Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

We have called on this debate today to draw attention to the plight of 39 workers in my electorate forgotten by the Howard government. Last year, Labor drew the attention of the House to the decision by the Ballarat company MaxiTRANS to import 25 Chinese workers. Earlier today, it was revealed that the company has sacked 39 Australian workers over the past three weeks. Notwithstanding the company’s claim that the workers have lost their jobs due to—and I am going to quote the part of the press release that the minister seemed a bit reluctant to quote—‘uncertainty and a softening of the market’, the imported labour has been kept on. That this has happened is remarkable enough. That it has been greeted by nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders by the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education, who is at the table—and the Howard government in general, from the Prime Minister down—says much about this government’s misplaced priorities.

I regret the company’s decision, but I absolutely condemn the Howard government for the policy inertia that permitted the displacement of Australian labour by skilled foreign workers. Make no mistake: the sacking of the MaxiTRANS 39 is an indictment of the Howard government. Thirty-nine workers in my electorate are out of a job today because the Howard government has taken the low road on fixing Australia’s chronic skills crisis. It has gone after a quick fix that facilitates the importation of skills at the expense of training for Australian workers. These are the facts of the MaxiTRANS matter. Last year MaxiTRANS, like other Australian manufacturers, was struggling to find the welders, metal fabricators and boilermakers it needed to meet its contracts. It took the decision to bring in 25 skilled workers from China. According to the company, that decision was made because it needed skilled workers immediately. Around the same time, the company recruited a number of Australian apprentices—and I congratulated it for that—but it then put on hold eight of those apprenticeships when the Chinese workers arrived.

In the last three weeks, the company has laid off 39 Australian workers from the Ballarat plant alone. While employed through a labour hire firm, some of them have been working at the plant for up to 20 months—that is, longer than the Chinese workers have been at the plant. At least two of them have been engaged in general welding and the rest of them have been engaged in production. They are semiskilled workers, and all of them wanted the opportunity to train and to keep their jobs. All of them have been employed under conditions that are inferior to those enjoyed by the permanent workers at the plant—including, as I understand it, the Chinese workers. They have received no sick leave, no annual leave and no holiday loading, and there were no long-term employment contracts. There was not much real security there, but at least they had a job. Now they have no job at all. The voice of real people does not often get heard in this House. It should be heard more often. Voices of people like this MaxiTRANS worker who has just got his notice should be heard. He says:

I would have loved to be trained as a welder. I know that out of the unskilled labourers Maxi-TRANS would have easily sorted their shortage. But... we’re unemployed now, it is as simple as that.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is concerned that MaxiTRANS is using imported labour to undercut the conditions and wages of its Australian workers. So far I have given the company the benefit of the doubt on this, but this round of sackings gives me cause for doubt. Whatever the company’s motivations, one fact is abundantly clear: the Howard government is content for Australian businesses to import labour in preference to training Australians. In the midst of the greatest skills crisis in this country in living memory, it is nothing short of absurd that employers find it easier to source skilled labour from overseas than from Australia. If the government had done its job over the past decade, there would have been enough skilled tradespeople in Ballarat to fill the positions filled last year by the Chinese welders. That is the fact of the matter. If the government had provided incentives for MaxiTRANS to skill up these semiskilled workers then there would be enough trained tradespeople today to fill these jobs. It is policy failure on a grand scale.

It is not just impacting on manufacturing businesses in my electorate. Across industries, and across the nation, the consequences of the Howard government’s skills policy inertia are being felt. It is not as if the current circumstances are a surprise to anyone. Employers have been shouting it loud and clear. But what has this government done? Absolutely nothing. It has restricted, not expanded, training opportunities for Australians. Under the Howard government, the skilled migration program has been increased by an extra 270,000 skilled migrants since 1997. Yet since 1998 the government has turned 270,000 Australians away from TAFE —that is, 270,000 Australians, young and old alike, have been denied the training opportunities they deserve.

