Given that Australians are constantly being told “we’re all in this together”, presumably Kennedy will find a forum to share with those 86 per cent of Australian workers who are not a member of a trade union the insights he’s willing to discuss at closed-door meetings of bosses and unions.

If there does happen to be something bosses and unions agree on it probably would have happened by now. If there is low-hanging fruit it would have fallen to earth already.

In recent weeks the ACTU has had two opportunities to show it was interested in a different way of doing business – but it didn’t budge an inch.

The Federal Court decision allowing some casual employees access to the entitlements of permanent staff could affect more than 2 million workers, and require employers, many of whom will be small businesses, to make up back pay of up $8 billion in total. As businesses struggle to stay afloat this is the very last thing they need, but of course it was a decision the ACTU welcomed. According to a Roy Morgan poll, one quarter of the businesses that were surveyed said the decision will “deter them from hiring casual employees.

And when the NSW state government attempted in institute a 12-month pause in pay increases for state public servants in return for a guarantee of no job losses, the proposal was rejected out-of-hand by the ACTU. Michele O’Neil said it was as “an insult to thousands of essential workers who had worked to get the state through the coronavirus crisis”. It’s true that many essential and health workers have performed an incredible job, but NSW has 410,000 public servants. Some are nurses and teachers, and some are administrative officers writing up diversity and inclusion plans.

Admittedly it’s early days – but so far the unions have given up nothing for their privileged seat at the table. On the other hand, as a show of “good faith”, the Coalition has shelved the Ensuring Integrity Bill to reform the administration of employer and union organisations. What once the Coalition trumpeted as legislation to protect the interests of Australian employees it is now willing to treat as a mere bargaining chip and a political exercise – which is what the unions have claimed all along.

No doubt there’ll be some good photo opportunities when the Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, shakes hands (or touches elbows) across the table with ACTU secretary Sally McManus. But the likelihood is that unless McManus experiences some kind of Damascene conversion towards accepting reform to nearly every aspect of Australia’s industrial relations system, nice photos is all the Coalition will get from this process.

It is true that talking about reform is better than not talking about it – but talking isn’t doing.