May 10: Following the release of the 2011 Federal Budget, industry experts share their instant views on what implications the budget will have on the employment sector:
The Government has earmarked over $3 billion over six years in its "Building Australia's Future Workforce" package, which will focus on developing stronger relations between industry and training organisations, modernising apprenticeships programs and reforming the national training system, as well as signalling increases to skilled migration, including new Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) to allow major resource projects to gain access to overseas labour for genuine skills vacancies.
PETER ANDERSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (ACCI)
"It’s a budget that will do the job in the short term, but in the medium-to-long term it relies too much on the good fortune of North Asia to boost Government revenues.The Government has not cut deeply enough into its spending to bring the budget back to surplus. The Government is still relying on China, Japan and Korea in particular purchasing our goods and commodities at high prices.
"On human resource issues the Government has excellent initiatives on workforce skills and there is a significant new investment in skills and training. For example their mentoring program for apprenticeships to help apprenticeship completions is good. There is also a new structure being established to allocate skills funding and that structure will be heavily driven by industry rather than education bureaucrats. That is a positive initiative because past experience tells us that Government has spent a lot of money on training over the last two decades, much of which has gone into the training system rather than into meeting actual skills deficit.
"Human resource practitioners know best where the skills gaps are in their businesses, and if they are closer to funding allocation then the likelihood is they will fix the skills shortage more quickly. This is a more industry driven approach to funding the skills shortages of Australia and that is a welcome move. For HR, it’s good on the skills side but there’s not much else to support business activity."
HEATHER RIDOUT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AISTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP
"The establishment of a National Workforce and Productivity Agency creates a new framework for national investment in skills based on a strengthened partnership between Government and business. Industry will have a major voice in this training system while being expected to shoulder its share of the responsibility.
"This new platform will better match economic needs to skills development in order to maximise return on investment in terms of skills enhancement, productivity and jobs. The Budget also lifts investment in workforce skills, literacy and apprenticeships."
PROFESSOR ROSS GUEST, GRIFFITH BUSINESS SCHOOL
"The centerpiece of the budget is getting people into work and that is welcome. A lot of the initiatives in terms of tightening up on welfare recipients, long-term unemployed, getting people off support benefits who can work: all of those things are very welcome.
"The big question is why then does the Government make it so hard for the private sector to employ people and come to their own arrangements about working conditions and so on through the Fair Work Act? The Act makes it harder to let workers go who don’t work out, and it also makes it harder for workers and firms to come to their own arrangements about their working conditions and so on. So, that’s where the Government’s policies are at loggerheads. A lot of the changes in the Budget are welcome, but the Fair Work Act will still make it harder for firms to employ people. "
JEFF DOYLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ADECCO
"Australian businesses will suffer if they cannot secure the right talent in the market. And they need that talent now. To increase skilled migration is just one way to help worker shortages in Australia. The other is getting the long term unemployed back to work, but this will not happen overnight.
"There are some positive aspects of the budget and it’s a step in the right direction, but more still needs to be done. It’s going to take time."
STEVE SHEPHERD, OPERATIONS MANAGER, RANSTAD
"I don’t think that there are too many surprises in there. This is a budget that is focused on getting people back into the workforce so from our perspective initiatives that are creating a greater supply of talent has got to be a positive given where the economic forecast is going to be by 2013.
"I think there’s been a lot of focus on the welfare components of it which we’re seeing in terms of the long term unemployed. There still has to be greater initiatives on youth unemployment though, which is still in double figures. There doesn’t seem to be too much emphasis on this area, and it’s something which I would have expected to see slightly more focus on.
"We’re already seeing skills shortages in key areas, so overall the emphasis to meet these shortages has got to be a positive from the recruitment point of view."
DAVID LANDAU, DIRECTOR, RICHARD LLOYD
"In terms of the welfare crackdown - I read earlier that it is reportedly going to force 230,000 long-term unemployed back into work and that’s probably a good thing. I suppose that there’s going to be a divide between your white collar worker and your blue collar worker, and the skilled migrant visa side of things will come into play as well.
"It’s all very well for regional areas getting extra support, which I fully back, but I think it is just as important, from our perspective, to address other areas, such as the shortage of accountants for example who are very thin on the ground here as well. So with the visa, that local experience is also very valuable.
"The fact that they’re tipping the rate to full employment by 2012-13 to 4.5 per cent is a very good thing but I think that cattle prod is probably what’s needed to make sure that happens, and the budget does support that.
"It’s definitely a step in the right direction to get people into part time jobs, or the volunteer programs or even the training incentives. Something that is very good, whether you’re talking about a huge ASX company or a sports team is that grass roots level.
"Everyone is looking at what’s going to happen now but I think that the bonuses for the teachers, etc will play a very important part in the long term."
Pre-budget updates:
April 13: Sky News reports the Productivity Places Program is going to be diverted to be a more flexible scheme as the government tries to establish the skills training agenda.
April 3: Treasurer Wayne Swan highlights the importance of workplace incentives in the Treasurer's Economic Note
"As the Prime Minister said last week, there’ll need to be some tough decisions in the Budget as we stick to our strict fiscal rules... Finding more workers is one of the many challenges we face in the years ahead and in putting together next month’s Budget. It’s really important that we have the right incentives in place to reward and encourage participation in the workforce to ensure our economy – already stretched by the mining boom and now the reconstruction effort in Queensland – can get the people it needs."
To read the full text of the Treasurer's Economic Note, click here.
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