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Tag: Lisa Heap Senior Researcher

  • Addressing the health workforce crisis in the Pacific

    Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights, International Relations, Unions & Collective Bargaining, Wages & Entitlements

    Addressing the health workforce crisis in the Pacific

    by Fiona Macdonald, Lisa Heap and Charlie Joyce

    Authors

    Fiona Macdonald

    Acting Director, Centre for Future Work

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Charlie Joyce

    Researcher

    Media release



    Australia dumps its care crisis on the Pacific – new report

    Labour mobility is a significant contributor to Pacific Islands’ economies.

    Australia and New Zealand’s temporary labour migration schemes for Pacific workers have expanded into more industries including personal care work in aged care.

    This has led to the loss of skilled health workers from Pacific Island countries, including registered nurses, to lower-skilled personal care jobs overseas.

    Workers who take up temporary migration in Australia and New Zealand are vulnerable to being underpaid and exploited, due to their visa status.

    This report examines the need for reform of labour migration systems and greater consultation with workers.



    Full report




    Factsheet
    Australia dumps its care crisis on the Pacific – new report

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  • Solving the crisis: Raising the living standards of Australian workers

    Employment & Unemployment, Future of Work, Inequality, Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights, Social Security & Welfare, Unions & Collective Bargaining, Wages & Entitlements

    Solving the crisis: Raising the living standards of Australian workers

    by Lisa Heap

    Author

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Media release



    Feeling hopeless? You’re not alone. The untold story behind Australia’s plummeting standard of living

    Productivity might be the word on everyone’s lips in the lead up to the Albanese Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable  however weak productivity isn’t the cause of many of the problems experience by workers in Australia today nor is increasing productivity the solution. Rapid inflation after the pandemic, combined with rising interest rates and slow wage growth, left many Australian households struggling to afford necessities. The Reserve Bank’s (RBA) blunt strategy of raising interest rates to slow the economy post the pandemic both misdiagnosed the drivers of inflation and harmed Australian workers who struggled to manage increased mortgage repayments and other debts. The root causes of Australia’s post pandemic crisis—rising corporate profits, unjustifiable price hikes, and deep wage stagnation were ignored by the RBA.

    Despite a reduction in inflation and interest rates, too many Australians are still experiencing lower living standards after the turbulent events of the past five years. Official inflation figures may capture broad economic trends however, they do not adequately describe the real pressures experienced by working people—particularly when it comes to the impact of the increasing costs of essentials like food, housing, and energy. Australian workers can ill afford another round of RBA driven unemployment, austerity, and uncertainty.

    What will it take to repair the damage to Australian workers’ living standards?

    In a new publication, Solving the Crisis: Raising the Living standards of Australian workers, some of Australia’s leading progressive economists and social policy analysts explain what is going on and how to fix it. The origins of the current crisis in living standards are documented. A progressive policy agenda for a second term Albanese Government is advanced.

    The multidimensional policy agenda in Solving the Crisis calls for

    • increases in real wages
    • achieving full employment
    • better quality jobs and greater assistance and respect for those seeking employment
    • strengthening public services (including health care, childcare, aged care and education)
    • making fair and affordable housing available
    • developing a well-planned and supported transition to renewable energy sources.

    The key to the success of this agenda is centering the experience of workers’ and their families.

    Australia should adopt a progressive multidimensional economic agenda that lifts living standards, reduces inequality, and strengthens democracy, rather than a narrow concentration on productivity. Uniting people behind this progressive economic agenda helps counter the trend towards increasing inequality, division and conflict, that has been present in other countries.

