Federal Labor will ask Treasury to explore options for full employment for Australia as a matter of urgency if it wins government at the next election.
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Anthony Albanese will use his address on Friday to the National Press Club to commit that a white paper would be completed within the first term of a federal Labor government.
The unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 per cent in the May figures following the pandemic shock that shattered job security.
Against the backdrop of a vaccine rollout that was slow to get off the ground, and international borders that remain shut, the unemployment rate has been one of the government's strongest report cards as the parties prepare for the next election, due by May 2022.
But the unemployment rate doesn't tell the full story, the Labor leader will say, highlighting that the labour market is characterised by underemployment, casualisation, job insecurity and stagnant wages.
"Let's be clear - we need to get through this. And we need to look ahead," he will say.
"It's not good enough to snap back to 2019."
Mr Albanese will compare the situation now to that faced by former prime ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley in the midst of World War II, saying that going back to 1939 would be, at best, a hollow triumph.
The pair, as then a Labor prime minister and treasurer, ordered Treasury to prepare a white paper on full employment for national recovery for post-war Australia.
"They knew national leadership in times of crisis was about more than mere preservation, it was a question of vision, of courage," Mr Albanese will say.
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The unequal rebuilding in the post-pandemic national recovery has left 1.7 million still out of work, with 4 million in insecure work, he will argue.
"Full employment is about secure work which will assist those currently in work through driving up wages.
"It will cut the gender pay gap and narrow the chasms that divide Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.
"We cannot afford to aim low."
The pledge will contrast Labor's vision for the nation's workers in more secure work against that of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg who say the economy has bounced back stronger.
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