ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said:“If you want to lower the unemployment rate that’s associated with full employment,you’ve got to make it more attractive for employers to actually engage people”.
Under the plans announced in the white paper,older Australians will gain a permanent increase in the “work bonus” that helps them earn income from jobs without cutting their age pension,lifting the benefit to $11,800 and scrapping an earlier plan to end a one-off boost in the rate at the end of this year.
A program permitting pensioners to keep more of their payments while working has been made permanent.Credit:iStock
Others on income support will be able to retain Commonwealth concession cards and other benefits for six months – double the previous period – when they take up a job,ensuring they do not lose help suddenly if they rejoin the workforce.
While the work bonus does not operate as a payment,it gives pensioners an incentive to work by allowing them to keep more of their pension when they earn money from a job. It operates in addition to the pension “income-free area” that is worth $204 a fortnight for single pensioners.
The changes in the employment white paper mean a single pensioner over age pension age with no other private income could now earn about $658 a fortnight – the work bonus of about $454 plus the “income free area” – and still receive the maximum pension rate. Under the original rules,the pensioner could earn $504 a fortnight.
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The work bonus can be accrued through the year and has had a maximum value of $7800 a year,but the government added a $4000 bonus after its jobs summit last year to take the amount to $11,800 a year.
While this was due to end on December 31,the employment white paper commits to making that increase permanent.
The help for people with concession cards is expected to benefit about 138,000 recipients each year and will cost taxpayers $42.8 million over the next four years.
It will apply to those on JobSeeker,Youth Allowance,Austudy,Abstudy,the parenting payment,age pension,disability support pension and carer payment.
Chalmers outlined a series of jobs policies in recent days,including offering apprentices advanced courses akin to university degrees to double the number of young Australians learning skills in fields such as clean energy.
Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor said universities and TAFE needed to work more closely together to provide students with the skills the economy demands,while Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the migration system would be overhauled to complement the government’s jobs plan and boost productivity.
In a warning about the need to expand the workforce and fix labour shortages,the paper says 500,000 people are unemployed and are available to work,1.3 million people want to work but are not actively looking and 1 million would like to work more hours but are under-employed.
“The shifts underway in the global and domestic economy have been fundamentally reshaping Australia’s labour market,and set up an important moment for reform,” the paper says.
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Over the next decade,it says,more than 90 per cent of new jobs will require post-secondary qualifications and also cites projections from Victoria University showing digital and technology jobs will grow by 21 per cent by 2033.
The paper also emphasises the need for reforms to increase productivity,a key factor in lifting salaries at a time when real wages have fallen due to high inflation.
“Rather than repeating previous waves of reforms,Australia’s productivity agenda needs to respond to current economic circumstances and identify modern strategies to advance enduring policy goals,” it says.