Australia is struggling to fill critical skills gaps while hundreds of thousands of qualified migrants work below their capabilities. A longer-term migration strategy could help unlock that wasted talent. (more…)
Category: Employment
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Fixing the APS remuneration mess
Australia’s public service pay system remains fragmented after decades of failed reform. Fixing it requires a coherent APS-wide approach to classifications, labour markets, remuneration and the merit principle itself. (more…)
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Civilisation will end not with a bang, but with Attachment B
From hospitals and universities to IT systems, the machinery of compliance meant to reduce risk is increasingly swallowing the work it was designed to support. (more…)
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Can AI fix Australia’s cost-of-living crisis? Part two: Maximising the benefits from AI
AI could lift productivity and living standards, but without stronger government leadership, workers risk missing out on the benefits at the same time as bearing the costs. (more…)
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The 80,000 native forest jobs claim doesn’t add up
The forest industry claims 80,000 jobs are threatened by a proposed new forest carbon method. But employment data from three states tell a very different story, according to David Lindenmayer (more…)
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Gig workers get new rights – without the catastrophe platforms predicted
New minimum standards will give food delivery workers an earnings floor, accident cover and clearer workplace protections. The changes also test years of warnings that regulating gig work would send delivery prices soaring. (more…)
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Australia is wasting the skills migrants bring
Almost half of skilled migrants are working below their qualification level, while Australia’s complex recognition system leaves urgently needed teachers, nurses, engineers and tradespeople underused. (more…)
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Albanese sees the problem. Labor still cannot name the system
Anthony Albanese acknowledged structural problems in the economy at its National Conference, but Labor still treats capitalism as a system to be repaired rather than transformed. (more…)
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Pauline’s poisonous politics – Message from the Editor
A little while after Pauline Hanson graduated from Ipswich City Council politics to take the Queensland seat of Oxley, I ran into her in a Canberra pub. This isn’t as unlikely as it sounds. Journalists and politicians often drink together, or at least in close proximity to each other, and in the late 1990s Canberra had so few drinking holes that collisions were inevitable.
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Australia needs to retain women in STEM careers
If we are serious about productivity, innovation and long-term economic resilience, we cannot afford to keep losing women from STEM occupations and leadership pipelines. We cannot afford to overlook experience. And we cannot afford decision-making structures that draw from only part of the population. (more…)
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Connect people leaving prison with a job: it works!
Almost everyone in prison today will return to our communities. Whether they reoffend depends on what we do to prevent recidivism. In Western Australia, we know what works – prisoner employment programs – so the question is will we allow it to happen instead of relying on counterproductive risk management and control strategies? (more…)
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The gig economy promises freedom. The reality is different
What looks like reckless behaviour on the streets reflects a deeper system of incentives in the gig economy that rewards speed, constant availability and risk-taking. (more…)
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Women are reshaping the workforce – but power hasn’t followed
Women are increasingly dominant across education and the workforce, but leadership, workplace structures and social attitudes have failed to keep pace.
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What a surprise spike in the unemployment rate means for interest rates and the economy
The rate of unemployment in Australia is on the rise again. Official labour force data released on Thursday shows that in the month to September, Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped from 4.3% to 4.5%. (more…)
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Fortescue cuts hundreds of jobs in UK and Australia; EV motor making sent to China
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals is cutting several hundred jobs in the UK and Australia following a decision to send manufacturing activities to China, including for the motors and power trains of its planned giant electric haul trucks. (more…)
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Who would be a carer?
Whether because of temporary disability or permanent need, the demand for accessible “holiday” accommodation is growing with our ageing population. (more…)
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1 in 3 Australians in their late 60s are still working, new HILDA survey shows
Australia has seen a dramatic transformation of retirement over the past 20 years, with more Australians delaying retirement than ever before, reshaping expectations for later life. (more…)
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The social smog of neoliberalism: How competition breeds violence and division
The Industrial Revolution transformed the material basis of human life. By harnessing energy and perfecting machines, engineers satisfied physical needs on a mass scale. (more…)
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Why a surprise jump in unemployment isn’t as bad as it sounds
New figures show Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.3% – its highest level since late 2021 – in June this year, up from 4.1% in May. (more…)
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The evil phoenix: Quenching the fire of its rebirth
This is a $5 billion scam hurting honest Australians. (more…)
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Mental health of workers undermined in New South Wales
The NSW Government is seeking to pursue legislative changes that would ultimately worsen mental health outcomes for working people. (more…)
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If I were minister for employment services: No more bastardry dressed up as policy
If I were minister for employment services, I’d begin by stating what should already be obvious: Australia’s employment services system is not fit for purpose. (more…)
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Sherlock Holmes investigates the wages explosion that never was
I like to imagine that, if Arthur Conan Doyle were still alive, and had turned his creation, Sherlock Holmes, to solving the economic mysteries of the 21st century, he would have written this conversation: (more…)
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Building Australia’s future – For whom?
As the next federal election looms, the Albanese Government is preparing to campaign under a new slogan: “Building Australia’s Future”. (more…)
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OSCA’s quiet arrival: Rethinking how Australia defines work
Australia’s new job classification system, OSCA, replaces ANZSCO with little fanfare. Its streamlined approach raises questions about workforce planning, transparency, and the evolving definition of work. (more…)
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Reimagining public housing: the transformative potential of Centrelink’s Voluntary Work Program
The current housing crisis is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of transforming homes into investment vehicles. And it has been decades in the building. The only thing unique about the present crisis is that it is now destabilising both the major political parties – in that sense the housing crisis is now a political crisis. The impending federal election campaign will no doubt reveal a raft of proposed political fixes that may or may not exacerbate the crisis. (more…)
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The public service: back in from the cold
The Albanese government has begun to rebuild Australia’s shattered Public Service. The government’s fate depends significantly on it — but there’s much still to do. (more…)
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A flicker of reform: Can Labor avoid political collapse?
As the Albanese government announces modest employment services reforms, it faces growing disillusionment and risks losing ground to Peter Dutton’s Trump-inspired exploitation of economic and cultural frustrations. (more…)
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Productivity, innovation and industrial structure
The traditional market model of comparative advantage denies Australia the more promising strategic opportunity to identify and capitalise on areas of potential competitive advantage in the high productivity, high-skill jobs and industries of the future, including advanced manufacturing. Instead, with this model we will be locked into low-productivity, low-wage industries, with limited scope for uplift through technological change and innovation, writes Emeritus Professor Roy Green AM. (more…)
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A blueprint for inaction – the government’s feeble response to Employment Services crisis
Amid rising demands for robust employment reforms, the Albanese government’s response disappoints, offering vague promises over decisive action. This critique unpacks why minimal improvements and continued reliance on flawed policies may leave the most vulnerable behind, questioning if mere mediocrity is the new standard. (more…)