Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Social Security Amendment (Apprenticeship Wage Top-Up for Australian Apprentices) Bill 2007 is another demonstration of the Howard government’s commitment to young Australians in ensuring that they are able to access effective trade training in a way that ensures that it is both attractive as a career option and also, importantly, economically viable for employers and industry. This bill, along with many others that have been introduced during the term of the Howard government, is a very clear demonstration that this government is listening to the community, industry and individuals and responding in a positive and effective way.

Let us look at what has been achieved since the Howard government came to office in 1996. In particular, let us look at my electorate of Hasluck. In March 1996, there were 660 apprentices residing in Hasluck. By September 2006, I am very pleased to report, that figure had significantly increased. (Quorum formed) I can certainly understand the opposition whip calling a quorum. They do not want to hear about the success of the Howard government in providing apprenticeship opportunities for Australians and they do not want to hear about the disaster that they made of it during their term in government, because their performance was pathetic. I was saying that in March 1996 there were 660 apprentices residing in Hasluck. By September 2006, I am very pleased to report, that figure had significantly increased, to 1,430, an increase of some 117 per cent. We need to also look at the more mature age demographic, which reflects that significant change is occurring in our communities—which Labor would not recognise. Encouraged and supported by this government, older people are taking up apprenticeships. In 1996, in my electorate of Hasluck there were only 30 apprentices aged between 25 and 45, compared to 380 in 2006. This is a massive increase, of some 1,167 per cent, demonstrating the former Labor government’s lack of understanding of the evolving labour market.

These figures clearly demonstrate that the Howard government’s strong and effective economic management is flowing through our business communities, providing greater opportunity for those who wish to take up an apprenticeship and positively impacting on and benefiting many families in Hasluck and across Australia. Having looked at the positive changes in apprenticeship numbers and vocational opportunities in Hasluck, let us look more broadly. Since 1996, the Howard government’s policies and their effective implementation have ensured considerable growth in the opportunity for all Australians to access vocational education and training. Australian apprenticeship commencements have increased significantly. In fact, training opportunities for 15- to 24-year olds have increased dramatically, with Australian apprenticeship commencements in 2006 up a massive 154 per cent since 1996. There are now more than 404,000 apprentices in training, compared with only 154,000 in 1996. The number of young Australians aged 25 to 29 with at least certificate III vocational qualifications has increased from 40 per cent to 56 per cent, up 16 percentage points since 1996. The government’s commitment of $2.7 billion this financial year is an increase in funding for vocational education and training of some 90 per cent since the Howard government came to office.

In the lead-up to the last federal election the Howard government made a commitment to establish 24 Australian technical colleges across Australia to assist in the establishment of school based apprenticeships and to provide an effective school based model for the delivery of vocational training with industry and employers. The Howard government’s commitment to establishing these new Australian technical colleges to boost the status and quality of technical and vocational education in Australia is on target, with 20 Australian technical colleges currently operating at 33 campuses. In 2008 there will be 25 colleges at 39 campuses. By the end of 2009 they will be operating at up to 42 campuses.

I was very pleased to see that the recent budget announced further choices for those seeking to develop a trade based career, with a further three Australian technical colleges to be established. This will bring the number of Australian technical colleges to 28, providing training on state-of-the-art equipment, led by industry and business through their respective governing councils. Students will be provided with industry based trade and vocational training and workplace opportunities which will lead to an apprenticeship, a trade qualification and will also provide for a year 12 academic certificate. Indeed, the Australian technical college concept is a real innovation which is already established as a model for the future in developing vocational and trade training in specialist high schools. This Howard government initiative has already forced a number of state Labor governments who, as always, were dragging the chain, to recognise and belatedly introduce school based apprenticeships and to lift their game in those underresourced high schools that are struggling to deliver effective vocational programs.