    How to solve the living standards crisis

    Four policy papers are the core of  Solving the Crisis. These papers examine the main drivers of inequality and deteriorating living standards in Australia

    • Greg Jericho examines how inflation is misunderstood when disconnected from wage growth. He proposes a shift in Reserve Bank policy and a renewed focus on promoting real wage increases.
    • Peter Davidson  argues that growing inequality is not inevitable. Through strengthening the four key policy pillars – income support, minimum wages, full employment, and employment services – minimum incomes can be raised and inequality reduced.
    • Thomas Greenwell highlights how decades of declining collective bargaining and high underemployment have undermined living standards. He calls for renewed support for unions, stronger collective bargaining systems, and a focus on full employment in macroeconomic policy.
    • Charlie Joyce revisits the concept of the social wage—and argues that rebuilding and expanding the social wage can raise living standards, promote inclusion, and restore trust in democratic institutions.

    Together these papers provide practical policy solutions forming a platform for economic reform.

    Solving the Crisis helps working people to help cut through economic misinformation and political spin, offering a clear lens on the structural factors that have driven inequality and declining living standards.

    Progress is happening

    In its first term the Albanese Government has made cautious progress on living standards. This progress includes labour market reforms that have contributed to stronger wage growth. These reforms include supporting increases in the minimum wage, facilitating collective bargaining in hard-to-organise industries, funding support for wage increase in early childhood education and aged care. Cost-of-living measures, like energy rebates and expanded renter assistance, also provide important support to hard-hit households. Meanwhile, the easing of interest rates by the RBA—better late than never, may support future growth and job-creation.

    However, while prices are growing more slowly, the levels of many prices remain too high—especially for necessities like food, housing, and energy. Wages growth may have commenced however at the current pace, it will take several years to repair real wages, and restore the same purchasing power for workers they enjoyed before the pandemic. The quality of public services (another critical determinant of living standards) has been damaged by underfunding and overreliance on privatised provision, the costs of which we are currently seeing in early childhood education and care. Minimum income payments such as Jobseeker remain woefully inadequate. The system designed to support and assist people from unemployment into decent jobs is broken beyond repair. Meanwhile, global economic and geopolitical uncertainty threatens to derail this modest recovery before it really gets going.

    More work to be done

    At the 2025 federal election the Australian people rejected political parties proposing cuts to public services, short-term fixes (like petrol tax cuts), and the politics of division. In its second term the Albanese Government has a unique opportunity to implement progressive policy changes such as those contained in Solving the Crisis.

    More details about Solving the Crisis and additional resources are available at https://www.carmichaelcentre.org.au/living_standards.



    Solving the Crisis: Raising the living standards of Australian workers

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  • Budget briefing paper 2025-2026

    Education & Training, Gender at Work, Industry & Sector Policies, Macroeconomics, Social Security & Welfare, Tax, Spending & the Budget, Wages & Entitlements

    Budget briefing paper 2025-2026

    by Greg Jericho, Charlie Joyce, Lisa Heap and Fiona Macdonald

    Authors

    Greg Jericho

    Chief Economist

    Charlie Joyce

    Researcher

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Fiona Macdonald

    Acting Director, Centre for Future Work

    The Centre for Future Work’s research team has analysed the Commonwealth Government’s budget.

    As expected with a Federal election looming, the budget is not a horror one of austerity. However, the 2025-2026 budget is characterised by the absence of any significant initiatives.  There is very little in this budget that is new other than the surprise tax cuts, which are welcome given they benefit mostly those on low-incomes. There are continuing investments in some key areas supporting wages growth, where it is sorely needed, and rebuilding important areas of public good. However, there remains much that needs to be done in the next parliament.

    This briefing paper reviews some of the main features of the budget, focusing on those aspects targeting and impacting on workers, working lives and labour markets.

    The establishment of a $1 billion Green Iron Investment Fund to provide capital grants to green iron projects is a significant investment. With $500 million of this fund going to the troubled Whyalla steelworks this investment should ensure ongoing integrity in the management of this vital industrial asset. We believe the government should take a significant ongoing stake in the ownership of the Whyalla steelworks. The $2 billion Green Aluminium Production Credit, to incentivise Australian aluminium smelters to switch to renewable electricity before 2036, is a necessary and welcome policy to assist the transition to a low emissions economy. Unfortunately, the credit is not available until 2028-2029.

