Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

That is exactly what has happened under this government. We know that the government has more recently got very keen on the idea of what is called a 457 visa. These are shorter term visas, where the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs allows employers to bring in temporary skilled migrants to fill these skills shortages. We understand how important it is for Australia to have skilled migration, but we do not agree with the department of immigration doing the dirty work for this government’s incompetence and allowing employers to bring in migrants from overseas to undercut the wages and conditions of Australian workers.

We want Australian kids to have the chance to get a trade. We do not want those opportunities to be taken by people coming from overseas when there are thousands of young Australians who want the chance to get an apprenticeship. Skills as a driver of productivity in this country have dropped by 75 per cent over the last 10 years. We should be making sure that skills are the main driver of productivity. But we know this government’s answer for getting productivity increases out of the Australian workforce: make them work harder for less. The Howard government’s response to productivity is: let us compete with China and India by cutting wages and making people work harder.

Labor’s answer to increase productivity is to invest in skills and the education of the Australian workforce to make sure that young Australians have the chance to get a good education and an apprenticeship—and not to give all those jobs to people coming from overseas. Labor has put forward many different policies in this area to address this government’s gross incompetence. We proposed a trade completion bonus—which, of course, this government could have picked up. We want to make sure that young people finish their apprenticeship. Forty per cent of young Australians are not finishing their apprenticeship. They are dropping out because the wages under this government are so appalling. So give them a bonus—give them $2,000 to encourage them to finish their apprenticeship. That way we might be able to address this very serious skills crisis.

That is one thing this government could do immediately. But, no, they refused to do that. Rather than addressing what the Reserve Bank says is one of the main reasons for pressure on interest rates in this economy, their approach continues to be to drive their radical industrial relations reforms to make sure that Australians are competing with China and India on wages. Until we get action from this government to address this skills crisis, we are going to see the pressure on Australian families continue to grow—we are going to see the pressure on their mortgages continue to grow. These families have only one group of people to blame for the interest rate rises they are having to pay, and that is the Howard government. (Time expired)

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