Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to be back on my scrapers to continue my remarks, which were so rudely interrupted by question time! As we know, the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2006 proposes to bring forward funding for the 25 Australian technical colleges that the Commonwealth has committed itself to building. We understand through the bill that the total level of funding for the ATCs remains the same.

I am pleased to be able to support these minor changes. However, I cannot say that I am happy with the way the government has handled such a crucial area as education, and I am not impressed by the way it has failed to address the skills shortage by investing in Australia’s future. I do not believe that this legislation will deliver the goods; it certainly will not deliver the goods for people in my electorate. What these amendments do is to highlight the inability of the government and its complete lack of commitment to education within this country. This ineptitude is being felt most particularly in regional and remote Australia and in my electorate of Lingiari, which has large numbers of isolated Aboriginal communities, pastoral properties and mining towns. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the legislation and emphasise the particular areas of concern faced within my own electorate.

We are told by the government that the proposed technical colleges—only five of which have been opened—would be located in areas with a high youth population, skills needs and in regions supported by a significant industry base. Whilst my electorate certainly fits these criteria, there is no commitment to a technical college being developed in this area. In fact, there has been very little investment at all in the sorts of services and infrastructure needed to provide vocational education and training and to address the skills shortages and education needs in my own electorate.

What we instead see, sadly, is the historical neglect of the education needs of the many people who make up my electorate, particularly where they live in remote parts of it. I know this to be true of other parts of Australia, particularly in the north. In 2005, the Northern Territory government, with industry, held a conference entitled ‘2015: Moving the Territory Ahead’. It was told that the regional economies were suffering as the Darwin economy boomed. In December 2006, the Northern Territory Construction Association stated that these skills shortages were leading to business closures, despite a booming economy. In addressing this critical concern the conference delegates stated that there was a crucial need to involve Indigenous Australians in the answer. The Workforce NT report for 2005 notes:

The NT economy is predicted to continue to strengthen over the next few years with increasing exploration resource development, continuation of major project construction activities and a strengthening tourism market. In the current climate where skills shortages exist across a wide range of occupations, it is reasonable to assume that demand for skilled workers and the demand for labour will continue at both the local and national level.

We know from the most recent Northern Territory occupation shortage list that there are shortages in around 80 occupations. A significant proportion of these are in the trades.

The Workforce NT document reports on the results of an NT wide survey of industry and business conducted by six training advisory committees. Across the Territory 53 per cent of businesses reported difficulty in recruiting staff. The most difficulty was experienced in the central region, where 65 per cent of businesses reported difficulty, followed by the Barkly region, with 59 per cent. Tradespersons and related workers were the most difficult group of workers to recruit, reflected by 34 per cent of responses. Labourers and related workers follow, with 13 per cent of responses; clerical and service workers, with 12 per cent; and professionals, with 12 per cent.

The report profiles the specific skills shortages suffered in each of the Territory’s regions. The report found that, in the East Arnhem region, the most common occupation with a shortage was tradespeople, with 35 per cent of responses, and the common reason given for this was ‘a general skills shortage’, with 39 per cent of responses. The most common occupations experiencing shortages were motor mechanics, cleaners, electricians, seafarers, fishing hands and sales assistants. In the Katherine region, the figures were very similar, with 30 per cent of responses saying that there was a shortage of tradespersons. The most common reason given, again, was ‘a general skills shortage’, with 55 per cent of responses. Again, in similar fashion, the most common workers identified as being in short supply were farm hands, nursery and garden labourers, motor mechanics and sales assistants. In the Barkly region, again, 50 per cent of responses said there was a shortage of tradespersons and 63 per cent of responses said the reason for this was ‘a general skills shortage’. The most common occupations identified were that of motor mechanics, other tradespeople and registered nurses. In the central region, the most common occupations in shortage were tradespeople, with 40 per cent of responses, and the most common reason give, again, was ‘a general skills shortage’, with 51 per cent of responses. The most common occupations identified as having a shortage of labour were those of electricians, motor mechanics, sales assistants, carpentry and joinery tradespersons and cleaners.

The shortage of skills in the Territory is, of course, exacerbated by the growth in economic activity that the Territory economy is experiencing. The Access Economics five-year outlook released last month predicts strong growth in the Territory economy of between five per cent and 6.5 per cent over the next three years, no doubt strongly driven by the commodity boom across northern and Western Australia. Indeed, much of the economic activity that is a result of the commodity boom is based in regional parts of the Territory, in my own electorate. What is unfortunate is that the impressive rates of growth and low levels of unemployment predicted in the Access Economics outlook are not being fully enjoyed in the communities that exist within this area of such vibrant economic activity.

In the regions I earlier identified in my own electorate, there is a significant Indigenous population, with 38 per cent of the population of Lingiari being Aboriginal people. One of the defining characteristics of this population is that they are disproportionately youthful when compared with the rest of the population, and they have very high fertility rates. Forty per cent of Australia’s Indigenous population is aged 14 years or younger, compared with only 20 per cent of the non-Indigenous population.

I have said in this chamber a number of times that the most crucial factor bearing upon the ability of these people to participate in the labour market is a lack of education opportunities. I have pointed out many times in this place that there are literally thousands of young Territorians who live in my electorate who have no access at all to any high school education opportunities or vocational education opportunities. It is within that context that I note the remarks made by various ministers during the course of question time today. You will recall, Mr Deputy Speaker, that the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations made the following comments. Firstly, he said that ‘the best welfare that we can provide to Australians is a job’. He later said that giving Australians a career in an Australian workplace is what they are about.