I am unashamedly a strong advocate for Australian technical colleges and will be working hard on behalf of my electorate and constituents to ensure that one of the new Australian technical colleges earmarked for Western Australia is located at the Midland Railway Workshops. There is a very rigorous and dynamic group who are also determined to see an Australian technical college in Midland. They include the Swan Chamber of Commerce, the City of Swan, the North East Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council. This objective already has the strong support of the community and local businesses. It effectively links the historic past record of apprenticeship training at the Midland Railway Workshops with the future.

The Prime Minister said in parliament last year, in his ministerial statement on Skills for the Future:

With our investment in ... Australian technical colleges the government has said quite emphatically that the days when a trade or vocational qualification was deemed ‘second class’ in our society are over.

Labor do not get it. Labor still do not get that a trade qualification is equal to a university degree as a pathway to a satisfying and rewarding career. Labor do not get the need for industry and employer participation in the education and training process to ensure that the skills being taught meet the needs of employers and industry, whether they are small businesses, such as the local master plumber, or big businesses, such as BHP or Alcoa.

Labor’s lack of understanding of this relationship is demonstrated by their actions in the dropping of industry based advisory committees in the trade sectors in TAFE colleges as far back as 1986. Talk about living in the past. It was further demonstrated by the Leader of the Opposition in his budget reply speech, where he announced that they would fund 2,650 schools to deliver vocational training, without any mention of industry or employer involvement and certainly not enough financial commitment to ensure that they would be adequately resourced. In fact, the member for Wills just mentioned that each school may be eligible for $500,000 to $1.5 million. If they are going to effectively provide vocational training, they will need substantially more than that. They will need to develop relationships and partnerships that assist in the delivery of that. There was no mention of that. They will not be adequately resourced by skilled industry trainers or indeed have the necessary tools and equipment to effectively deliver vocational training of real value.

I again quote Mr Brian Toohey, from his column in the West Australian recently:

Kevin Rudd has made a bad policy mistake by promising to give every high school in Australia a trade training role. The job is much better done in specialised technical and vocational colleges where the money can be concentrated on producing fully skilled graduates.

Quite clearly, the Howard government has got it right. We will continue to build on this record through specialised Australian technical colleges and by supporting apprentice wages and the costs of training fees and other innovation initiatives.

I will further expand on this by referring to last year’s announcement by the Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, of a major investment in upgrading Australia’s workforce and building its skills base by investing $837 million over five years to fund the Skills for the Future initiative. This important training initiative delivers a range of opportunities for Australians to gain new skills and will help to develop a more entrepreneurial workforce. It helps to highlight the understanding of the need to continuously upgrade one’s skills over the course of an individual’s working life or to even start a new career in a traditional trade.

Unlike the Labor opposition leader, the Prime Minister of Australia does get it. He knows and understands what Australians need to remain actively engaged in the workforce. He knows what industry and business need to increase productivity and profitability in the 21st century. He understands that requiring business and employers to pay an adult apprenticeship rate where a worker is older than 21 is a disincentive to employers and a barrier to older Australians changing career and taking on an apprenticeship.

The Western Australian government, only a few years ago, moved all apprentices over 21 onto the minimum adult wage without any serious consultation with employers of mature age apprentices. This decision, unfortunately, immediately led to many of those mature age apprentices losing their apprenticeship. It was a great and unnecessary tragedy for those affected. Instead, the Labor government should have adopted a similar approach to that announced under the Howard government’s Skills for the Future package, which provides support for mid-career apprentices of an amount of $307 million. Apprentices aged 30 and over will receive $150 per week—the equivalent of $7,800—in the first year of their apprenticeship and $100 per week, which is equal to $5,200, in their second year. This is paid to either the apprentice or the employer, depending on the industrial arrangement the apprentice is employed under. That is the way to encourage older people into the workplace and to take up apprenticeships.

Other initiatives announced under this program include work skills vouchers to the value of $408 million. The $3,000 works skill voucher is a great opportunity for those people over 25 to hone their basic skills, especially to gain the literacy and numeracy skills that are basic requirements in the workplace. Other initiatives include the business skills vouchers for apprentices, worth $12 million; more engineering places at universities, worth $56 million; and incentives for higher technical skills, worth $54 million. These are all worthwhile initiatives aimed at keeping apprentices of all ages in the workforce.

