Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Vocational and Further Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008 and other budget related bills. A successful company does two things: it pays a healthy dividend to the shareholders, and it takes from the profits and invests into the future. An unsuccessful business pays little or no dividends because they do not have the profits to distribute and they tend to borrow to keep the company afloat. In 1996, we took over an unsuccessful business, with little or no dividends having been paid and a $96 billion debt.

You might recall that, under Labor, many of the budget nights were all about beer and cigarettes—the tax increases we would see on beer and cigarettes. It was all about where taxes might be increased to pay for some crumbs from the government’s table. Well, after a decade of uninterrupted economic growth, the budget of last week was a far cry from those of the 1980s and 1990s. Many big reforms were undertaken in this budget—for example, the $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund, further tax cuts, funding of Defence, roads and other infrastructure and the many personal programs for individual Australians. These healthy dividends from the profits were only possible because of the strong economic management of the coalition government over the past 11 years and the fact that the government has paid off $96 billion of debt that was accrued by our predecessors.

The important factor to remember is that all of the key measures that have enabled the economy to be in such strong shape—the measures to pay off that $96 billion in debt, the budget reforms, the waterfront reforms, the tax reform, the workplace relations reforms, the superannuation reforms, the Future Fund, independent contractor legislation, the temporary skilled migrant program, the sale of Telstra, Welfare to Work programs—all of this legislation, all of these reforms over the last 11 years, have been vigorously opposed by those opposite. And all of those reforms are the reason we can stand here tonight as a government and announce and introduce to the parliament an appropriation bill which seeks to fund very significant investment in the future of our country and very significant personal dividends for individual Australians. All of those measures have delivered extraordinary resilience, economic strength and prosperity over a long period of time, in the face of many shocks to our economy over those 11 years. Now we see those opposite, the Labor Party, pretending that we are as one on economic matters. It is a joke. In this election year, it is a factor that must be top of mind for every Australian when they go to the polls: to remember the way in which those measures which have delivered the prosperity that we are enjoying now as a country and our ability to invest in the future were opposed by those opposite, root and branch, over the last 11 years.

The 11 years of economic reform and strength have enabled, amongst many other things, an investment this year and for future years of $3 billion in vocational and technical training. Some of this investment in the budget came in my area of vocational education and further education, where the government made commitments of $668 million for the next four years. This commitment is on top of $837 million committed just last October and November—a total of $1.5 billion in the last six months, dedicated to trying to enhance the skill situation within our economy and overcome labour shortages and skills shortages which exist.

Five particular measures were introduced in the budget. They included an apprenticeship wage top-up, a tax-free payment of $1,000 per year for first- and second-year apprentices under 30 in trades facing skills shortages. They will be paid every six months, and that will seek to encourage young people to enter the trades and to stay in the trades, to stay with their training. In addition to that, each apprentice in their first and second year in those areas facing skills shortages will receive an apprenticeship training voucher of up to $500 per year, again to assist them to stay the course. We have announced three new Australian technical colleges to add to the 25 other colleges that are in the pipeline, 20 of which are open and working so successfully around the country. We announced support for fast-track apprenticeships, a significant initiative to encourage employers to get with training operators, training organisations, and develop programs to shorten apprenticeships, again to encourage young people and others to take up apprenticeship training. We also included FEE-HELP for diploma and advanced diploma courses to encourage those with trade qualifications to further build on their skills and knowledge. We need in this age a very highly skilled and very sophisticated level of training within the technical and vocational areas. These five new measures will attract new apprentices with higher wages and shorter apprenticeships. They will increase the status and availability of quality technical training in years 11 and 12, and they will assist the top tradespeople to undertake higher level technical studies.

The government’s package to address skills and shortages is detailed. It is well thought out. When you put it together with the other $837 million and the other $2 billion worth of commitments, we have a plan to respond to this important issue. Of course, it is by no means restricted to my portfolio, and I will cover that in a second. By contrast, the Labor approach is one-dimensional. It is simplistic. In some ways, it is bumper sticker politics. I will come back to that in due course.

In responding to the challenges that we have with a very seriously ageing population and the challenges for skills that are presented by an economy which has seen uninterrupted economic growth for well over a decade, there are four areas which need major attention and which the government has been working on now for many years in order to deal with these challenges. The areas are as follows. Firstly, we must get all people who can work into work or to stay in work. Secondly, we need to reopen old-style, dedicated technical schools to provide a sense of pride, an incentive and a motivation for those young people who are born with strong technical, vocational and creative skills, to have those skills properly introduced and developed at school age and beyond. The third area we need to focus on is to ensure that those who start an apprenticeship stay the distance and do not drop out—that we can help them, encourage them, to make the most of those skills that they have been born with, to ensure that they make the most of their lives and that they make the best contribution they can to the community. Fourthly, and importantly, we need to be introducing and encouraging programs to train and retrain existing members of the workforce, mature age members, especially the 3.4 million of our 10-million-strong workforce who have training levels of less than year 12 or the equivalent in technical or vocational training.

These are the four areas that the government has focused its attention on. The first—getting all people who can work into work or to stay in work—is a really important part of our program. Australia has three million people aged between 55 and 70. They have a big part to play in overcoming the labour shortages that our economy confronts. We have 700,000 people with disabilities, many of whom want to work, could work, should work and are available. With the proper training and with flexibility in the workforce—and, in many cases, with a change of perception amongst employers—they could contribute in many areas. We have 750,000 people on parenting payments, many of whom want to work, could work, should work and need to maintain their skills. Often they can only work part time. Again, these people are a very important component in dealing with the labour shortages we confront. And we still have 495,000 unemployed people—another extremely important resource that we must tap into if we are to deal with the challenges.