While skilled migration is up, skilled vacancies are rising, particularly in regional Australia. The skills vacancy index reveals that the Howard government has not started to address regional skills shortages in several critical trades, including carpenters, joiners, fibrous plasterers, bricklayers and solid plasterers. As MaxiTRANS knows only too well, welders, boilermakers and metal fabricators also feature on the skills shortage register. In fact, metal fitters and boilermakers have been on the national skill shortage list for eight of the last 10 years. Machinists, refrigeration mechanics and welders have been on the list for nine of the last 10 years. Mechanics, auto-electricians, panel beaters, chefs, sheetmetal workers, nurses and medical technicians have been on this damning list for every single year of the past decade. Be it due to complacency or arrogance, the Howard government has been unwilling and unable to fix this problem.

I cannot help but contrast the growing skills shortage with rising teenage unemployment in regional Victoria. There is something seriously wrong when you have such high rates of teenage unemployment at the same time as local companies are crying out for skilled workers. As I have said, it is policy failure on an absolutely grand scale.

I am not opposed to skilled migration. None of us on this side of the House are opposed to skilled migration. But while it is an important element of our immigration program, it must not be pursued at the expense of Australian workers and their families. The City of Ballarat in partnership with the local business community has actively sought to attract new residents, including migrants, to our area. As a community, we have supported the Chinese workers. They have taken advantage of an opportunity they were offered, and we all say, ‘Good luck to them.’ But sadly, good luck has not come the way of the MaxiTRANS 39.

It is time the Howard government reconsidered its skills policy inertia and embraced Labor’s commitment to train Australians first. The people of Ballarat do not want much. We want a strong economy, we want jobs and we want to be sure that our community can offer our kids the education, training and employment opportunities they need to make the most of their lives. We know that by neglecting skills training the Howard government has let us down. Skilled migration must not be permitted to replace training for local people. It must not be allowed to act as the fig leaf covering up nine years of skills policy inertia by the Howard government.

Australian workers, including those categorised as unskilled and semiskilled, are the backbone of Australia, not the Prime Minister or the minister at the table. Australian workers built this country and must be supported, not consigned to the scrap heap by this government. Thirty-nine people in my electorate of Ballarat have now been put on the scrap heap by this government while imported workers from overseas remain. Make no mistake: this is a direct result of the Howard government’s incompetence on skills.

The requirements for importing temporary skilled workers from overseas mean the Chinese workers at MaxiTRANS have the protection of a contract, while the 39 local workers who have lost their jobs were left with no contract, no sick leave or annual leave entitlements and no protection from sacking. After working for MaxiTRANS for up to two years, they should have had the chance to do extra training to get a formal trade qualification instead of being replaced by imported skilled workers.

Many of the workers at MaxiTRANS requested further training but were denied this opportunity. The 39 sackings at MaxiTRANS are a terrible blow to the affected workers, many of whom have mortgages and will have a tough time getting another job in Ballarat. The fate of these 39 Australians is an example of what the Howard government’s policy failure on skills is doing to Australian workers.

I have no doubt that the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education is about to get up here at the dispatch box and heap personal abuse on me. That appears to be the style in which he answers questions. That is certainly what he did in question time. He will get up and he will falsely claim that in raising this issue—in daring to speak out for 39 workers who have been sacked in my electorate—I am somehow criticising Maxi-TRANS, an employer in my electorate that employs a large number of people, and that I am criticising the Chinese workers. That is absolutely not what I have done in raising this issue. To claim anything else will be simply untrue.

This minister needs to get up and explain to those 39 workers who today do not have their jobs why they were not provided with the opportunity for training so that they could get a trade qualification in welding and keep their jobs. The minister needs to be able to look those 39 workers in the eye and tell them why the government failed to allow them to get training. The reality is that the government has got the balance wrong. It has been absolutely obsessed with attacking the rights of Australian workers at a time when it should have been investing in education and training. My electorate is forced to bear the consequences of the Howard government’s skills policy failure. I urge the House to join with me in declaring that enough is enough. Train Australians first and train them now.

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