Government announces jobs summit, says industrial relations, training will be examined

The Government says people will be free to discuss the hot-button issues of industrial relations and training at its jobs summit next month.

The summit, announced yesterday, was a response to structural changes in the economy and the 1,000 job cuts announced by steelmaker Bluescope, the Government told SmartCompany this morning.

A spokesman for the Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan says the guest list for the summit has not been finalised, although there will likely be some cross-over between the two-day tax summit that will precede it.

The forum will be held on October 6 at Parliament House. The 80 attendees will include politicians, business groups, unions, politicians and academics. 

Topics named for discussion include:

• The changing structure of the Australian economy.
• Drivers of job creation and investment.
• Manufacturing in the next decade.
• Adapting to the high dollar.
• Seizing new opportunities through innovation, competition and partnership.

The spokesman said the Government is “looking forward to a wide-ranging discussion at the Future Jobs Forum and of course participants will raise a variety of issues”. The Government is “happy to debate” any issue with the Fair Work Act, he said.

“Restoring fairness to Australian workplaces is one of the achievements that this Government is most proud of and we will continue to talk to business about the best way to build productivity in areas like increasing the skills and training of our workforce.”

Small business has welcomed plans for the jobs summit, and says industrial relations and training will be top of their agenda.

“Anything to focus on jobs is a good thing,” Peter Strong, executive director of the Council of Small Business of Australia, says.

“And given 80% of employment places are small business places, we’re a pretty important group to include on the list,” Strong says.

“But we would like industrial relations and training to be on the agenda.”

“Most training is focused on big business, because they have the capacity to manage it, and they get frustrated with small business if they don’t have the same capacity as big business.”

“We need a separate system.”

The announcement of the comments follows calls for an inquiry into the manufacturing industry, and the release of official data showing the monthly unemployment rate has jumped to 5.3%.

According to The Age, the ACTU has warned employer groups not to use the event as “another soapbox for their campaign to take Australia back to WorkChoices”, while Australian Industry Group chief Heather Ridout says finding the best policy is more important than talks.