Key events
Paul
Don’t rehash old conflicts: Albanese
Albanese asked jobs and skills summit participants not to “rehash old conflicts” and “dig deeper trenches on the same old battlefields”. He accepted that the summit can’t “fix every issue” and that not “everyone will be happy”.
Albanese said he is “standing here today” because Australians “want politics to operate differently”.
Albanese spoke about Australians represented at the summit including nurses, farmers, small business owners, people stacking shelves and cleaning offices, or moving freight around the country.
“These are the heroes of the pandemic,” he said. Businesses, unions and Australians rose to the challenges of the pandemic and can once again.
He said:
Let’s make every effort to turn agreement into action for the benefit of all Australians.
Every Australian “holds a stake” in outcome of jobs and skills summit, PM says
The prime minister Anthony Albanese finishes his opening address at the jobs and skills summit on a note of wanting to promote unity. He says:
Australians have conflict fatigue.
He says he wants Australians from people with a disability to veterans to feel fully empowered to participate in society.
Every Australian holds a stake in the outcome of our discussion.
The work of building a stronger economy should include everyone, should lift everyone up.
180,000 more fee-free Tafe places: Anthony Albanese
Paul Karp
Anthony Albanese is addressing the two-day jobs and skills summit.
Albanese announced that the commonwealth, states and territories have agreed at national cabinet to create 180,000 fee-free Tafe places for 2023, at a cost of $1.1bn.
Albanese described it as a “billion-dollar training blitz, delivered by public Tafe”. Costs will be shared between the federal and state governments.
Littleproud to push for agriculture visa to be reinstated at jobs summit
Before the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, defended the appointment of Lincoln Folo as the party’s new federal director, he spoke about what he hoped for regarding his attendance at the jobs and skills summit.
Littleproud said the challenges regional Australia faced were “more unique and acute” than those faced by the cities, and the solutions should also be. He said the National party “want to be in the tent” with constructive ideas at the jobs summit.
The Nationals leader says he wants the government to “admit they were wrong” and reinstate the agriculture visa to help the agricultural workforce. Labor announced pre-election their intent to change the visa by bringing it under the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility scheme.
Littleproud defends National Party federal director appointment
The leader of the Nationals David Littleproud has appeared on ABC Breakfast and was asked about the appointment of Lincoln Folo as the federal director of National Party in what has been described as a missed opportunity for greater gender representation in the party’s leadership.
Littleproud defended the appointment saying it was decided on merit.
Any decision should be based on merit.
The host of ABC RN, Patricia Karvelas pressed Littleproud, citing Guardian Australia’s story this morning that four male candidates were interviewed for the role but the three female candidates did not advance to the interview stage.
However, Littleproud said he had no concerns how this has played out, and that two of the three decision makers on the selection panel were women.
He defended the mechanics and the criteria by which the party selected the candidate.
Government open to proposal to boost paid parental leave
Gallagher is asked about whether she is open to the proposal put forward in the joint statement by the BCA and the ACTU to increase commonwealth-funded paid parental leave to 26 weeks. She responds:
Absolutely we will look at them … some of these big changes, while absolutely full of merit, are going to be a challenge in the context of the budget.
ABC RN’s host, Patricia Karvelas, asked Gallagher if there was a way the government could fund the increase to paid parental leave through reexamining the stage three tax cuts.
Gallagher said Labor didn’t have any plans to change the tax cuts, but had tried to do so when the tax cuts were initially being debated in parliament.
There’s a way you could fund it – looking at the stage 3 tax cuts, of which men are the biggest beneficiaries.. as Minister for Women, does that statistic sit comfortably with you?
“that’s the reality of the labour market at the moment..”
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) August 31, 2022
Bargaining system has a responsibility to help the care economy, Gallagher says
On ABC Radio, the minister for finance and women, Katy Gallagher, says there is a responsibility for the bargaining system to help the highly feminised care economy. She said:
I think there’s definitely an issue in the care economy where it’s a highly feminised industry, plagued by low wages, where the bargaining system has not worked for them.
We absolutely have the responsibility to look at ways to strengthen the bargaining system to make it applicable and relevant to those industries.
Minister for finance lauds agreement between trade unions and business council
Senator Katy Gallagher, the minister for finance and women, is speaking to ABC Radio ahead of the jobs and skills summit starting today.
Asked about the significance of the agreement made between the business council and council of trade unions, Gallagher said:
I think it’s a fantastic agreement. The purpose behind the jobs summit has been to find areas of agreement across government, industry and unions.
The summit is also starting a process that will be followed by an industrial relations white paper, which Gallagher said she hopes will see a “series of outcomes”.
NSW nurses on strike for 24 hours today
Nurses and midwives across NSW are walking off the job for 24 hours, while maintaining life-preserving care.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is calling for staffing guarantees, with one nurse for every four patients, to ensure the system is not overstretched and patients receive the best care.
The strike is the third this year, which the union’s general secretary, Shaye Candish, said is a sign the government is not listening to overworked health workers in an increasingly stretched sector reeling from the pandemic.
ABC Breakfast also asked the state premier, Dominic Perrottet, if his government’s approach with the transport union risks inflaming negotiations across the public sector with nurses on strike in NSW as well today. Perrottet said:
We’ve negotiated with all the unions in relation to their issues. We’ve made it clear in respect of wages policy here in our state, which is one of the most generous anywhere in the country.
– with AAP
Union members to vote on NSW government offer to end train strikes
The tension between the NSW government and transport union is escalating with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, yesterday issuing an ultimatum calling for an end to the industrial action.
Perrottet appeared on ABC News Breakfast asking if there’s been any changes overnight:
We will be putting an offer to the union and they will … take that to their members for a vote. I’ve made it very clear that if there’s any further industrial action on our network, whether Sydney trains or on the Metro, that we will apply to the Fair Work Commission for termination of the current agreement.
We’ll obviously protect and maintain the wages and conditions of the workers during that period of time. But we have negotiated now for a substantial period. With the rail union, in relation to these matters, over 58 meetings, 6,000 days of people’s time have gone into this. At every step of the way the union has created another issue and another issue and continued to inconvenience the people of our city. It’s got to stop.
And so, I’ve made it very clear yesterday they need to put the vote to their members and if they don’t, or if they continue this action, we will seek termination of the current agreement in the Fair Work Commission.
Good morning!
Natasha May
The big day is finally here for the government’s jobs and skills summit where over 140 representatives – from business to welfare groups and all levels of government – will meet in the hope of finding solutions to the problems facing the Australian economy.
One of the big topics on the agenda is the BOOT (the better off overall test). The minister for employment Tony Burke told ABC AM that the Boot requirement for enterprise bargains should be kept but ‘simplified’.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) have reached an agreement ahead of the summit on a number of issues, including reforming migration numbers and the enterprise bargaining system.
In the joint statement of agreed principles and policy suggestions released this morning, the ACTU and BCA also called for paid parental leave to be boosted to 26 weeks from 18.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, told ABC News Breakfast as the room of the summit was being set up behind him:
I feel cautiously optimistic about the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association is calling for the release of health advice underpinning the National Cabinet decision to reduce the Covid-19 isolation period from seven to five days.
In sporting news, Australian Nick Kyrgios is playing his second round US Open match against France’s Benjamin Bonzi, with Kyrgios clinching the first set in a tiebreak.
It’s a busy day, so let’s kick off!
