SA Business Journal

Students, pensioners, housing and industrial relations top Jobs and Skills Summit

Tuesday, September 6th 2022

Last week’s Jobs and Skills Summit saw a collegiate approach between business groups, unions and government to address the skills and staffing shortages affecting businesses. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Summit has spawned 36 concrete areas of action’ which will occur this year. 

It is noticeable that we are yet to see the full return of students to our State since the pandemic hit. We are encouraged by the announcement that students will be allowed two additional years of stay for recent graduates with select degrees in areas of verified skills shortages. This is a topic we are tackling with Study Adelaide at an event this Friday (visit our website to register) noting the significant opportunities to increase the number of students who make South Australia home.

The Australian Government is also extending the relaxation of work restrictions for student and training visa holders until 30 June 2023 to help ease skills and labour shortages. They can work more than 40 hours per fortnight in any sector of the economy.

We advocated for changes to be made to help pensioners return to the workforce. Australians on the aged and veterans’ pensions will now be able to earn extra income without losing their benefits. Pensioners can earn an extra $4,000 this financial year in a move that will help ease pressure on the tight labour market.

There is strong support from Australians for retirees to work unlimited hours and not lose any of their pension. Currently, only 2.9% of Australian pensioners work (Department of Social Services 2022). A survey by National Seniors revealed that 20 per cent would consider re-entering the workforce. Chief Advocate Ian Henschke says that more pensioners joining the workforce would be a game-changer for the Australian economy’.

We expected movement in the skilled migration cap, and it was the case, lifted now to 195,000 places for this financial year. The challenge in our crowded residential market is having somewhere for our new arrivals to live. At a recent the South Australian Business Chamber event on the role of property in fixing the skills crisis, there was spirited agreement across both social and commercial sectors that we need more housing if we are to attract migrants and grow our population.

The Australian Government announced a plan to attract more funding from super funds and private investors into housing projects. $575 million in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility has been made available to invest in affordable housing by attracting financing from super funds and other sources of private capital.

The biggest area of contention at the Summit was always going to be industrial relations. Both unions and business agree that the enterprise bargaining system does not work and support a simpler, fairer and more flexible system to grow productivity and lift wages. With the Government proposing changes to the Fair Work Act to allow multi-sector bargaining, business will be very interested in the detail and consultation in the months ahead to ensure this is not a step back to industry wide bargaining.

Author

Andrew Kay

Chief Executive Officer
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