Labor's skills roundtable an admission it has no workplace strategy

The Cook Labor Government’s newly announced skills roundtable is a staggering admission that it has operated without a comprehensive skills plan for the past nine years.
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While the Opposition supports deep consultation with industry leaders, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training Tjorn Sibma said the announcement is the ultimate "too little, too late" for Western Australian businesses that have been crippled by severe worker shortages for years.
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"The Cook Government has proudly announced it 'will develop a comprehensive workforce strategy’. It is planning to have a plan. The obvious question is: what on earth have they been doing since 2017?" Mr. Sibma said.
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"To announce you are only now beginning to 'identify' what the State's workforce requires is a breathtaking confession of economic negligence.

"For nine years, this Labor Government has watched as our construction, advanced manufacturing, health and care sectors have been brought to their knees by chronic skills deficits.”
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The Minister’s own words point to the staggering policy neglect.
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Mr Sibma said Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson explicitly stated that developing this strategy was "critical to delivering on our government's priorities of jobs, health, and housing".
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"If a comprehensive workforce strategy is truly critical to fixing our state's housing and health crises, why has the Labor Government waited nearly a decade to start writing one?" Mr. Sibma asked.
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"They have presided over the worst housing bottleneck in our state's history, and they are only just now asking industry what actions can be taken to strengthen WA's workforce.
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"Western Australians don't need a government that starts asking basic questions nine years into its tenure. They need a government that has the vision and competence to actually deliver."

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