    New and ongoing support for students in TAFE and in higher education are important cost-of-living measures while also making education and training more inclusive and accessible. There is some new funding for previously announced initiatives that support workers and wages growth and some funding for new wage increases in the female-dominated, and low-paid, aged care and early childhood education and care sectors; demonstrating the government’s commitment to addressing long-standing undervaluation of feminised care occupations. Continuing government support will be needed as the current Fair Work Commission review of awards to address undervaluation progresses.

    Other reforms in ECEC, along with previously announced changes to paid parental leave and carer payments, provide welcome, but belated, support for working parents and carers. It is disappointing to see that the opportunity has been missed to raise Job Seeker and Youth Allowances from their grossly inadequate levels.



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  • Briefing Paper: Restoring public sector capability through investment in public service employees

    Employment & Unemployment, Future of Work, Gender at Work, Governance & Government Agencies, Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights, Public Sector, Procurement & Privatisation

    Briefing Paper: Restoring public sector capability through investment in public service employees

    by Lisa Heap

    Author

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    The Australian Public Service (APS) is responsible for delivering some of the most crucial social services to all Australians. The APS workforce includes employees who deliver frontline services like in Medicare and Centrelink, those who administer the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and those who assist service personnel and veterans via Veterans Affairs. These are just some of the functions that APS employees undertake. Behind front line service delivery staff are employees who support these staff, work to coordinate and integrate services and provide policy and regulatory advice to government.

    This briefing paper examines the make-up of the APS and considers recent efforts to improve APS service delivery. We conclude that recent investment in the employment of more APS employees has improved service delivery and that any reduction in APS employees will reduce service delivery or result in the engagement of more consultants and contractors.

    In this paper we debunk several of the myths promoted in the political debate around the size of Australia’s public service. One such myth is that Australia’s public service is “bloated” or “inefficient”. The research also found that despite claims to the contrary, most of the public service jobs created since 2022 were not based in Canberra.



    Restoring public sector capability through investment in public service employees

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  • Submission to Industrial Relations Victoria Inquiry on Restricting Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in Workplace Sexual Harassment Cases

    Employment & Unemployment, Gender at Work, Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights, Wages & Entitlements

    Submission to Industrial Relations Victoria Inquiry on Restricting Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in Workplace Sexual Harassment Cases

    by Lisa Heap and David Peetz

    Authors

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    David Peetz

    Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow

    It is generally reported that NDAs can benefit victim-survivors by providing anonymity and privacy where that is the victim-survivor’s choice. However, it is also reported that power imbalances between victim-survivors on the one hand and perpetrators and employers/organisation on the other have left workers feeling they had little choice but to sign NDAs.

    NDAs have had the impact of silencing victim-survivors, disguising the actions of perpetrators and covering up the prevalence of sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence and harassment within organisations. At times, this has enabled harassers to remain in the same workplace or move within industries and continue to engage in sexual harassment.

    The focus of this submission is on the issues of transparency associated with NDAs and the impact of these agreements on public interest concerns regarding the prevention of sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence and harassment at work. We believe that greater transparency regarding the practices associated with settling sexual harassment claims will lead to greater accountability. This accountability should be supported by legislative reforms that mandate minimum conditions such as those set out in this submission.



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  • Doing it Tough

    Inequality, Unions & Collective Bargaining, Wages & Entitlements

    Doing it Tough

    How Australians are experiencing the cost of living crisis
    by Lisa Heap

    Author

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    This report documents the results of a recent survey of Australian adults regarding their experience of the cost of living crisis. Australian workers are doing it tough. Costs are increasing faster than wages and incomes. Those with less are doing it the toughest.

    The current cost of living crisis in Australia has two components – the incomes that people receive, and the prices they pay for goods and services. This is what Alan Fels has recently referred to as the “two faces” of the crisis .  Action to protect the living standards of Australians must address both faces of the crisis.

