If we have learnt anything from the COVID pandemic, it’s the critical importance of jobs and job security to Australians and their families.

A secure job is the prerequisite for Australians to survive and get ahead. Without a secure job and a predictable wage, you can’t plan ahead or qualify for a home loan.

Jobs and job security will sit at the centre of Labor’s campaign for the next Federal election.

First, we’ll cut power prices to take pressure off employers, reducing their overheads so they can create jobs right across the economy.

Renewable energy is cheap and getting cheaper. Australia is blessed with abundant resources of sun, wind as well as the raw material to make batteries.

Using more renewable energy will cut power bills across Western Australia and the nation, clearing the way for businesses to do what they do best — create jobs.

This is not rocket science. But Scott Morrison can’t exploit the full potential of reduced power prices because Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals continue to do anything they can to resist the shift to renewable energy.

The Coalition has been divided over renewables for the near-decade they have been in power. After more than 20 attempts, they still have no energy policy.

Mr Joyce, asked recently to outline a plan for Australia to join the rest of the world in embracing a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, said it wasn’t the Government’s job to plan. That’s absurd. The Nationals’ stubborn and backward-looking view is a handbrake on jobs growth and is letting Australia down.

It will take a Labor government to deliver change.

But to really supercharge job creation, we need to stimulate sectors with the greatest potential for jobs growth, particularly by value-adding to existing export industries like resources and food production.

A Labor government will create a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to provide a shot in the arm to Australian businesses.

It will provide loans, equity and loan guarantees to leverage tens of billions of dollars of new, job-creating investment across a range of sectors also including advanced manufacturing and the medical science industry. As a simple example, WA already exports large amounts of lithium, used to create batteries for energy storage.

In addition to exporting lithium, we should prioritise making batteries here in the west.

WA needs a Federal Labor government to get behind the efforts of the State Labor Government to fully exploit this potential.

The National Reconstruction Fund will back in WA investors and existing businesses so they can develop such opportunities. This means more businesses, more exports, and more jobs.

We can also boost job growth by better harnessing the purchasing power of government.

Our Government spends billions of dollars a year buying goods and services in areas like defence industry, infrastructure and for transport needs like train carriages.

Instead of buying them offshore, we should spend that money here in Australia, using Australian suppliers so they can expand and create more jobs.

We have existing businesses that can fill many of these needs. We should use them, recognising the huge value new jobs will have in revitalising local economies, particularly in regional Australia.

To ensure Australians have the necessary skills for these jobs, Labor will rebuild our TAFE sector.

At least 100,000 fewer Australians are undergoing apprenticeships or traineeships today than when the Coalition was elected.

That’s shameful.

Labor will rebuild the training system, creating a new organisation called Jobs and Skills Australia to work with States, employers and trade unions to make sure we are teaching more Australians the skills businesses need.

Wherever possible, these jobs should be permanent jobs.

Under Mr Morrison, four million Australians are in insecure work. They lack the security they need to get ahead.

That’s not good enough.

While many Australians enjoy the flexibility of the gig economy, millions of others want security, but cannot get it under the current system.

A Labor government will enshrine the concept of job security in the Fair Work Act, end exploitation of casuals, deliver a better deal for gig workers and make wage theft by employers an offence under the law.

We’ll also prepare a White Paper on Full Employment — a blueprint for a modern employment system that better balances flexibility and security and charts a course to ongoing prosperity for business and employees.

Having endured the pandemic, Australians understand the chilling feeling of reduced incomes, lost jobs and fading hope. We understand that we can’t take security for granted and that things can change quickly.

Post-pandemic, we have an opportunity to rebuild our economy so it is stronger and more resilient in the face of change.

We must get on the front foot when it comes to job creation, playing to our national strengths by backing in the companies and sectors that will emerge as future drivers of our economy.

But just as importantly, we must back in our people.

We must ensure that having a job gives Australians the security they need to get ahead, to pay off a home and achieve their aspirations for themselves and their families.

This opinion piece was first published in The West Australian and the Launceston Examiner on Thursday, 23 September 2021.