The National Jobs and Skills Summit to be held in Canberra this week has captured the headlines, with various interest groups firing shots across the bow in an attempt to set the agenda.
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.
This will occur over just two days with themes that are admirable in their intent but often at odds with one another.
It is a tightly held event with only 100 invitees representing business operators, business associations, unions, government and other key stakeholders. Information on who is attending has been scant, in fact it is easier to find someone who has been excluded rather than one who is participating.
To have the SA business voice heard, we met with the Premier – who is at least one South Australian who will be in attendance – and our national chamber in Canberra as they have two spots at the Summit. We also heard directly from the Federal Treasurer and the Minister for Skills and Training about their ambitions for the gathering.
Our message in these discussions has been clear and consistent. The Summit must address the skills shortage immediately and in the longer term through training, upskilling, reskilling, and targeted and accessible migration programmes. We do not want wages to be discussed independently of productivity, nor do we wish a return to the collective bargaining measures of decades ago that have been proposed by some unions.
In talking to our members, their feedback around attracting staff in a full employment environment was as expected – it is tough. The need to attract skilled and unskilled workers to the State – either from around Australia or overseas is one key part of the solution. In the case of international arrivals, we are not only challenged by lengthy processing delays and red tape – there are 60,000 unresolved visa applications in the system — but finding housing for them once they’re here is a major hurdle. Finding short-term accommodation when there is a red-hot rental market or buying property on the back of a housing boom, does not make a compelling case for potential migrant workers. Our case needs to be compelling because we are in a global competition for skilled labour. The skills shortage is by no means exclusive to Australia.
For our regional members, the lack of accommodation and infrastructure required to attract workers is amplified. They are in a catch 22 situation where they can’t find workers to build the accommodation they need, in order to attract the workers needing the accommodation. Compounding the problem is the cost and availability of raw materials to do the building.
The takeout is that migration is only part of the solution and may not be a quick fix. Skilled pathways and tapping into unengaged talent pools already on our doorstep is just as important. Just as population growth for the State is essential for long-term success, Government policy and programs should address this with urgency. To support this, we must find a way to create the housing and accommodation infrastructure that signals a secure future in moving to live and work in South Australia.
