Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start with what we all agree on. I think that every inaugural speech from both sides of politics has extolled the virtues of education and skills. They are all correct: learning has real power. The acquisition of skills, be it a certificate III or a four-year apprenticeship, can have the power to change a life, to transform and diffuse technology and to assist the rise and rise of consumer wealth. For all of us here who love education, the influence of skills is not news. Imagination, innovation and entrepreneurship flow from a fertile and well-trained mind. But an educated, skilled nation does not simply wake up to find itself highly skilled. Knowledge is a process of accumulation, not instant genius. Our nation and our people, more than ever, need the persistent and consistent promotion of skills. The notion of one job and one organisation for life is no longer relevant to the fluid and transient 21st century. The requirement for labour skills and talents will rise and change with market trends. Jobs once thought safe will evaporate. In our new century, our workers must be able to rapidly adapt to a changing work environment and have to be supported in their need to train and retrain and be students and apprentices again to acquire multiple skills for multiple careers.

I think one of the real capacity constraints facing our nation is the underdeveloped talent of our workers. Australians have innate talent; there can be no doubt about that. But they need leadership and they need skills training to develop their abilities. One of the most important things that we can do in this place is to help build an individual’s skills, giving them not only what they need to have a satisfying working life across many careers but also the wherewithal to contribute to our society and our community to their full potential. Corporations, governments and, indeed, nations who support and build workers’ skills will, in turn, build their own competitive edge, ensuring their future success in the global marketplace. Yet one of the major failures of the Howard government was its cavalier, leave-it-alone attitude towards our future prosperity, evidenced by its neglect of skills formation in Australia. Australia has not trained enough new or existing workers to keep up with the demands on our economy and our workforce.

There is an unprecedented demand for our resources across the world. Mineral and energy resource prices are at all-time highs. Our iron, steel, alumina and aluminium exports are contributing to building and shaping the future of the world. But the previous government sorely neglected our need to remain globally competitive and the sustainability of our prosperity. Twenty times in the last three years the Reserve Bank warned that capacity constraints, including skill shortages, were driving up inflation. Indeed, the Minerals Council estimated that projects in excess of $100 billion were under threat from capacity constraints, including lack of skills training. Substantial growth opportunities, particularly in regional and remote parts of Australia, may be lost. It has been left to Labor to repair the legacy of the previous government.

Skills Australia is a key plank of the government’s five-point plan to fight inflation and to secure higher living standards for all Australians. Labor recognises that our economy is constrained by limits to its capacity to sustain higher growth without inflation, in large part because of a lack of skilled workers. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations outlined in her second reading speech on the Skills Australia Bill 2008 the depth of the skills shortages, in particular in the mining and construction sectors. Whilst in the last five years there were 54,000 new jobs created in mining, there has been a fivefold increase in vacancies in the sector, and we see the delay, mothballing and increasing costs of many projects. Indeed, by 2015 there will be a requirement for another 70,000 people in the resources sector. These are problems that Labor needs to solve.

In my own electorate of Maribyrnong, over 7,000 people work in manufacturing. It is the single largest industry employing my constituents. Policies which invest in the skills of the people of Maribyrnong will also, in turn, secure a competitive future for manufacturing. Policies about skills training are particularly relevant in my electorate because there are more technicians, trade workers and machinery operators and drivers than there are workers in any other collective group of occupations in the seat. Investment in skills creation is fundamental to the next wave of economic reform. As the minister indicated in her second reading speech, Skills Australia is the first step of many that this government will take as part of a comprehensive approach to secure a prosperous future which maximises workforce participation and productivity. Having people outside of the workforce is a waste of the national economic potential. International research shows that without substantial and significant upskilling in the workforce our relative skill level will be lower than those of our international competitors in the future, affecting our future performance economically.

The Productivity Commission revealed that the surge in productivity growth from the 1990s was by far the major factor behind average income acceleration in that period. Indeed, much of the high productivity growth through skills development and high performing industries in the nineties was passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices at the time. The legislation establishing Skills Australia sets out the objectives of the new statutory body, which are to provide for expert and independent advice in relation to Australia’s workforce skills and development needs. This will target what the government is doing in line with what industry is demanding. Industry demand, in the analysis of the workforce skills needs across industry, will be at the heart of the skills training program. I am also pleased that Skills Australia holds the promise of developing and maintaining relationships with the states and territories and with their relevant authorities and others interested in workforce development across all of our workforce.

Labor’s focus on new training places—an extra 450,000 training places over the next four years—with many of these training places leading to higher level qualifications, such as certificate III level or above, will enhance the quantity, the quality and the depth of the skills of our workforce for years to come. The consultative and cooperative approach adopted by this bill, and the Skilling Australia for the Future policy, shows the government’s commitment to working constructively to align skills development policies and training with industry priorities. I applaud the support for up to 65,000 apprenticeships over the next four years under the Skilling Australia for the Future policy. Apprentices play a crucial role in building Australia’s skills base, and acquiring new skills will help lift the participation rate and lower the unemployment rate for 15- to 19-year-olds in particular. After all, people with high qualifications have higher rates of participation and employment, and their working lives tend to extend longer than those without qualifications.

But this Skilling Australia proposition is also vital to lifting those outside the social and economic mainstream into employment. Under the Howard government the Australian training system insufficiently helped those who were outside the workforce to re-enter it. Australia’s record on training those without employment is, in fact, poor. Under the previous government, Australia spent 0.04 per cent of its gross domestic product on training those who were not employed. We were the fifth lowest in the OECD—a shameful result. There are an estimated 526,000 15- to 24-year-olds not engaged in full-time work or study. Skilling Australia provides the opportunity to potentially rescue a lost generation and to ensure much more engagement in the workforce. Also, another 544,000 people who are underemployed in Australia will have greater access to skills training and will be able to participate more fully and satisfactorily in the Australian workforce. Enhanced vocational training is critical to delivering a genuine full employment economy, where existing workers’ jobs are secure and where those outside the workforce have the wherewithal to participate more fully. That is why I am particularly pleased by Labor’s commitment to allocating more than a third of the additional new training places to people currently outside of or marginally attached to the workforce to equip them with the skills that they need to gain employment. Indeed, the remaining places will be targeted at training people who are currently employed but need to upgrade their skills.

In my capacity as Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, I have become acutely aware of the impediments to entry or re-entry to the workforce for people with a disability or mental illness. Rudd Labor certainly recognises the merits of certified training and assisting people on income support payments to acquire skills and gain lasting employment. Our government understands that those with a disability or mental illness should be given the vocational and employment opportunities that they deserve to gain and retain work. As I said in my first speech to this House, it will do this:

... not so people with disability receive special treatment but so they receive the same treatment as everybody else—the rights which are theirs, with the dignity that they deserve.

The government’s commitments under Skilling Australia for the Future and other policies, such as Labor’s national strategy for mental health and disability employment, chaired by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and me, will contribute to the government’s social inclusion agenda. This legislation enhances the lives of people in many ways which we can only begin to appreciate. In conclusion, I believe that the Rudd Labor government understands that Australia will be what it knows. I congratulate the minister on this bill and commend it to the House.

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