Day one closing remarks, Jobs and Skills Summit, Parliament House, Canberra

In the interests of time, I’ll only speak for about 45 minutes if that’s okay. [laughter] My job is really to wrap today up and so I won’t speak at any great length, but really to say that the progress that we’ve made today, and the contributions that people have made today, have been exactly why we brought you together.

And really setting the tone, whether it's the very, very thoughtful presentations from Danielle and Leonora and Claire, which provided some really considered kind of scaffolding to the conversation that we had today, all the way through to the panellists, the contributions from the floor, the way that people have been interacting with each other, and not just with the lectern, and seeing where we can find common ground, has been really incredibly encouraging.

Can I say, in particular, when it comes to the work that's being done by the employer groups and the union movement in particular, I think there has been a demonstration today that people are prepared to give a little in order to get a lot in return. And that, again, has been really encouraging and really heartening.

Can I say about the Premiers of both political persuasions, from right around Australia, it means a lot to us, that you have been there, being part of this conversation for the whole day. And I really wanted to acknowledge that, with all the demands on your time, the fact that we cannot solve these challenges that have been rightly identified today without working together, not just with each other, not just business and unions and community groups, but all levels of government as well. I wanted to really acknowledge the commitment that the Premiers have shown as well to this process.

And to the Ministers who've led sessions, I want to thank you for keeping your mind open, the doors of consultation open, and the cheque book closed. [laughter] But thank you to the Ministers who have led conversations, to Helen, to all of the workers, all of the staff who've got us here today.

I don't really want to go much beyond that, except to say that the progress that we've made today gives me great heart and great encouragement for tomorrow as well. I'm confident that we will have another opportunity tomorrow to make progress in some other really crucial policy areas as well. And I'm looking forward to speaking to you from this lectern tomorrow afternoon, hopefully, and I'm cautiously optimistic about this, with a handful of quite concrete measures that we can progress this year, and then obviously a list of work that will continue into the White Paper, into subsequent Budgets, into the conversations at the Federation, and all of the other ways that we can work together.

But most of all, thank you very much.