The recent budget announcement to provide apprentices with an additional $1,000 for the first two years of their apprenticeship was well received, particularly by those apprentices in a trade occupation included on the migration occupations in demand list. This initiative will see first- and second-year apprentices under 30 who are undertaking an apprenticeship in a trade occupation included on the migration occupations in demand list as experiencing skills shortages significantly advantaged by this additional tax-free payment. It is expected that, over four years, some 220,000 Australian apprentices will benefit from this initiative. These payments are planned to be made in six-monthly instalments until they have reached the end of their second year.

These incentives are targeted specifically at those areas identified by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations as being areas of national shortage, and currently include such critical trades areas as bricklaying, cabinet-making, carpentry and joinery, drainery, gas fitting, general plumbing, mechanical servicing, air-conditioning plumbing, metal fabricating, metal machinistry, pressure welding, sheetmetal working, welding first-class, fitting, fibrous plastering, general electrical, general electronic instrument trades and lift mechanics—to name but some of those trades that would make terrific opportunities for many Australians.

These trades are necessary for the further development of essential infrastructure and future economic growth and prosperity. The coalition government has long been committed to restoring the status of trade and technical qualifications as an important part of ensuring that Australians see an apprenticeship as a valued and supported career choice. It is sad, though, to see that the Australian Labor Party has walked away from these essential trades in favour of an academic university qualification, irrespective of whether there is a job at the end of it or not. Indeed, today there are many mature age apprentices who have degrees but have seen the real opportunity that trades, such as those mentioned earlier, provide.

For a young person leaving school, there is nothing as important as having the opportunity to find work or an apprenticeship in a chosen trade or career path. In 2007, that opportunity is much more readily available than it was in 1996. In the early 1990s, 34.5 per cent of teenagers and school leavers were unemployed. In fact, the prospect of a job or apprenticeship was pretty remote. We even had the CES, as it was known, going into schools and advising leavers how to sign up for the dole, such were their prospects of employment. All of this was during the reign of what can only be described as an inept Labor government.

Let me demonstrate that ineptness. This is what the member for Brand, the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training, had to say in 1993 in respect of youth unemployment in an interview on 6 May 1993:

Interviewer: So this group are being told, in their twenties, by society, effectively: You’re the losers; go to the scrap heap?

Beazley: Well, those who haven’t made it into work and who are among the long-term unemployed, that’s a reasonable statement.

We all know that we ended up with over a million Australians unemployed. The then Labor government had no response, no solution and could not fix these problems or even kick-start the economy.

The member for Wills said, ‘Labor can do better.’ We have been looking at what they have done. Let us look a little bit further. At that time, with the Labor government’s focus on university degrees, Australia lost a generation of apprentices and tradespeople simply because of their inability to understand how to kick-start the economy. At that time I was a strong advocate for industry based training centres as an alternative to TAFE to provide retraining and upskilling for existing skilled tradespeople and to ensure their skill base and knowledge remained relevant in a market that was rapidly advancing with the introduction of new technology and systems. It was very difficult at that time to get TAFE to address the changes that were occurring through technology.

It was obvious that there was a crisis in apprenticeship training and a need for much more flexible training arrangements and competition in this critical area. I, with other like-minded people committed to ensuring future opportunities for school leavers in apprenticeships and a future skilling of existing tradespeople, set about establishing a training facility. This led to the innovative MPA Skills in Maylands being established. Initially, it was precluded from delivering apprenticeship programs through an unproductive and restrictive Labor government policy. It was the first industry based skills centre to serve the building and construction industry in Western Australia, if not Australia. It is now a significant provider of apprenticeships for the skilled trades of painting, plumbing and gasfitting. (Quorum formed) (Time expired)

Debate interrupted.

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