The solution to Australia’s workforce and productivity crisis is hiding in plain sight.

Former Treasury Secretary Dr Martin Parkinson AC PSM and SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis AM will discuss new economic modelling that reveals more than 250,000 skilled migrants in Australia are working below their skill level, when they could be filling critical shortages in licensed professions.

Across the country, there are engineers driving rideshare, nurses stacking shelves and dentists cleaning offices not because they lack the skills or qualifications, but because Australia’s system for recognising their overseas skills and qualifications is arbitrarily expensive, unfair and fragmented. This problem hampers productivity, slows construction, and means longer waiting lists for essential services.

In this National Press Club address, learn how Australia can make overseas skills recognition faster, fairer and more affordable and resolve two of our country’s biggest challenges: lifting productivity, and building cohesive, resilient communities, where every Australian is able to contribute to their full potential. Each migrant professional who works in their occupation rather than below their skill level boosts national productivity by $42,580 every year.

Parkinson and Roumeliotis will lay out four clear solutions based on international best practice to reform Australia’s skills recognition system while upholding high standards. At a time when the Albanese Government is searching for answers on economic inclusion and social cohesion, this is one policy fix that will deliver both.

Biographies

Dr Martin Parkinson served in Australian Federal Government leadership positions on all facets of economic, social, foreign, defence and national security policies for almost 40 years. Martin retired from the Australian Public Service in 2019, having been Secretary of three Departments: Prime Minister and Cabinet: The Treasury; and the inaugural Department of Climate Change. Martin is currently Chancellor of Macquarie University, non-executive director of Worley, Australian Retirement Trust and O’Connell Street Associates, and co-chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. He is a member of the Champions of Change Coalition, the B-Team Australasia, senior adviser to the Climate Leaders Coalition, and on the advisory boards of Thrive Refugee Enterprises, the Asia Society Australia, and Bain & Company.

Violet Roumeliotis AM has spent close to 40 years leading for-purpose organisations, providing human services that promote equal opportunity and change the lives of individuals and families experiencing inequality. She is currently the CEO of SSI, a national not-for-profit organisation providing dedicated human and social services to a diverse Australia. In her time as CEO, Violet has taken SSI from a Sydney-based organisation with 68 staff to a 1000-plus workforce that supports more than 53,000 people nationally each year across a range of human services. Violet is a previous National Telstra Business Woman of the Year and national winner of the For Purpose and Social Enterprise Category and one of the AFR 100 Women of Influence. Violet sits on the Australian Council of Social Services Board, the NSW Women’s Advisory Council, and the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission Advisory Board