Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1)   commends the Australian Government’s:

(a) commitment to meeting Australia’s future workforce needs;

(b) strong investment record in skills and training; and

(c) partnership with industry to meet Australia’s skills challenges;

(2)   notes that all Australians should have the opportunity to get the education and skills they need for the jobs on offer, and the importance:

(a) that the TAFE system plays in providing training opportunities; and

(b) of federal, state and local initiatives to provide jobseekers with customised employment and training to meet their individual needs and the demands of the labour market for a skilled workforce; and

(3)   calls on Governments at all levels to:

(a) provide funding for employment and skills services; and

(b) continue to invest in TAFE and skills training,

This federal Labor government has a strong record of building and managing the economy for working people, creating over 800,000 jobs on its watch, creating and fighting for those jobs, and spreading the benefits of the mining boom to families, businesses and individuals. We have one of the strongest economies in the western world.

Since December 2007 the economy has grown 10.3 per cent. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates; it has hovered at about five per cent for some considerable period of time. This federal Labor government has overhauled the job services network to focus squarely on getting people off welfare into work. We have provided more assistance to people with disabilities, Indigenous people and those with other barriers to employment.

Since coming to office we have introduced the first paid parental leave scheme, which is designed to redress Australia's low participation rate for women aged 25 to 44. We have a learn or earn guarantee for every Australian under 25 years of age—a training place, a place for education, if they are not ready for full employment.

We have provided support for families by providing over $4,000 per child to encourage teenagers 16 to 18 years old to remain in school or TAFE. We have uncapped the Disability Employment Services and changed income support arrangements for people with disabilities to provide incentives to engage in employment. We have trebled the tax-free threshold, creating incentives for low income earners to work.

We have introduced the Investing in Experience (Skills Recognition and Training) program to provide up to $4,000 to mature-age people undertaking skills assessment and training to support upskilling. In the last five years the census data shows a 39.5 per cent increase in students attending university or TAFE. An extra 996 students in my electorate alone are accessing higher education.

In Queensland, my home state, this federal Labor government has provided an extra $356.9 million for an extra 73,637 students to complete TAFE and other courses in the next five years and a MySkills website to give employers and students access to information. We are building Australia's future workforce with $3 billion in skills and training to address the skills shortage experienced by industry.

We understand that the benefits and dignity of work should be extended to more Australians. Many Australians need work, and we are providing it for them. Labor governments are committed to providing a high-skill workforce, high-wage jobs and a more productive and fairer economy. We believe that all eligible Australians should be able to access training and employment no matter where they are from or what is their background.

Too many Australians have been sidelined because they do not have the skills they need to join the workforce. We know there are challenges. The ABS data shows that around 4.1 million Australians miss out on vital skills and training that could earn them up to $10,000 more a year in today's labour market. That is why we have taken the action I have outlined, and that is why we are taking additional action. Also, we committed to and have abolished up-front fees for 60,000 students a year in vocational education and training, providing interest free deferred loans for all students studying publicly-subsidised diplomas and advanced diplomas. We put $1.75 billion on the table to work with states and territories to deliver these reforms. This is a proud Labor record. It is fair for all Australians.

What do the Liberals do? What do their state governments in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria do? It is in their DNA—they cut TAFE funding, slash jobs and increase student fees. In my home state, Queenslanders feel thoroughly and utterly betrayed by their destructive government. Hillbilly authoritarianism is the order of the day in Queensland now, with savage cuts to services, jobs and funding. It is not just the 14,000 public servants whose jobs have been slashed. There are all the other people who are receiving funding for programs through the Department of Communities, employed in local councils, community groups and not-for-profit organisations—for example, IRASI, the tenancy advocacy service in Ipswich in my electorate. The jobs of great people like Amy Stockwell, who is the Community Development Coordinator in the Somerset Regional Council, have been slashed. Amy was a pillar during the flood last year. Her job has been slashed because the Department of Communities' funds have been cut.

We have seen the Queensland government's savage job cuts. In health, 4,140 jobs are gone, after the promise that only 2,700 jobs would go. Before the election, Campbell Newman said public servants had 'nothing to fear' from him. This is a cruel, mean, vindictive government who is hell-bent not on upskilling and training people but on downsizing the public sector and downsizing employment. It is no surprise the unemployment rate in Queensland is rising faster than that of anywhere else. The people in my community, in the Ipswich and Somerset region in the western corridor, feel betrayed.

And this is just the curtain raiser by those opposite, with the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer committed to filling a $70 billion black hole. Where would their cuts be? We know they intend to do a commission of audit, a la Peter Costello's disgraceful and disgusting effort in Queensland in relation to these issues, and there is further privatisation on the table. Unnecessary slashing and burning is what an Abbott led Liberal government would do to skills, training and jobs across Australia. Campbell Newman described the budget in Queensland as an 'exciting budget'. Tim Nicholls described it as a 'great budget'. He said, 'We are all in this together.' Tell that to the public servants and the community groups. Tell that to those people who rely on state government funding for skills and training.

This is happening not just in Queensland but in New South Wales and Victoria. In New South Wales, the O'Farrell Liberal government slashed 1,800 jobs, gouging workers and students with an almost 10 per cent rise in TAFE fees and a whopping $1.7 billion in cuts. They are freezing funds to Catholic and independent schools. It is in the fibre, the blood and the bones of these Tories opposite. In Victoria, we see $300 million taken out of TAFE, and we will see it in Queensland.

The Queensland Skills and Training Workforce's interim report to the state government recommends that the number of TAFE campuses across Queensland be cut from 82 to 44. It recommends the number of TAFE campuses in the western corridor in Brisbane be cut from 16 to 11. And Bremer TAFE in my electorate is in the gun. This is what they would do. They would cut services, take away TAFE jobs and slash services. We know how important TAFE is for those who have not finished high school and do not have a senior certificate, for migrants and for other people who need a helping hand in terms of the job market—the poor, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged. The cuts would seriously undermine national training efforts and see hundreds of Queensland teachers lose their jobs. The federal Labor government is putting $1.5 billion into the Queensland training system over the next five years. We have signed an agreement for an additional $357 million to lift the quality and the number of people completing qualifications.

But what do those opposite say? We have not heard a peep, a whisper or a word, not a hint, not a nod or a wink from any of the people opposite who live in cockies corner. We have not had a word from any LNP members in Queensland about what they are doing to our home state. When rural fire services are slashed, when tenancy services are gone, when rail trails—which provide jobs and apprenticeships and contribute to tourism—are gone, there is nothing from those opposite. They go missing in action entirely. There is not a word when it comes to slashing funding for schools and for roads. So many people in the TAFE system work on roads in apprenticeships and get their skills working on roads like the Ipswich Motorway. Oh, I forgot—they opposed all the road funding and construction in Queensland. They also opposed the nation building plan, the flood recovery plan and of course the MRRT funding that we are providing in regional development.

That is the record of those opposite when it comes to investigation in skills, training and jobs. There is a vast difference between those on this side and those on the other side. Those on the other side have an absolute commitment to slashing and burning. That is what they will do to jobs and training in Queensland, New South Wales and across the country if they ever get on this side of the Treasury benches.

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