep reservations about any weakening of the Better Off Overall Test, in light of demands by the Business Council of Australia.

Excerpts from Greens Leader Adam Bandt’s address to a pre-Jobs Summit event hosted by law firm Kingston Reid on Wednesday 31 August:

“With the Liberals sitting this one out, whatever deal is reached at the Summit needs the Greens support or it won’t pass the Parliament. The Greens hold the balance of power, and we stand ready to amend whatever comes across our desk so it lifts wages, improves rights at work, and reduces cost of living.

“The Greens are also very worried about recent calls to weaken the ‘better off overall test’, because this will lead to workers being worse off.

“The test protects workers, especially young and casual workers, from getting even less than the already low award minimum wages and conditions.

“Major supermarkets and fast food chains stole hundreds of millions of dollars from workers through agreements that left these workers worse off.

“These dodgy agreements saw already low-paid workers receive less than the award, and now the big corporations want to make this rip-off legal.

“It is deeply distressing to see even the Labor government now open to changing the Fair Work Act to endorse this illegal behaviour.

“The Greens cannot back the Summit striking deals that leave young and low paid workers worse off.

“The Greens want the Summit to agree on three fundamental areas of reform. 

1. Take back some of the power of big corporations, and give it to everyday people. This starts by rebuilding union membership, removing the restrictions on bargaining and axing the unfair restrictions on industrial action. As we rebalance the relationship between work and care, we must also give people greater control over their own working hours and arrangements; 
2. Government must lift wages. The floor of our wage system has rotted. We need to increase wages from the bottom up, and start re-regulating the wages of the lowest paid and women-dominated professions by requiring their wages grow faster than inflation. And we need to lift income support to $88 a day;
3. Government must reduce the costs of essentials. Make childcare free, put dental and mental health into Medicare, cap rents and build affordable homes, all funded by axing the Stage 3 tax cuts for billionaires and the very wealthy.”

Senator for South Australia and Employment spokesperson Barbara Pocock will be attending the Jobs and Skills summit alongside Greens Party Leader Adam Bandt. Barbara is a labour market expert and Emeritus Professor and is currently chairing the Senate’s first Select Committee inquiry on Work and Care.

Senator Pocock will argue at the summit workers need both a pay rise, and practical help with the cost of childcare, health and housing – things that are all essential to participation in work. Savings from reversing the Stage 3 tax cuts can be used to fund this, rather than boosting the income of the very wealthy and fueling further inequality. 

Senator Barbara Pocock said:

“I am attending the Jobs Summit, alongside Adam Bandt, to advocate for improving the lives of workers. 

“I will be bringing practical pathways forward to improve employment outcomes for women to the Jobs and Skills summit.

“We need immediate relief on the cost of living crisis. Instead of tax cuts to Australia’s richest 1%, the government should fund free childcare, get dental into Medicare and build affordable housing, giving households real cost living relief immediately.

“The Greens will be exercising our review power in the Senate.

“On top of the 60 extra days it takes women to earn the same average wage as men, women do twice as much unpaid work and care. It’s time to fix the pay gap AND ease the pressure on working carers.

“South Australian workers need an improvement of minimum wages, implementation of fairer industry wage bargaining and a plan to ensure women get a fair share of future jobs in a low carbon economy.

The Australian Government is deeply disappointed that the tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) did not reach a consensus outcome, despite the urgency of the international security environment.

After four weeks of negotiations in New York, all State Parties except Russia were ready to agree to a meaningful and balanced outcome across the treaty’s three pillars: disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Russia has deliberately obstructed progress. Its actions directly challenge core tenets of the NPT.

We condemn Russia’s ongoing unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression and call on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.

At the heart of the NPT is the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, a goal to which Australia remains deeply committed.

Australia is steadfast in our support of the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime. Irrespective of this outcome, the treaty continues to deliver tangible security benefits to us all.

We must redouble our efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Australia will continue to make constructive contributions and work with others to strengthen the NPT.

I thank Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres for leading Australia’s delegation to the Conference earlier this month and delivering our National Statement.

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and International Aid spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that Australia must immediately provide aid funding and assistance to Pakistan as the country deals with unprecedented and disastrous flooding.

Senator Faruqi said:

“What’s unfolding in Pakistan right now is nothing short of disastrous and horrific. We are seeing people who did little to contribute to the climate emergency facing its worst consequences.

“Australia should deliver aid funding and assistance to support relief and reconstruction efforts, as well as the planning of climate-resilient infrastructure which can better withstand floods and extreme weather.

“Australia has a clear role to play here: not only as a wealthy country in our region, but also as a big contributor to the climate crisis which is driving more disasters.

“Australia needs to view the climate crisis with the urgency it demands, and commit to no new coal and gas as well as net zero emissions by 2035. That’s the action needed to tackle the systemic causes of the tragedies we see unfolding today.”