    As part of a broader research initiative investigating the human costs of the crisis and the impact of austerity on Australian workers, the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1014 adults living in Australia about their household income and the costs of living.  The results show that:

    • Almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents felt their wages had grown slower than prices over the previous year.
    • Over half of respondents (53%) said their household’s financial situation was worse that it was two years ago.
    • The cost of living crisis has had differential impacts. Because it has affected lower-income Australians most severely, the cost of living crisis has exacerbated inequality.
    • Respondents identified higher grocery prices as the most visible source of the increased cost of living. Six out of 10 (60%) of respondents identified groceries as the purchase where they have most noticed higher prices followed by utilities (21%) and transport (7%).
    • There was strong support for measures across a broad range of policy areas to address the costs of living. 64% of respondents said it was very important to lower utility costs to reduce cost of living pressures. 64% said it was very important to increase supermarket competition, 60% to lower medical costs, and 58% to increase the pace of wages growth.

    The respondents to this survey supported a suite of policy initiatives designed to both reduce the cost of living, and to increase wages and income supports. In their view, addressing the cost of living crisis requires a multi-dimensional approach, rather than a singular reliance on high interest rates to slow inflation.

    The report is published by the Centre for Future Work in conjunction with a one-day symposium it is hosting in Melbourne on 17 October on the crisis in living standards in Australia, and how to address it through greater investments in wages, public services, and affordable housing and energy.



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  • No Blood – No Job

    Employment & Unemployment, Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights, Unions & Collective Bargaining

    No Blood – No Job

    Australia’s privacy laws and workers’ rights
    by Lisa Heap

    Author

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Organisations in Australia are using blood analysis as a means of screening future employees for ‘health risks’ that they allege may impact on their performance of work.

    Collecting sensitive information from blood analysis is restricted under Australia’s privacy laws. This is because the mishandling of this information can have a substantial detrimental impact on those who have provided the information. Requiring workers to submit to blood analysis is just one example of how organisations are now routinely collecting sensitive information from workers, sometimes without adhering to the requirements of privacy laws. Other examples include using fingerprint and facial recognition software and sensors that collect physiological and psychological data about workers.

    The protection from arbitrary interference with a person’s privacy is a fundamental human right. Interfering with this right, by collecting sensitive personal information, should occur in limited circumstances and only where necessary. However, this report shows that some organisations in Australia, are not treating the collection of sensitive information from workers as an exception. They are collecting sensitive information as a routine step in their employment processes.

    The findings of this report raise concerns about power, privacy, fairness, and the potential for discrimination in the practices being adopted by some organisations. These findings also show that Australia’s current privacy and workplace relations laws do not adequately address these concerns. Amendments to Australian privacy laws are currently being considered by the Australian Government with reforms likely to be put before the Australian Parliament before the end of 2024.

    This report examines the need for new provisions within either or both privacy or workplace relations laws that set out the rights of workers to protect their sensitive information. It argues that regulation should be geared towards, not only protecting workers’ rights to privacy, but to providing a disincentive to organisations hoarding and misuse of the personal and sensitive information of workers.

    The worker-centric approach called for in this report includes:

    • the development of one system of regulation to protect the privacy concerns of all workers regardless of employment status or work context
    • defining the collection of workers’ personal and sensitive information as high risk requiring both specific and detailed justification for the collection of this information and the genuine informed and affirmative consent of workers
    • the establishment of a tripartite mechanism to assist the regulator to develop and manage processes for dealing with the privacy and related human rights concerns of workers
    • the use of codes and frameworks, developed via a tripartite mechanism, to set out when and how workers’ information can be collected and used
    • the development of an easy to access, and timely, worker centered mechanism to address concerns about the collection and use of workers’ information.