Then, of course, we had the Minister for Vocational and Further Education talking about skill shortages. He was saying something which we all know: the demand for skills will continue. He said that the government has a plan to address skill shortages—referring to these technical colleges—and keep the economy strong. Then we had the Minister for Education, Science and Training talking about the need for quality education. I wonder if they actually sat down and had a conversation together whether they could work out a solution to the problems in my electorate. Clearly there is a disjointed approach to how to address the skill shortages in this country. Clearly there is a disjointed approach about how to address the needs of people who live in regional and remote Australia and who are not afforded the opportunity to go to technical colleges because they do not exist there.

Nothing in this legislation will assist a single person in my electorate to attend a technical college, because there is not one there. In any event, even if there were, a substantial proportion of the population would not be able to get access to it because they would not have the fundamental skills to get entry. Why do they not have the fundamental skills to get entry? Because they do not have access to a quality education. Why do they not have access to a quality education? Because, sadly, since at least 1978 until 2001, successive conservative governments in the Northern Territory took conscious decisions not to invest in educational infrastructure in the bush. As a result, we now have at least three generations of Territorians—some of them are clearly not young any more—who have been denied access to proper education opportunities.

It is all very well for this government to come in here and parade what it sees as its values about the importance of quality education and the importance of providing people with career opportunities and jobs, but they fail the test because none of the decisions that they have taken in this legislation will provide opportunities for these Australians who live in remote parts of the Northern Territory. Of course, the three ministers who I referred to earlier all make bland statements about what this country is on about and about what they are trying to do in terms of real welfare.

It could well be true that providing people with real jobs is the best welfare, but I wonder if the minister responsible would talk to the minister for education and say, ‘Listen, if I am going to give these young Aboriginal kids in the Northern Territory access to jobs in the broader labour market, they need an education.’ Then, when he has done that, he might well go over to the other minister who got up at the table here and paraded his virtue and say to him: ‘Mate, if we want to give these young kids apprenticeships, you have to provide them with those vocational education opportunities in the bush. It is not much good to them if it is in Darwin.’

My electorate is 1.34 million square kilometres in area. The city of Darwin and Palmerston form the electorate of Solomon, which is 334 square kilometres. You do not have to be Einstein to work it out. The town of Alice Springs is the major service centre for a very large region—about one-third of the Northern Territory. Do you think they have any technical and further education opportunities provided through this legislation? They have zero. What opportunities do all those young kids who live in the northern part of South Australia, the eastern part of Western Australia or the southern part of the Northern Territory and who see Alice Springs as their major service centre get out of this legislation? Not a jot—not one single opportunity.

Let us not have ministers come into this place belting their chests, parading their virtue and saying how well they are doing when, in fact, they are doing abysmally. And whilst I am happy to support the meagre impact this legislation will make in assisting with Australia’s skill shortage by providing some opportunities for some people in some parts of Australia, I say to the government: you have failed the test and you continue to fail the test. You do not understand, nor do you care, about providing those Australians who are most disadvantaged and most need an opportunity in life with that opportunity. You have taken conscious decisions not to do it.

We know that if we are actually going to do something about this that we have to do something reasonable. I talked about the Indigenous community in the Northern Territory. Over 83 per cent of the Indigenous population aged 15 or over live in remote parts of the Territory—that is, in my electorate. According to the Workforce NT Report, they typically have:

• high rates of disengagement from the labour market
• high rates of employment through Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP)
• declining mainstream employment ...

If you profile this population, and if you understand this population, you do not have to be too smart to work out why they cannot get a job. Not only is the labour market an issue, and not only do this government not understand the small-area labour markets that exist across the Northern Territory; they also do not understand their obligation—nor do they acknowledge their obligation—to provide these Australians with a similar opportunity to that which they want to provide to other Australians in other areas, such as Western Sydney or even Darwin. The people in my electorate have the right to these opportunities just like other Australian citizens have. This legislation will not provide them with that opportunity.

This legislation does not go nearly far enough. I say to members opposite: we have to do a damn sight more if we are going to fill the gap which now prevails in the bush and give these young Australians a real opportunity. In 1996, when I was parliamentary secretary for employment, I was responsible for promoting and funding a skills analysis to look at skills shortages in the Northern Territory and across the north of Australia. What did that analysis tell us? It told us that skills were short. We know that, but it exemplified the huge potential pool of labour in the north of Australia which is not being accessed because they are being ignored. Now, report after report has exemplified exactly what I have been saying. Industry knows that there are skills shortages. They need their carpenters, they need their electricians, they need their fitters in the mining industry. They cannot get them.

What we have seen, despite the lack of effort by government, is industry taking up the cudgel. The mining industry, particularly in the case of Argyle, has taken a deliberate approach to make sure that the labour which they employ in that community is largely from the local population. They have changed the way they operate. They have gone out to the community and said: ‘We will help you to get training. We understand the need for this educational opportunity. We will give you the opportunity, we will train you for a job and we will give you a job.’ That is what this government needs to understand. It needs to see that it has an obligation to work with communities and provide the people with real opportunities. This legislation does not do nearly enough in terms of providing technical and further education opportunities for people who live in remote parts of Australia, particularly in my electorate. It is a shame. The government needs to do a damn sight better. (Time expired)

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