Introducing the GAP Jobs Summit

Global Access Partners (GAP) holds its 6th Annual Growth Summit in NSW Parliament House to discuss the future of jobs. Catherine Fritz-Kalish, Co-founder and Managing Director of GAP, delivered the introduction.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today to this fantastic venue – Parliament House. A space that is a symbol for both meaningful and lively discussion. So it’s not an accident that we are meeting here to think about the future of jobs in Australia.

The chamber where we will gather enables us to have a conversation, to share our points of view, to inform each other and, ultimately, to decide on how our thoughts and ideas will have real impact through practical outcomes.

Your drivers for attending are likely to be personal. The topic chosen for this year’s Summit is one that is highly relevant for me. I have three children and I’m not sure how to advise them to prepare themselves for their future careers.

What will the future of work look like for them? Are they learning today what they need to learn to get their first jobs?

The impressive ICT Explorers booths set up in the lounge are an outstanding example of the types of skills I’d like my kids to be learning at school. How do we make these programs part of every child’s experience?

And if they have these skills, will the job market be able to accommodate them here in Australia or will they have to leave for overseas?

I want Australia to be the place where my children can realise their working life goals.

This year’s Summit brings together the highest proportion of new guests — some 30% of delegates are here for the first time. Thank you for coming, and thank you to those who have come back year after year to drive the course of this event.

For the newbies, let me briefly share how we arrived here today.

The seed of the idea for Global Access Partners was sown when I spent time working in Paris at the OECD. It was a unique experience, being privy to world changing dialogue.

It was with this in mind, that when I returned to Australia, we created GAP – a space that would allow people to connect, to share wisdom and influence, and to do together things that no individual could achieve on their own.

I am happy to report to you that we have succeeded.

Over the last 15 years, we have initiated close to 100 projects. Engaged over 5,000 individuals. Delivered hundreds of policy recommendations and practical actions.

And it is not just our activities and actions that matter – it is their long and lasting impact on people’s lives, work and wellbeing.

To give you a few examples:

One of the many issues we have tackled in the area of health was pharmacogenomics and how a person’s genetic makeup affects their response to particular cancer treatments. The impact of these findings is both economic and social, with patients being spared useless medication and new regulation being passed in Victoria to protect patients.

Working with NSW government and using our online platform Open Forum, we gathered and synthesised community feedback on the proposed strata law reform in New South Wales. The changes put forward by the public through this online consultation are now part of the first-ever revision of strata regulation in this state.

Australia’s first National Cloud Computing Strategy was informed by the GAP Standing Committee on Cloud Computing. This strategy creates a fair framework for Australian businesses and protects Australian consumers.

Last year Australia hosted the G20 but when we looked at the program of discussions, small business was not featured on their program agenda. By working with Treasury, we shone the light on small business as an area of importance and ran the G20 SME Summit, which has been the catalyst for Turkey who hosts G20 this year, to incorporate small business into their programme.

Many of these outcomes have been initiated at GAP summits.

GAP belongs to all of us and exists because we all participate. Participation comes in various forms, but without our sponsors and Partners we would not be able to continue our work.

GAP is a not for profit and contributes one third of the budget itself. Alongside we have our partners, whom I would like to warmly thank: Herbert Smith Freehills, Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP Enterprise Services, the Department of Employment, the Department of Education and Training, the Department of Social Services, and the ECU Emirates Centre of Aviation & Security Studies (CASS) in Dubai for their support of this Summit.

While these are the organisations that sponsored the Summit, there was a steering committee of friends of GAP that met many times over the last year to guide the development of this Summit. Thank you to the Honourable Philip Ruddock, Sean Innis, Peter Dunne, Geraint Hudson, James Guthrie, Alok Ralhan, Prof Nara Srinivasan, David Redhill, Melis Senova, Bruce McDonald, Peta Furnell, David Turvey, Dom English, Margaret Kidd, Benedikte Jensen and Malcolm Greening who spent many hours advising on this committee.

A special thanks to Minister Eric Abetz and the more than 500 individuals who have participated in the GAP taskforces, Consultative Committees and projects during this year.

At this point, I would also like to formally introduce you to the amazing team of talented, intelligent and dedicated people I have the privilege of working with each day – COO and head of research Olga Bodrova, project manager Edyta Wiatr, editor of Open Forum Svetlana Stankovic, editor of First5000 Roulla Yiacoumi, and our report writer and economics consultant Nick Mallory.

There is no doubt that working at GAP is more than just a job. It is an opportunity to learn and grow and try things that make a difference.

Finally I’d like to thank my father Peter Fritz who co-founded GAP with me 15 years ago. It is a daily gift to work with you.

I would now like to introduce The Hon Anthony Roberts MP, Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy in the NSW Government and Leader of the House. In this capacity he has been tasked with running the newly-created super-department of Industry, Regional Development and Skills, and is leading the Government’s commitment of creating 150,000 new jobs over the next four years.

Minister Roberts is a good friend of GAP and we appreciate his ongoing support.