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  • Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training Inquiry into the Digital Transformation of Workplaces

    Digital Technology & the Internet, Future of Work, Labour Standards & Workers’ Rights

    Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training Inquiry into the Digital Transformation of Workplaces

    by Fiona Macdonald and Lisa Heap

    Authors

    Fiona Macdonald

    Acting Director, Centre for Future Work

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we work and the jobs we do. AI innovations in workplaces can have positive benefits, including through productivity gains. However, AI applications can also have significant risks for workers and for job quality.
    AI applications, including automated decision making, are not neutral processes. Software can be designed and used to assist workers by augmenting their capacity and freeing up time for more meaningful or creative work. Or it can be designed and used in ways that intensify work and displace workers.
    International evidence shows the use of AI in workplaces for managing workers and work processes is extending and intensifying long-standing efficiency-driven logics that result in reduced autonomy and control and intensify work, undermining job quality and worker wellbeing. Even when designed for benevolent purposes, unintended consequences can arise from the adoption of AI in workplaces. These include serious breaches of privacy, bias and discrimination in recruitment and hiring, and unfair decision-making in performance measurement and evaluation.
    In this submission we argue that the promotion of AI innovation must not overshadow objectives and principles for decent jobs and fairness at work. We set out principles for new laws to regulate the uses of AI in workplaces with a goal of protecting workers.



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  • Does leave for menstruation and menopause advance women’s rights and gender equality at work?

    Does leave for menstruation and menopause advance women’s rights and gender equality at work?

    by Lisa Heap

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

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    As pressure grows for action to establish new work rights, including additional leave, for those who experience menstruation and menopause, the Centre for Future Work’s Senior Researcher, Lisa Heap, canvases the debate about whether these rights will advance gender equality at work.

    There are growing calls for the establishment of new work rights, including additional leave, for those who experience menstruation and menopause*. These biological processes are normal and are experienced by large numbers of workers. Yet their sometimes debilitating effects have been ignored in the framework of workplace rights historically built around men’s experience of life and work.

    Unions have begun surveying their members on the issue and a growing number of unions are seeking new rights in collective agreements, including additional leave, for menstruation, menopause, and reproductive health concerns. The ACTU, Australia’s peak union body, is likely to discuss a policy on reproductive leave (including leave for menopause and menstruation) at its Congress in June 2024. There is also evidence that organisations are moving to include policies on these issues in their HR handbooks. These calls for new rights reflect increasing public awareness and acceptance that biological processes experienced by women should come out of the shadows and from behind closed bathroom doors.

    However, not everyone agrees that seeking additional leave and other workplace rights because of menstruation or menopause is the right way to go. Leading industrial relations academic Marian Baird, whilst being a strong advocate for new rights, has noted that debate on issues such as menstrual leave ‘can be polarising for organisations and for feminists.’ Concerns include that leave and other rights for menstruation and menopause may result in women being targeted as weak or unable to do the job because they are absent from work or that employers will see them as less reliable or more costly to employ. Thus, undermining women’s position at work. Some scholars argue that focusing on leave, and therefore effectively removing the problem from the workplace, means that the problem is being hidden at work.

    There have been long standing debates between feminist theorists about whether the path to gender equality at work is best served by highlighting the similarities between men and women and treating all workers the same – sometimes referred to a formal equality. Or whether there should be accommodation of differences including acknowledging biological differences and the reproductive role that women play in society and ensuring that work rights reflect this. The difficulty we have in Australia, like in many western democratic countries, is the standard of the ideal worker is male so treating everyone the same, effectively means treating them as men.

    It is difficult to ignore that some workers are struggling with the impacts of menstruation and menopause at work. Supports are needed for these workers. Not everyone’s experience is the same but for some menstruation involves severe bleeding, extreme pain, and lethargy. Shame and stigma for some workers may lead to hiding period pain and carrying on with job. This can have both physical and psychological impacts. The effects of the processes associated with menopause may include losses of concentration, difficulty sleeping, headache, fatigue and mood changes. In both cases work based impacts can include perceptions of poor work performance, a loss of confidence for effected workers and using all personal/carers’ leave trying to ‘manage’ the impact of menstruation and menopause. Some workers may need a move to part-time work or even consider leaving paid work as a way of managing.

