News, media releases, opinions and articles from the Centre for Future Work.
Repairing Universities & Skills Key to Meeting COVID-Era Challenges
Training must play a vital role in reorienting the economy after the pandemic, supporting workers training for new jobs including millions of young people entering a depressed labour market without concrete pathways to work. But what kind of jobs will we be doing in 2040? And how prepared is Australia’s skills system (and universities specifically)…
Unleashing a National Reconstruction Plan Fit for Our Era
Our nation is confronting the most significant economic challenge in nearly a century. Australia’s own experience of long-term, sustained public investment during post-war reconstruction shows direct tools of government planning and investment will be essential to our recovery today. Yet Scott Morrison continues to pretend his hands are tied: “if there’s no business, there’s no…
Australia Needs Universal Paid Sick Leave To Get Through the Pandemic
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy recently issued a directive that going to work with the ‘sniffles’ is ‘off the agenda for every Australian in the foreseeable future.’ But with millions of workers without access to paid sick leave, government plans to lift restrictions on economic activity could risk dangerous and costly outbreaks. Remember the Codral ‘soldier on’…
Pandemic Shows Australia Needs Domestic Manufacturing
Disruptions in global supplies of essential medical equipment have served as a wake-up call to Australians that it is always vital for a country to retain the capacity to domestically produce manufactured products that may be crucial to national security and well-being. Since the COVID-19 crisis emerged, Australians have been starkly reminded of the importance…
Public Sector Pay Freezes Could Push Economy From Recession to Depression
New research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work reveals the consequences of freezing public service pay, both for public sector workers and for the broader economy.
Key findings:
At least 35% of the purported ‘savings’ from freezing public service pay is offset by the loss of d…
93 Economic Experts Back Govt Wages Subsidy in Open Letter
93 Australian economists and policy experts have signed an open letter, coordinated by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, supporting a government wage subsidy to prevent mass unemployment during the coming economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Signatories inc…