We welcome the Prime Minister’s bold vision for jobs powered recovery with a skills system that allows Australians to quickly take advantage of new industries and opportunities alongside a workplace relations system that supports job creation and higher wages, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.
“The strength and speed of our recovery will depend on our ability to create new jobs, attract new businesses and build new industries.
“The Prime Minister is absolutely right that businesses creating jobs are at centre of the economy.
“He has today put forward a sensible and practical plan to finally break the deadlock on workplace relations reform and build on the unprecedented co-operation that has steered us during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Business Council will be at the table working constructively to drive the recovery by reshaping the workplace relations system so employers can create more jobs and workers can share the gains of higher wages and improved conditions.
“The significance of this opportunity cannot be understated. The Prime Minister’s way forward by setting up problem-solving working groups gives business, unions, and workers a rare chance to once and for all reform the system so that it benefits the entire community.
“A modern workplace relations system gives businesses the ability to adapt, scale up and grow in response to rapid change, and a better skills system that lets workers reskill and upskill quickly go hand in hand.
“The COVID-19 crisis has brought the flaws in our skills systems into sharp focus.
“Our skills system is clunky and out-dated, distorted funding between VET and Higher Education has created a skills mismatch and workers and students don’t have the information they need to make good decisions.
“Skills reform will mean that people can not only re-skill faster, but they will be learning the skills that industry needs and the skills that will power the recovery.”
“To protect Australians and create new jobs we must ensure our training and education systems are fit-for-purpose and focused on lifelong learning.
“There has never been a more important time to accelerate the pace at which people can acquire the new skills that businesses need because that is what gets them back into the workforce as soon as possible.
“The Business Council has long supported a more modern skills system because it is the key to protecting Australian workers with better jobs, new jobs and higher paid jobs.
“Together we can give Australians the best skills in the world, strengthen our workplace relations system so it works for employees and employers and make it easier to create the new jobs we will need.”