    The evidence gathered around the work-based impacts of menstruation and menopause establishes the need for further changes in work rights to accommodate the lived experience of women. To ignore this evidence would in effect reinforce men’s experience of work as the norm and the standard around which work rights are framed. Australian public policy and legal frameworks have developed to accommodate some biological processes experienced by women. For example, there are now universal rights around pregnancy, maternity, and breastfeeding and work. Leave and workplace flexibilities accommodating the effects of menstruation and menopause could be the next step in the evolution of these workplace rights.

    Beyond HR policies there are two main ways of establishing work rights – incorporating these rights in workplace laws or bargaining for their inclusion in enterprise agreements. Incorporating leave and other rights to flexible work arrangements in legislation would provide a universal standard and a whole of society approach. Bargaining offers the opportunity to craft boutique solutions considering the needs of the organisation and those of the workforce. The process of bargaining itself helps to educate and explore the issue thus assisting with ‘normalising’ it at work. However, bargaining for ‘equality rights’ of this kind can take time and often requires work-based champions to get and keep the issue on the bargaining agenda.

    In Australia many universal workplace rights have been achieved first through unions bargaining for these at the industry or organisational level and then by unions fighting to have these included in legislation. The achievement of paid leave for those workers experiencing family violence is the most recently high-profile example of this. The progress to gain menstrual and menopause leave, and other associated rights is likely to involve both bargaining for these rights and lobbying for legislative change.

    Leave for menstruation and menopause will advance women’s rights and gender equality at work however, even when these rights exist that won’t be the end of action to make them a reality. Workers will need to be aware of these rights and feel comfortable and confident to use them without fear that they will be treated less favourably for doing so. Establishing the rights either through legislation or bargaining will set the normative standard. Organisations will then have the obligation to create systems processes and cultures that would ensure that workers can, and do, access these rights once they exist.

    *I use the term woman/en to include those who experience menstruation or menopause but who may not identify as a woman.

    **This article originally appeared in The Point the official newspaper of the Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania


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  • Budget 2024-25: Resists Austerity, Reduces Inflation, Targets Wage Gains

    Macroeconomics, Public Sector, Procurement & Privatisation, Wages & Entitlements

    Budget 2024-25: Resists Austerity, Reduces Inflation, Targets Wage Gains

    Important support to help with cost-of-living challenges, but more needed
    by Greg Jericho, Lisa Heap, Charlie Joyce, Fiona Macdonald and Jim Stanford

    Authors

    Greg Jericho

    Chief Economist

    Lisa Heap

    Senior Researcher

    Charlie Joyce

    Researcher

    Fiona Macdonald

    Acting Director, Centre for Future Work

    Jim Stanford

    Commonwealth Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his 2024-25 budget to Parliament. While it booked a surplus for 2023-24 (the second consecutive surplus), it increased total spending for future years, and forecasts continued small deficits. In the wake of the economic slowdown resulting from RBA interest rate hikes, this new spending is needed and appropriate.

    Targeted cost of living measures will directly reduce inflation in some areas (like energy and rents), while helping working Australians deal with higher prices in others (including reworked State 3 tax cuts, and support for higher wages for ECEC and aged care workers). Unlike previous years, the budget is projecting real wage gains in coming years that are actually likely to materialise — however, the damage from recent real wage cuts will take several years to repair, and further support for strong wage growth will be required, from both fiscal policy and industrial laws. The budget also spelled out initial steps in the government’s Future Made in Australia strategy to build renewable energy and related manufacturing industries; these steps are welcome but need to be expanded, and accompanied by strong and consistent measures to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels.

    Our team of researchers at the Centre for Future Work has parsed the budget, focusing on its impacts on work, wages, and labour markets. Please read our full briefing report.



    Full report

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