The government has already undertaken a number of steps over the last few years to assist people in these categories. In this budget in particular, very significant tax changes were made which are of broad benefit to the community but also will have the important impact, as the Secretary of the Treasury, Ken Henry, said last week, of leading to an extra 90,000 people entering the workforce—a very important part of our program to deal with labour and skills shortages. Further steps include the Welfare to Work program, which the Labor Party voted against; the biggest superannuation changes ever; 130,000 work skills vouchers introduced last November as part of our training program for mature age people in the workforce; independent contractor legislation; and workplace relations legislation—all of these broad programs in many different portfolios are an essential part of our community dealing with the issue of getting people who can work into work and keeping people in work who should and could be working. In this way we can help deal with the skills shortages that confront our country.

The second major area that the government is developing is the reopening of the old-style dedicated technical schools. As a country, one of the biggest mistakes we made in education in the last 20 to 30 years was the closing of technical high schools. We need to see literally hundreds of thousands of young people take the decision to enter all sorts of trades and vocational training. It must be nurtured and it must start at an early age.

The fact is that, to deal with our modern economy and the challenges we face, we need 20 per cent of the workforce to have higher education and university qualifications. Currently, that is approximately the figure—that is pretty much in balance. But to meet our current challenges and opportunities as a country we need 60 per cent of the working population with strong technical or vocational training. Currently it is 30 per cent. That is where the big gap exists. Part of dealing with that gap is to get young people to follow the talents that they are born with. The investment by the Howard government in 28 technical colleges is an emphatic statement that the days when a trade or vocational qualification was deemed second-class are over. We must stop talking down the trades as we have as a community for 20 or 30 years. And we must get back to a situation as a nation where a high-quality technical education is as prized as a university education.

In the budget the government committed to three new technical colleges—old-style dedicated technical schools—on top of the other 25 that we have already committed to, 20 of which are open. These schools have many benefits for students. They provide students with a year 12 certificate. They are for years 11 and 12, but students end up with a year 12 certificate. And at that stage they are one-third of the way through a school based apprenticeship, they have had two years of strong industry experience in their apprenticeship and they have earned while they have learned. But they have been in an atmosphere which is dedicated to giving full expression to those technical and vocational talents that they have been born with.

Most of us are born with technical and creative talents, not academic talents. Yet the whole emphasis for 20 or 30 years has been on encouraging young people to go to university. Parents now feel they are a failure if their children have not gone to university, notwithstanding the abilities and talents that their children are born with. It is a great shame that this has occurred. Those opposite have done a great deal to perpetuate and propagate this unfortunate culture that has developed within our community. It must be turned around—and much of turning it around involves a return to specialist dedicated technical schools at the year 11 and 12 level.

As at the end of March there were already 1,800 students enrolled in Australian technical colleges, with more students to come this year with the opening of the Pilbara technical college in July and enrolments taking place in the 20 colleges that are currently open. On top of these enrolments, since 2004 several state governments have followed suit and have announced another 25 technical colleges. We now have a commitment to over 50 technical schools to be introduced around the country. Following the lead of the Howard government, we now have some 50-plus technical schools, state and federal, in the pipeline. That will mean that, by 2009, somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 young Australians will be back in old-style technical schools, giving expression to the talents and abilities that they have been born with and ensuring that academic schools and technical schools are on a par in Australia.

If the money that the opposition was talking about giving in small doses to several thousand secondary schools were devoted to old-style technical schools, we could have seen a proposal where some 60,000 to 100,000 students could be in dedicated old-style technical schools and a return to some balance in our education system.

Unfortunately, the activities and pressure of the Australian Education Union, its ideological and pathological objection to anything to do with specialist training, and the one-size-fits-all approach that it has promoted for so long and which has in many cases led to the closure of technical schools and other specialist schools in our community, has driven the Labor Party’s response to the budget and their initiatives. It is a shame. You cannot criticise their spending of money on technical training, but the direction of that spending is unfortunate and I suggest that they rethink the opportunity that now exists. The model has been proven. State Labor governments are following suit. We are starting to see a critical mass of Australian old-style technical schools being built around the country. These schools are working their socks off. The connection with industry and the pride of the students, and the parents and grandparents of students, is to be seen to be believed. People now feel that there is great value in giving expression to the talents that they have been born with.

We are also looking to ensure that apprentices stay the distance and do not drop out. We now have 404,000 apprentices in training versus the 154,000 there were when we took office. But, on average, 42 per cent of those who start apprenticeships drop out, and 38 per cent of those drop out in the first two years. That is why we have undertaken to provide apprentices with a $1,000 untaxed wage top-up in their first two years, with a $500 fee voucher each year. That is a total of $3,000 to help many of these young apprentices stay the distance and fulfil their talents to their full expression. On top of that we have provided a $4,000 employer incentive, a $13,000 wage subsidy for mature age apprentices and a $1,000 regional allowance. There is a very significant program.

Finally, we as a government have undertaken and introduced a range of important initiatives to deal with those existing in the workforce who have not had any training of up to a year 12 level or any significant technical training. That is a very important component of dealing with the labour and skills shortage and there is a raft of important and expansive measures that we must undertake to ensure that those people are properly trained and feel that they can be trained or retrained, and to build a culture right across every age group where both employers and employees feel and know the importance of training and retraining and staying ahead of— (Time expired)

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