Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to talk on the Prime Minister’s statement on Skills for the Future and to comment on some of the vacuous contributions of the member for Jagajaga. It is interesting to note that the ALP have had an interesting policy on dealing with the shortage of skills—and that was to create mass unemployment, because mass unemployment ensured they never had a skills crisis. Mass unemployment not only meant that people lost their homes, and high interest rates meant they lost their businesses, but it ensured there was no real demand for skilled labour. It is an interesting policy initiative and one that I am going to focus on a little later in my contribution. As I said, I certainly welcome the Prime Minister’s statement. I believe that this package represents a very well-targeted range of assistance for individuals who want to enter or respond to changes in the job market. It will also do much to ease the skills shortages which we are currently experiencing.

Of course the opposition is quick to criticise on the issue of skills shortages, but skills shortages are a challenge—a challenge that comes from success. They are a challenge that grows out of a vigorous, well-managed economy that is growing strongly year-on-year. They have grown out of our well-managed regime, which not only has resulted in lower interest rates, low inflation and elimination of government debt but is also delivering higher wages and better living standards. Unemployment is at 30-year lows. We have created 1.9 million jobs since 1996, and since March we have introduced Work Choices.

The Australian Labor Party said that the sky was going to fall in, that there were going to be no more barbecues and that the world was going to come to an end. But what has happened? We have created 205,000 jobs. What has happened to wages? Have they gone down? No, they have gone up. What has happened to opportunities? They have only continued to increase. So we have seen greater job creation, higher real wages and continuing improvements in the Australian economy. Work Choices has not been the end of the world as was predicted by the soothsayers in the Labor Party. They are probably spending an hour every day wiping the egg off their face. So this issue of skills shortages is really a response to the success that we have achieved in managing the economy, giving people the confidence to go out and grow their businesses and employ more people. The package that the Prime Minister introduced into the House is part of a range of measures to meet that challenge.

Before considering in detail the assistance offered under Skills for the Future, I would like to spend a moment looking at the measures that are currently under way for Australians, particularly young Australians—the types of measures that we have put in place to ensure that people have access to skills training. Let us look at the figures for apprenticeships, which are the foundation of skills provision. We heard the member for Jagajaga whingeing, moaning and groaning, but the figures show that there are some 403,600 apprentices—and that is compared to how many in 1996? Was it 300,000? No, it was not. Was it 200,000? No. In 1996, there were only 154,800 apprentices. In my electorate of Cowper, back in 1996, there were 710 apprenticeships. How many are there now? There are 2,100—three times the number.

More than 90 per cent of those who complete a new apprenticeship find employment within three months. It is a very different employment scenario from that which existed under Labor. Rather than young people being cast on the scrap heap—young people with no opportunities—under this government apprentices are finding a job within three months. That is a fantastic outcome.

One of the other measures that the government introduced was the $800 tool kit initiative. There is also $1,000 in scholarships for apprentices who complete the first and second year of their training in trade skills in areas of need with a small or medium sized business. Disadvantaged job seekers can benefit from access to a program which equips them to start the apprenticeship itself. There are also incentives for employers to take on apprentices with commencement payments which are higher in regional and rural areas and also higher for school based new apprentices. Five hundred new apprenticeship centres have been opened to make it easier for employers to comply with the requirements of taking on an apprentice. I am pleased to say that 300 of those are in regional and rural Australia. More than $10 billion has been committed over four years for vocational and technical education. Between 1997 and 2004, we saw a 125 per cent increase in the number of students in this area of study. Twenty-five Australian technical colleges are being established for the tuition of some 7,200 students in years 11 and 12 in areas of skills shortage.

With measures like these, we have already gone a significant way towards addressing the issue of skill shortages—as I said, a shortage which is born out of the successful economy driving up demand for labour. Our current economic success was built on reform, but we need to continue to reform in order to compete with other thriving economies in the world market. This government has always focused on ways of making our economy more efficient and, in particular, making the labour market more efficient and more effective.

I am greatly encouraged by the decision to set up two pilot programs offering financial incentives for unemployed people to move to areas of labour shortage. Those seeking to move to areas of labour shortage will be assisted to find jobs in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, with up to $5,000 in assistance. I am pleased to say that my electorate of Cowper is one of the areas that is going to participate in the pilot program which is looking at getting labour from where it is available to where it is very much needed—working towards improving labour market flexibility and creating opportunities. There has been a very favourable reaction to this initiative in my electorate. I have been approached by quite a number of people who are keen to take up the sorts of opportunities that this program will provide. Innovative measures like these do much to improve our labour market effectiveness, reduce the shortage of labour and provide opportunities.

