The Albanese government's use of the jobs and skills summit to unload a bunch of key "announceables" was as understandable as it was predictable. It was also very clever politics.
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By bringing 140 leaders to Canberra to talk through some of the most important issues facing the nation the government gave itself a giant megaphone. What's the point of having a megaphone if you are not going to use it?
The summit has not just been about optics and public relations opportunities however. Many of the announcements - including the decision to lift the 2022/2023 permanent skilled immigration cap by 35,000 people and the commitment to surge visa processing capacity by 500 staff over nine months at a cost of $36.1 million - are significant.
Not only should they have an almost immediate effect on the skills shortage, they needed to be cleared up in order to allow a nuanced discussion about immigration settings at the summit.
The decision to increase the skilled migration cap in the short term is a sensible response to the impact of what has effectively been a two-and-half year freeze on skilled migration since the borders were closed in early 2020.
In addition to putting a halt to the influx of skilled workers, the pandemic also resulted in many of those who were already here returning to their home countries. There is now a shortfall of more than 300,000 people on what employers would have been expecting.
While that has contributed to the near record low level of unemployment, it has created significant staff shortages in hospitals and nursing homes and led to serious supply chain disruptions.
Enterprises desperate to build back stronger and better in the wake of the pandemic are being held back because they can't fill vacancies.
That said, a short-term increase in permanent skilled migration is not a long-term panacea. There also needs to be a conversation about Australia's "carrying capacity" and the demands long-term mass migration places on infrastructure, including housing.
One of the biggest lessons to come out of COVID-19 is that Australia needed to develop sovereign capability in a wide range of areas. While vaccines, the production of PPE and other essential health supplies are the first to spring to mind, the national labour force is just as important. The best workers are the ones who are already here.
That's why Friday's summit sessions spent a lot of time dwelling on the need to create a more inclusive, integrated and well trained workforce. Important discussions were had about making it easier for women, for people with disabilities, and seniors to find secure and well-paid work.
The flip side to the current unemployment figure is, as the Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth pointed out, that there are more than 300,000 Australians who are unemployed, underemployed or have the capacity to work additional hours.
Education and life-long learning remains the single best way to boost workforce participation. Dr Peter Davidson, a senior advisor with the Australian Council of Social Service, told the conference almost 60 per cent of unemployed people had either quit school before Year 12 or done no further training after that.
"These are the people who always stood at the end of the unemployment queue. And they're still there now. We can and must do better," he said.
While the skills shortage is a crisis that needs to be resolved, it is also an opportunity to develop a stronger, more resilient and better paid workforce.
If, in years to come, the summit is seen as having been the first step in achieving that, it will have been a success.
