Not just a talkfest, federal Labor has come away with some next steps after the first day of its Jobs and Skills Summit. Picture by Elesa Kurtz
The Albanese government has confirmed, or at least announced, some actionable next steps from the first day of its jobs and skills summit.
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Here are five things what we learned about what is coming soon from the Thursday's discussions.
- Fair Work Act law reforms will be an "immediate action", Employment Minister Tony Burke confirmed. Public servants will begin consultation meetings next week. The reforms will include a focus on flexibility, unpaid parental leave, greater protections and multi-employer agreements.
- A national construction industry forum will be established involving unions, businesses and government. The forum will focus on solving issues in the male-dominated industry, such as mental health and safety.
- Sam Mostyn, an advocate and businesswoman, will head of the government's Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, which will assist with the development of the National Strategy for Gender Equality.
- Labor will bring forward 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in a support package for vocational education and training in the next budget in a bid to address skills shortages.
- For everything else that participants in the summit raised, the pressure will now be on Treasury's upcoming Employment White Paper and the next federal budget later this year to deal with those other issues. For example, childcare reforms, which Labor promised before the election, needed to be brought forward the summit was told. Submissions to the white paper will open later in 2022, Treasury says.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are hosting the summit in the Great Hall of Parliament House. Picture by Elesa Kurtz
READ MORE ON THE JOBS SUMMIT:
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Harley Dennett
Public Service Editor
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
