MINISTER for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government Catherine King met on Tuesday with industry, unions, local government, peak body groups and other stakeholders for a roundtable on jobs and skills in Australia’s regions.
This is the first of four roundtables the minister is hosting, with meetings later in the month occurring with the infrastructure, aviation and surface transport sectors.
Skills shortages, how workforces can support and adapt to the net-zero transition, taking advantage of regional and technological opportunities, and attracting diverse and talented workers are just some of the topics to be explored across the four roundtables.
The discussions will bring together representatives that directly support, live, learn, work and hire within each of these sectors, including governments, peak body and industry groups, airlines and airports, transport operators and training institutes.
The virtual regional roundtable today will explore matters such as solutions to encourage skilled workers to move to and stay in the regions, as well as improving liveability, housing affordability and services like healthcare to support regional workforces.
The next roundtable will bring together infrastructure sector stakeholders on Friday 19 August in Sydney. That will be followed by a roundtable on Aviation on 23 August in Canberra and a final roundtable on surface transport in Sydney on 25 August.
Discussions from these roundtables will inform discussions at the Albanese government’s Jobs and Skills Summit, to be held at Parliament House in Canberra on 1-2 September.
The broader Jobs and Skills Summit will bring Australians together to address our shared economic challenges and recommend immediate actions as well as opportunities to drive positive change in the longer term.
The summit will inform the Employment White Paper, which will help shape the future of Australia’s labour market. It will be led by the Treasury, which will invite submissions from and engage the wider community over the next 12 months.
Ms King said: “Our goal is to build robust, better-trained and more productive workforces – from those underpinning our transport sectors like aviation, to those in our furthermost regions.”
