Today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a post-pandemic economic plan ‘JobMaker’, to raise Australia’s suffering economy out of the “ICU”.

In an address to the National Press Club, Mr Morrison unveiled the Government’s three-to-five-year plan which targets two areas: industrial relations and vocational skills and training.

Industrial relations

The PM slammed the industrial relations system as “not fit for purpose” and identified the area as a key focus for the new scheme.

“It is a system that has to date retreated to tribalism, conflict and ideological posturing … this will need to change or more Australians will unnecessarily lose their jobs,” he said.

Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter will lead a new reform agenda process which will see five working groups consisting of representatives from business groups, unions and government to discuss prominent issues that impact job making.

On the working groups’ agenda: the simplification of five areas; modern awards, enterprise agreements, compliance and enforcement, casuals and fixed-term employees, and unions.

Morrison said small business owners will also get their chance to participate in the discussions directly.

Skills

The ‘JobMaker’ plan will reform Australia’s “clunky and unresponsive” vocational and training system to stimulate jobs after the pandemic left at least 1.3 million people unemployed.

Mr Morrison said the Federal Government is focused on reshaping the training system by ensuring funding for skills training is more closely aligned to the skill gaps businesses need.

“We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create. It’s that simple,” Mr Morrison said.

Industry will have greater power to shape Australia’s future trade and skilled workforce with three pilots which have already been established, focusing on human service, digital technologies and mining.

The Prime Minister said that more information on boosting small and medium business growth will be made available over the next few months in the lead-up to the budget.

The Government is responding quickly to the current situation at hand with a number of initiatives and proposed changes. If you have any queries regarding your business’s workplace operations, please contact the team at enableHR.