Stagnating Summit’s Shortfalls – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Real solutions

I don’t doubt that concessions will be generated from the Job Summit, but they will be bandages rather than solutions. But what would serious reform of the jobs market include?

1. Restoration and widening the scope of the public service/taxation/health/education/industrial relations departments.
2. Reviewing agricultural policy that subsidises agricultural employment – subject to annual review of employee conditions – to maintain viable, essential food security and attract Australians to farms. (As outlined above).
3. Nationalising private employment agencies and implementing ambitious public sector-driven active labour market programs comparable to what exists in Scandinavia.
4. An end to TAFE & university education fees to facilitate a more highly educated public that can reduce the growing professional job vacancies.
5. Establishment of technically based career paths from entry-level positions to professional and senior executive roles.
6. A return to centralised wage-fixing such as what existed in the 1970s.
7. A decrease in the exploitation of migrant labour by increasing random fair work inspections of workplaces backed by substantial legal penalties.
8. Expansion of cadetships and apprenticeships, and graduate programs in public service departments.
9. End costly Public Private Partnerships infrastructure projects to staff public sector expertise for infrastructure development fully.
10. A Federal Job Guarantee linked to career paths.
11. Implementing a Green New Deal where energy and transport infrastructure is wholly returned to the public sector.

I am confident I can predict none of these, especially the re-conceptions of the public sector, will come out of this weekend’s Jobs Summit. The reason is necessary, and fair reform isn’t on the agenda. Besides this, the way they measure Australia’s unemployment and the issues and focus on what job vacancies matter is misdirected.

Stagnating Summit’s Shortfalls – » The Australian Independent Media Network