Prime Minister Scott Morrison has unveiled the government’s “JobMaker” plan to get the country out of “intensive care” by focusing on job creation that is driven by comprehensive reforms.
Top of the prime minister’s agenda is focussing on skills and industrial relations.
Morrison wants training to be responsive to the demand for skills by employers, and to make it easier for students to decide on qualifications and see the quality of training providers, and the employment outcomes for those courses.
To that end, the government wants to reform the current National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development between the states and the Commonwealth which Morrison said is “fundamentally flawed and it has to change.”
Morrison revealed that the Minister for Industrial Relations will immediately lead negotiations involving employers, unions, employees, and governments to establish a new industrial relation compact that boosts employment and productivity.
“The purpose is simple and honest, to explore, and hopefully find, a pathway to sensible, long-lasting reform with just one goal—make jobs,” he said.
Morrison warned that the recovery could last up to five years, given the enormous challenges of a record deficit, debt rising above 30 percent of GDP, unemployment at around 10 percent, and global trade falling by up to one-third.
He also warned that emerging from the crisis shutdown is riskier than the lockdown itself, saying that success “cannot be assumed.”
“It will not be business as usual. Opening up will be harder than closing down,’’ he said. “We will all have to retrain to live and work in a way that creates a sustainable COVIDSafe economy and society.”
Jobkeeper Program
The prime minister also said that companies on the temporary Jobkeeper payment need to “get off the medication” before “becoming too accustomed to it.”“We must enable our businesses to earn Australia’s way out of this crisis. And that means focussing on the things that can make their businesses go faster.”
This is in line with the “business-led” recovery approach he has promoted before.