I now turn to the measures included in the Skills for the Future package. I remind the Main Committee that it involves measures worth $837 million, in addition to the $10 billion in funding that I have already mentioned. Earlier, I mentioned disadvantaged job seekers. Clearly, those who do not have year 12 or equivalent qualifications are disadvantaged in today’s workforce. So this package provides work skill vouchers worth up to $3,000 for tuition in TAFEs or private or community colleges. The tuition can cover the most basic skills of literacy and numeracy and all certificate II courses, and will be available to unskilled workers wanting to acquire the sorts of qualifications which will make them more employable and create more opportunities for them. I think it is a great program.

Understandably, measures to date have tended to concentrate on young people, those currently out of work or those who have never been employed, but this program aims to look at what we can do to upskill some of the mature age workers. In terms of the cost of youth and long-term unemployment to the individuals concerned and to the community, it makes good sense to look at a range of ways in which we can upskill all of our workers to provide a total workforce that has a much higher skill level.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

We tend to overlook those who have already acquired a skill and are well accustomed to the demands of the workplace, particularly later in their working lives. Yet we have a pool of well-motivated, experienced people. The fact that they have successfully held down a job under their own steam should surely not preclude them from assistance, particularly when they have so much to offer. Therefore, I welcome the support for mid-career apprenticeships, which should help those aged over 30 move from their current work into an apprenticeship by providing a subsidy to bridge the gap between apprentice wage levels and what they might have been earning elsewhere. The benefit would be paid at the rate of $150 a week in the first year and $100 a week in the second year as the apprenticeship wage rises.

This practical assistance to those who wish to acquire a trade later in life is something I think we should very much welcome. I know many employers in my community welcome the opportunity of taking on people at an apprenticeship level at a mature age, as well as younger apprentices. There is also the fact that many skilled workers and tradespeople have an opportunity to grow their business or to make the move from being self-employed to being an employer. Again, there is a problem in acquiring the necessary skills in moving from, say, being a plumber working on his own to running a business perhaps employing a number of people, with the responsibility that that entails.

Under the Skills for the Future package, the business skills voucher for apprentices will provide up to $500 a year for apprentices taking an accredited small business skills training course. The package also includes 500 Commonwealth supported engineering places at university from 2008, in addition to the 510 places announced by the Minister for Education, Science and Training in July—a very important measure increasing the number of these high-demand engineering positions. Finally, for those seeking diploma and advanced diploma level qualifications, employers will receive incentive payments of $1,500 for each employee starting a diploma program and a further $2,500 on completion of the course. The current restriction on those who already possess qualifications from attracting incentives will be removed and existing employees will be covered, not just new employees.

This recognises the fact that, in a rapidly changing world, we are likely to need more than one qualification in our working life. The Skills for the Future package provides targeted assistance across a range of skills to get more people into the workforce and to upskill those people who are already in the workforce in light of the changing economic circumstances we have. It covers adult literacy, higher technical qualifications and the improvement in the number of engineers—as the Prime Minister said, ‘from reading to rocket science’. It is a very well-targeted, broad package that will substantially improve the skills outlook in this country.

This package will help people who need to upgrade or modify their qualifications and it will also give people a very basic start on improving their qualifications. It is a great package. I know that it will be welcomed by Express Coaches, in my electorate, which has grown from only six employees in 1985 to 85 employees today. They are keen to grow their business with another 35 workers, but they need to upskill them. This package will be of great assistance to them.

Just before I conclude my remarks, I would like to reflect for a moment on the record of the Leader of the Opposition when he was the federal minister for training between 1991 and 1993. It is interesting to note that we not only had a policy of mass unemployment as a way of controlling skills shortages; under the stewardship of the Leader of the Opposition as minister for training, the number of apprentices actually declined—from 151,000 to 122,700. It is hardly a proud record for a man who claims that he has what it takes to run this country. During his time as the responsible minister, he contributed to the skills shortage by actually presiding over a reduction, not an increase, in the number of apprentices.

I commend this package. I think it is a great package. It is going to greatly enhance the skills base of this nation. It is going to provide opportunities and create a more efficient economy. I commend the package indeed.

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