Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill 2006. This bill will provide the government with more flexibility when it comes to administering the funding allocated to the establishment of the 25 Australian technical colleges across the nation. It was interesting to hear the previous speaker, Labor’s member for Hotham, speak about Labor having the solution to and policy on this issue. I wonder if that was the same solution and policy that led to us taking over a $96 billion debt, unemployment at the highest rate ever and interest rates which, hopefully, are never to been seen again.

This bill seeks to bring forward funding which had been allocated to be expended in 2008-09 so that it will be available to the colleges in 2006-07. The fact that we are in this situation where we need to bring the funding forward is a wonderful thing. It means that those organisations which were successful in their bids to build and run an Australian technical college are getting on with the job of having those colleges ready and able to accept students as soon as possible. This bill also seeks to provide for a regulation-making power that will allow funding for a calendar year to be carried over or brought forward without the need for an amendment to the legislation.

These are practical amendments which will help to deliver on the Howard government’s election promise of providing 25 Australian technical colleges throughout the nation and are part of the government’s overall strategy to address skill shortages across the nation. These technical colleges will provide young people who wish to gain a trade with the option to gear their year 11 and year 12 studies towards obtaining formal qualifications in that trade.

One of the organisations in my electorate of Kingston was successful in its bid to establish a technical college in Adelaide’s southern suburbs. On the evening of Friday, 19 May, that organisation and I combined to hold an information evening for prospective students and their parents. We had been expecting approximately 100 people to attend the information evening and were both surprised and elated when we had to start bringing in more chairs to allow in excess of 450 people to hear about our college. The residents of the southern suburbs were excited about the opportunities which were opening up for young people in the area, and a large number of young people wanted to enrol then and there on the evening.

The success of this event highlights the demand in the community for the type of education we are striving to provide and the desire of young people to obtain a trade qualification. The need for this legislation highlights the success of this program with regard to finding good organisations to establish the colleges and their desire to get on with opening the colleges and educating students. In my electorate of Kingston, the organisation which has been successful in obtaining the funding to establish the college is the Port Adelaide Training and Development Centre, PATDC. The organisation has worked very closely with me and with local business groups since the announcement of these colleges was made, and it is dedicated to ensuring that their doors are open to year 11 students next year.

In the last three years, the southern suburbs of Adelaide have seen the shutdown of a Mobil Oil refinery and the closure of a local Mitsubishi plant. Since the closure of these two massive contributors to the southern economy and the loss of over 600 jobs from these two closures alone, federal, state and local governments, along with private industry and the wider community, have developed a blueprint to grow and develop our local economy. One of the central points of that blueprint is the need for a strong skill and technology base. The Australian technical college to be located in Adelaide’s south will provide not just a short-term solution to that skill and technology base but an ongoing, long-term one. In fact, as I stated before, we hope to have 75 people starting in 2007, and we believe that will grow to 125. In three years, instead of 300 people, we hope and envisage that it will grow to 450 young people.

The technical colleges we are dealing with in this bill will provide a huge boost for communities like those in my electorate. Not only do they provide hope for young people who are struggling with the challenges of academic study and desperately wish to pursue a trade, and not only do they provide hope for local businesses that, if they increase production and create successful businesses, they will be able to source enough skilled labour, but also they provide hope for the community as a whole. Communities like those in Kingston which have suffered job losses and plant closures like those of Mobil and Mitsubishi suffer a slump in morale and community spirit. An initiative like this and the location of a technical college in an electorate like mine can provide a massive boost, and has already done so, for the community.

This is an initiative aimed at training young people for the careers they want and getting them into jobs. These colleges will establish links with local industry to provide a pathway from training to work for young people, and I can assure you that local industries in my electorate are exceptionally supportive of the college and are lining up to ensure that the minute these young people leave year 12 they move straight into an apprenticeship in a local industry. At the end of the day these colleges are about the future: the future of our young people, the future of industry across the nation and the future of local communities. These colleges have across-the-board support out in the local community and are providing real solutions to very real problems. I have two grown sons who are currently completing trade qualifications—an apprentice plumber and an apprentice carpenter-builder—and both of them would have revelled in the opportunity to attend one of these colleges. The Howard government recognises that a trade qualification is just as valuable as a university education, and we are striving to provide young people like my own sons with adequate choices for their future.

The bill provides the flexibility needed to meet Australia’s skill needs as well as providing meaningful choices for our young people. For that reason, I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context