Union intervention stands in way of higher wages

Likewise, if a small Australian promotional goods company is able to manufacture its low-cost products in China, then that could enable it to hire additional staff in Australia for business development, graphic design and marketing functions.

A firm's cost-saving of a having its operations that need not be Australian-based being provided from overseas could actually facilitate the creation of more highly-skilled domestic work. Offshoring has the potential to create better Australian jobs.

It is this kind of national economic development that trade unions and the ACTU should be driving towards; the creation of Australian-based jobs, and the ongoing improvement of Australian workers' skills.

The focus of many labour organisations appears to be entrenched in the 1970s, with a focus on single-employer job security, rather than supporting their members to become more employable through improving their skills and knowledge.

There are exceptions to this rule. For instance, the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (APESMA) is a workers' representative body that fosters its members' continued upskilling.

APESMA combines public advocacy and organising with comprehensive member services, which should be a model to which all modern labour organisations aspire. It may well be only union to encourage its members to obtain an MBA.

This kind of approach moves away from a worker relying on a single employer to provide, if not necessarily a job for life, at least one on which a worker is forced to depend for their personal financial stability.

The focus needs to move away from "job security" to broader financial security for individuals and families. The best way to achieve this is through continued upskilling and increased domestic economic activity.

If offshoring some roles is one way for Australian firms to increase their expenditure on necessarily domestic functions, thereby creating Australian jobs, it seems odd for the workers' peak representative body to stand in the way.

Of course it is important for Australian workers to be protected at work through workplace safety laws and wages that enable a good living standard, be they teachers, nurses, childcare workers or any other profession or trade.

But it is time to empower our workforce to determine its own occupational and financial security, through concentrating on improving workers' employability by enhancing their skills and creating opportunities to put them into practice.