In the run up to the last election, in May 2022, Anthony Albanese, as leader of the opposition, made much of a Labor promise to hold a summit on jobs. If elected, a job summit would be followed by a government white paper on full employment, and national programs would be developed, funded and put in place. The package (the summit, the white paper, the fully-funded programs) invited voters to recall Bob Hawke's promise to bring Australians together in common purpose as he campaigned victoriously in the March 1983 election.
Bob Hawke's summit was held as a matter of urgency, within six weeks of the election, and became a standout event in Australian political history. Politicians, trade union leaders, business leaders, high-profile community representatives, locked horns. Aspirations from the labour movement's Accord document - the consequence of years of painstaking, blood-soaked development - were given concrete form by the summiteers. A vast agenda of economic reform was devised.
