As we approach the 2022 Federal Election, both major parties are trying to get our attention. The Coalition has this week chucked $63 million at the Great Barrier Reef and announced an NBN upgrade. Labor, meanwhile, is promising 1.2 million tech jobs.
In an announcement made Thursday morning, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation Ed Husic, alongside his leader Anthony Albanese, said if elected, Labor will work with industry to reach 1.2 million Australian tech-related jobs by 2030.
“As we look to the future, there are real opportunities for Australians to be employed in the sector and drive future economic growth,” they said.
With Atlassian the best example I can think of backing their claim, the Labor duo said “too many experienced workers and businesses have left our shores”.
The plan will see Labor work with the tech sector, and the Tech Council of Australia specifically, to work out how exactly it’s going to bring about these jobs.
Husic and Albanese say the tech sector is Australia’s seventh largest employing sector.
While their pitch is 1.2 million jobs, it includes the jobs already existing. Currently tech is responsible for 861,000 jobs – Labor wants to grow an additional 340,000 jobs by 2030.
It says it will do this through:
- 465,000 fee-free TAFE places and 20,000 additional university places, focused on areas of skills shortage including tech
- Establishing Jobs and Skills Australia to plan for the ‘future workforce needs’
- Strengthen Australia’s sovereign capability through smarter government procurement and the establishment of the National Reconstruction Fund to support growing businesses
- Support the creation of new firms and jobs through its previously pitched ‘Startup Year’, by offering 2,000 government supported places at accredited university accelerators
- And support the creation of new firms and strengthen existing ones, using funding from Labor’s ‘Buy Australian Plan’, which Albanese announced in October.
The election hasn’t been officially announced, but we’re expecting it to happen sometime in May. We’ll wrap all the tech-adjacent promises from the two major parties for you, so stay tuned to Gizmodo Australia.
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