Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is interesting that we hear interjections from the other side, because I have been filled with hope that maybe we might be inching our way forwards to a collective view on what we should be doing in the future to make sure that our kids have jobs—that they have good jobs, that they have an opportunity to go out there and earn and support themselves. Unfortunately, that is not a commonly held view, but it is one that I certainly am happy to advocate for because I think that the jobs of the future are critical. You will not hear me making snide remarks and asides and criticising any comments or any discussions or any debates on what is clearly a very important issue for us into the future.

What I can say is that there has been a report released recently by CEDA, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. That was released in June, only a couple of days ago. It is titled Australia's future workforce?

One of the things that I think was disappointing about the portrayal of that was that there was a lot of focus on changes to some industries that are clearly declining here in Australia and, with getting so caught up in the negative parts of industry, we overlooked some real opportunities in there to celebrate our successes and certainly to look at what we could be doing to build that into the future.

One of the chapters of the report that particularly took my attention, and one that I am very focused on, was chapter 2.1. It is titled Australia's Shifting Economy and it was written by Tim Bradley, who is the General Manager of the Industry Economics Branch, at the Department of Industry and Science. For those who have not read this report, I really do commend it to you and ask you to have a look at it and particularly to have a look at chapter 2.1, because it is very insightful and, I think, paints a very clear picture of what has happened in the past and how we can use some of that to predict what may be about to happen in the future.

I have said in previous debates that we have to be very careful about making predictions about the jobs of the future, because we simply do not know exactly what they are. We have to put into perspective some of the opinions that have been given of the CEDA report, particularly on job losses and declining industries. What Tim Bradley says in his introduction is:

While it is easy to focus on the industries and jobs lost, there is a bigger story at play. In the decade to 2013–14, Australian manufacturing employment decreased by around 92,000 jobs. In that same decade however, employment in healthcare and social services increased by 462,000 jobs, by 314,000 jobs in professional services and by 222,000 jobs in construction.

I am not saying that job losses are okay under any circumstances, because quite clearly they are not. But what this is painting is a picture of hope that certainly there are some industries that are declining and have declined over the years but there are other industries and other jobs that are being created here. We need to look very closely at this report and what the jobs of the future will be and focus on what we can and should be doing into the future.

In the closing seconds of this debate, I would like to remind everyone of what we know already, which is that about 75 per cent of future jobs will require people to have skills in science, technology, engineering and maths. We should as a whole work together to encourage students to take up those studies in those fields so that they are well-equipped for the jobs of the future.

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