Ai Group and ATSE see new government as an opportunity for change

National employer association Ai Group has congratulated newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his victory in Saturday’s federal election.

“Ai Group and our members look forward to working with Mr Albanese and the new government as it builds support across both houses of parliament to address Australia’s challenges and to capitalise on our tremendous opportunities,” said Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox. “We look forward to working with the government and with others in the community to achieve the shared objective of raising real wages and profits. Most fundamentally, this will require a firm commitment to raising productivity both through government policy initiatives and in Australia’s workplaces.

“The government has a clear mandate to bring an end to the damaging ‘climate wars’ and to concentrate on giving coherence and momentum to the substantial transitions Australia must manage to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.

“Mr Albanese and his team have the opportunity to change the country and Ai Group will maintain its long-standing approach of working constructively with the government of the day, and across the parliament, to ensure that our contributions to representing business and community interests are at the forefront of decision-making,” he added.

Academic think tank the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) has also congratulated Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party on their election success, saying: “The new government has a critical window of opportunity to position Australia as a technological powerhouse driven by a clean and sustainable economy, highly skilled workforce and world-class research activity and commercialisation.”

“It’s now or never to make deep cuts to our emissions and we have the technology to do so. We need to fast track to a clean future which delivers jobs, economic growth and prosperity for all Australians,” said ATSE President Professor Hugh Bradlow. “Australia has a window of opportunity to become a world leader in renewable energy generation, low and negative emission technologies — but that window is rapidly closing. We urge the new Australian Government to act now and not squander our renewable technology advantage by implementing a comprehensive plan that transitions to a net zero emissions economy, backed by regulation and incentives.

“Applied science, technology and engineering continue to help Australia navigate through the pandemic but we need a comprehensive plan that assures Australia’s sovereign capabilities and secures Australia’s economic future,” Bradlow added. “We will need 100,000 more digitally skilled workers by 2024 and 40,000 more engineers by 2025. The new government must implement a plan to tackle the decline in STEM achievement of Australian school students and recognise this as the foundation for generating game-changing skills, new jobs and abundant economic returns.”

Image: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Leonid Andronov