The prime minister placed the first policy bricks in the wall on Tuesday, outlining an overhaul of the skills system and close scrutiny of industrial relations.

The relationship between employers and employees is sick, he said.

Bosses feel like their sacrifices aren't appreciated while workers feel they're getting ripped off.

So his plan is to bring everyone into a room - a very large one with appropriate distancing arrangements, one presumes - to talk it out.

Talk of improving flexibility in industrial relations inevitably brings union claims that employers just want to cut pay while squeezing every last bit out of their workers.

One area that's been suggested for a bit of flexibility is politicians' pay packets.

But Morrison was quick to say no changes were needed there when asked if he'd take a pay cut.

"I'll just keep doing a good job, that's my plan," he said.

Great, what about the gym owner who was doing a good job until the coronavirus forced governments to suddenly order their small business closed?

Nor does the prime minister see the need for any flexibility in the coverage of the JobKeeper wage subsidy, which has been revealed to now only cost about half the original estimates.

He likened it to a builder estimating a house would cost $500,000 then coming back to you and saying it would only be $350,000.

"I tell you what, you don't get disappointed with the news, and you don't go and borrow the rest of the money to put a heated swimming pool on the roof," he said.

That roof-top swimming pool is the livelihoods of university staff or cleaners on short contracts - not exactly frivolities.

It was pointed out to Morrison that the Accord of the 1980s he wants to emulate was underpinned by a promise of a better social safety net including Medicare, superannuation and childcare payments.

What would he put on the table this time around?

Well, under these talks the government will promise to keep services as they are.

That's a bit like your builder coming to you with a great deal where he keeps building your house for the quoted price and into the bargain gets to swim in the rooftop swimming pool.

Australian Associated Press