A government blueprint to boost employment and remove barriers for job seekers has been labelled "a missed opportunity" by the opposition.
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The Albanese government released a wide-ranging white paper on Monday, outlining new measures to equip workers with skills needed for jobs of the future as well as plans to dismantle barriers for those wanting to work.
Central to this vision for the labour force of tomorrow is a new definition of full employment - that everyone who wants a job should be able to find one without having to search for too long.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the coalition supported high levels of employment but he did not want to see inflation spike as a consequence.
"It's not clear to me that the treasurer, or the unions, in their discussions around the paper, are looking to have a low inflation economy," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
"I mean, are they prepared to have much higher levels of inflation?" he asked.
Mr Taylor also criticised the government's description of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, or NAIRU, as a technical assumption.
"It's a really crucial issue, this one, you can bring (NAIRU) down over time," he said.
"Bringing down the so-called NAIRU (is) the whole point of it ... that is the missed opportunity of this white paper."
A spokesperson for the treasurer said the government remained committed to the inflation target of two-three per cent.
"That was never in question and Angus Taylor knows this all too well," they said.
"We have a new, broader objective of sustained and inclusive full employment, which is about managing short-term fluctuations in the economy and driving down structural unemployment and reducing barriers to work over time," they added.
The Australian Council of Social Service welcomed the aspiration of the white paper but said it lacked a commitment to curb poverty.
"Poverty-level income supports are a serious barrier to employment, not the income tests which the government has committed to ease," CEO Cassandra Goldie said.
Business groups also broadly supported the jobs plan but said workplace relations changes under way would undermine the vision.
The federal government has embarked on a set of reforms that affect labour hire workers, gig workers and casuals.
Business Council chief executive Bran Black said the reforms risked fossilising industry structures and work practices at a time when technology was forcing rapid change.
"It runs the risk of doing this when economies that are more dynamic than ours are doing exactly the opposite," he said.
Unions said the report highlighted why insecure work was so damaging and why the workforce reforms were necessary.
"The rapid emergence of new, insecure forms of work needs intervention to stop living standards sliding backward," ACTU president Michele O'Neil said.
Australian Associated Press
