I wish the Jobs and Skills Summit well.

However, the arrangement seems very similar to the 1996 ACCI–ACOSS Tax Summit; that is, to bring both sides together on a rather questionable outcome.

The aim of the 1996 summit was indeed to have all tax matters discussed, but together with a distinct if unspoken aim to achieve an agreement between apparently hostile parties to introduce a federal tax on Australia’s goods and services.

I attended the 1996 tax summit with the late great Phil Day. It was introduced by journalist Mike Schildberger, and while the summit’s final communique did also recommend greater use of land tax, that proposal was buried within days.

So, here we are with a jobs and skills summit that, inter alia, is about to find and recommend reasons for an enormous immigration program to solve what Treasury sees to be the underlying problem with Australia’s economy.

I hope I’m proven wrong, but I suspect Australia’s real solution is likely to be overlooked and that Australians are to be done over once again.