Treasurer Jim Chalmers Assistant Education Minister Anthony Chisholm visit Rockhampton

Central Queensland was the first stop in a series of “constructive” conversations around jobs ahead of the September Jobs Summit in Canberra. Here’s what happened.

Captains of local industry had their chance to be heard on employment solutions this week, when two Federal Ministers stopped in Central Queensland.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Education and Regional Development Assistant Minister Anthony Chisholm were at CQUniversity Rockhampton on Wednesday, which was the first stop for conversations in the lead up to September’s Jobs Summit.

Mr Chalmers and Mr Chisholm met with council representatives, unions, industry leaders and innovators to begin the “collaborative and constructive” conversations in the lead up to the summit.

“Right around Australia, there is a real hunger for some real talk about our economic challenges and there is an appetite to work together to see what we can do to address them,” said Mr Chalmers.

“I’m really pleased and proud we made Central Queensland, and Rocky in particular, our first port of call as we engage in this consultation leading up to the jobs summit.”

Mr Chisholm said the summit allowed them to gain some insight into the challenges the nation was facing.

“I think the encouraging thing was there was a level of co-operation, but there was also a level of people wanting to be constructive,” he said.

“Talking about things that are working but could work better, and putting ideas forward that would help us deal with those challenges that regional Australia is facing.”

Mr Chalmers said the intention for the Jobs Summit was to bring policy change and not to just be a “talk fest”.

“We want to come to a series of agreements around the direction we need to take, our expectation is that all the participants of the summit in Canberra, and all the summits we’re having right around Australia, come with ideas with what we can do better,” he said.

“When there’s a general consensus on those directions then of course we will act on them, we will act immediately if we can, or in subsequent budgets or on the employment white paper.

“We knew if we made Rocky and Central Queensland a priority we could get a good sense of that combination of issues.”

CQUniversity Vice Chancellor and president Nick Klomp said it was important to bring everyone together for the conversations around what issues are impacting industries in Central Queensland.

“We’ve had representations from employers, unions, local councils, from peak bodies, industry groups, so captains of industry around the table, it’s been terrific,” he said.

“They recognise the challenges and they recognise all the opportunities around the region so it was important to bring all of that together.

“CQUniversity is located in so many regions around Queensland, I’m really looking forward to hearing some of the challenges (at the summit), but also coming up with the solutions.”

“We have to help provide the graduates and the workforce … at the moment we cannot produce graduates fast enough in every discipline, it’s quite incredible.”

Mr Chalmers said it wouldn’t be the last time locals would see Federal Ministers in Central Queensland, with the commitment to make sure Rockhampton and Central Queensland has a voice in Canberra.

“Labor federal representatives are not thick on the ground in regional Queensland unfortunately, despite our best efforts, and so we take our responsibilities to these communities very seriously, you will see us a lot and not just that, you will see what we learn here represented in the national policies of the Albanese Labor Government,” he said.

“One of the reasons why we are here, one of the reasons why we are in the roles that the Prime Minister gave us, is to make sure that regional Queensland has a big prominent voice in the Labor Cabinet and in the Labor Ministry.”