Australia has half a million jobs up for grabs but is finding it near impossible to fill most of them. The Prime Minister’s $5.4b plan to make child care cheaper for families also forms a central part of his strategy to address the skills shortage. But Mr Albanese is also facing calls to encourage pensioners to return to the workforce. New Liberal leader Peter Dutton has pressed the Albanese Government to allow pensioners to earn more money without seeing their pensions being cut back — borrowing an idea championed by WA mining magnate Gina Rinehart and rejected by the Coalition. Currently pensioners can earn $300 a fortnight before their pension payments are reduced, but Mr Dutton wants the income threshold to be increased to $600.

1 July, 2022.

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Peter Dutton is in Perth for the second time in less than a fortnight , this time to spruik his calls for the Albanese Government to let pensioners earn more money without their pensions being cut back. WA mining magnate Gina Rinehart championed a similar policy before the Federal election as a way to help solve Australia’s worker shortage, but the idea was never adopted by former prime minister Scott Morrison.

24 June, 2022.

11 June 2022 to 12 June 2022.

The sole SA Nationals candidate Jonathan Pietzsch, standing for the seat of Barker, has called on a returned Coalition government to allow pensioners to work without the threat of losing their pension. He said a National Seniors survey showed one in five pensioners wished to continue working, but only 2.9 per cent were. He said this meant that Australia was missing out on hundreds of thousands of keen and skilled workers, which had a flow on effect to the economy.”Increasing the Pensioner Work Bonus in 2 levels, one for those working in the city, and another for those wishing to work in regional areas where the worker shortage is even more critical, is a viable way to address our immediate labour shortage and will pump billions back into the economy – it truly is a win/win/win,” Mr Pietzsch said.

An explosion of COVID-19 cases in WA is intensifying staffing woes, directly impacting businesses which continue to bear the brunt of skills shortages. As cases soared to a record high of 17,000 on Wednesday — well above the original peak prediction of 10,000 — businesses were left grappling with a surge in virus-related absenteeism. Some are optimistic conditions will improve from here as the case load comes down. However, others are anticipating further disruptions as potential new strains emerge. WA’s resources sector has also acutely felt the impacts of absenteeism.

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