Australia’s weekend skills summit has heard bold calls for change. 

Dozens of speakers took the stand to lay out plans to ease workforce strains, lift wages, encourage people to take up training and myriad other methods of solving current economic and labour issues. 

One of the first big announcements from the federal government came when Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil revealed Australia’s permanent migration cap will increase from 160,000 to 195,000 for this financial year. 

Also on the first day of the summit, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke confirmed the government would move to legislate multi-employer bargaining, in which unions can strike deals that cover more than one employer, potentially helping larger groups of workers to band together for a bigger pay rise. It is an alarming change for business groups. 

Mr Burke said the government would also move to soften the better off overall test (BOOT) in enterprise bargaining to make it “simple, flexible and fair”, and change the Fair Work Act to remove “unnecessary limitations on access to single and multi employer agreements” when parliament returns.

Another major announcement came later in the summit, when Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor suggested $3.7 billion would be provided for a new agreement to fund vocational training, bringing the government’s contribution to the sector over five years to a record high $11.7 billion.

“This is one of the biggest, most important areas of public policy in relation to feeding the labour market, providing the skills employers are crying out for, and in terms of secure employment,” Mr O’Connor said.

“What more important thing could there be than for a worker to have the skills that are in demand. If we don’t get the skills set right, we don’t provide secure employment, skills that employers need and a growing economic and improved productivity, which places downward pressure on prices at a time of high inflation.”

That extra funding would come in addition to $1.1 billion to provide 180,000 fee-free TAFE places also announced during the Jobs and Skills Summit.

Several speakers at the summit were focused on closing Australia’s growing gender pay gap and empowering more women to enter the workforce. 

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins flagged an interest in intervening in the construction sector in the absence of the Australia Building and Construction Commission.

“I am open to seeing how I could assist; the Human Rights Commission has such unique functions and powers,” Ms Jenkins said in her address. 

“Everyone here knows that community over the last few years has been demanding change on safety and respect in workplaces. And I think we’ve seen a building evolution. I feel like this summit is another turning point.”

Grattan CEO Danielle Wood used a metaphor for the untapped talent of women that many business leaders would understand, comparing it to “a massive iron ore deposit”. Her point was that Australia is selling itself short by having some of the most gender-segregated divisions of labour in the OECD.

If that untapped talent was iron ore; “We would have governments falling over themselves to give subsidies to get it out of the ground”, she said.