Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very happy to be here to talk about the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment (Governance and Other Matters) Bill 2020. As I'm sure many of the previous Labor speakers would have mentioned, we support a fair and considered approach to the ASQA reforms, and we'll support changes that improve the capacity to ensure responsiveness to students, communities and employers, but we'll reject changes that attempt to weaken ASQA's regulatory framework.

If I can be frank, and I hope I can, more broadly, this legislation is just another tweak from a tired third-term conservative government who simply refuse to deliver a genuine reform package that overhauls this vital sector to our nation—if I'm honest. The Liberals have slashed funding to TAFE and training, let apprentice numbers fall and presided over a national shortage of tradies, apprentices and trainees. I see that in my electorate of Solomon in the northern capital of Australia, but I know it's happening around the country. For more than seven years this tired and clueless Liberal government has left Australia facing a crisis in skills and vocational training. If they don't do something seriously to fix this skills crisis that they have themselves created, we could be looking at the extinction of the Australian tradies.

Under those opposite there are 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees and a shortage of workers in critical services, including plumbing, carpentry, hairdressing and motor mechanics. Experts are now warning that we are on track to lose another 100,000 this year if the government fails to act. That's 2,000 trainees and apprentices a week. I also need to remind the House that those opposite have cut TAFE and training by over $3 billion. The number of Australians doing an apprenticeship or traineeship is lower today than it was a decade ago. Just two weeks ago in my electorate I was talking to young refrigeration mechanic Cameron—good lad. He was in his last year and he was saying that not many of his mates were able to get into the training that they wanted and in fact that industry needed, and he couldn't really understand what had happened. He'd seen his older brothers and older mates go through and get a trade, but what he was seeing was far different to that.

There are also more people dropping out of apprenticeships and traineeships than finishing them, and that's a problem for us and a problem for our nation. There's a nearly 10 per cent increase in the number of occupations facing skills shortages. While the Australian Industry Group says 75 per cent of businesses surveyed are struggling to find the qualified workers they need, there are about 1.9 million Australians who are unemployed or underemployed. So you can see that there's this disconnect. We are simultaneously experiencing a crisis of youth unemployment and also a crisis of skills shortages. One of these is bad enough, but to be faced by both at the same time is pretty hard to imagine. But here we are, confronted with both. While businesses are struggling to fill the skilled positions they have on offer, we have young Australians desperate for work who can't fill those positions because they haven't been given the chance to gain the skills that those roles, those jobs, require.

I want to know why the Prime Minister isn't training these young Australians for jobs in industries where there's a shortage of workers. The answer, of course, is what I mentioned just a little while ago. There's been $3 billion cut out of the sector. They've cut funding to TAFE and training. Even though this is the case—and it's plainly obvious that it is—the government, those opposite, refuse to properly fund the sector. They refuse to give it the proper reform that it so desperately needs.

Now, young people have been clear about what they need. They need a skills training sector that is properly funded and properly resourced and has educators who are properly trained and able to skill these kids up as a pathway to meaningful employment so they can grow our nation. This government hasn't delivered on a single element of those requests from our young Australians, from our future. Fiddling at the edges of the current system will not address the profound problems that undermine vocational education and training and, consequentially, the productive performance and international competitiveness of our economy.

The government doesn't seem to understand the critical role of TAFE as the public provider, the value in skills and apprenticeships or the value of the hardworking and passionate public TAFE teachers. If we continue down this path, we will severely jeopardise our future economic growth, undermine the opportunity of individual Australians to meet their full potential and, very importantly, compromise our ability as a nation to compete with the rest of the world using the skills, knowledge, discovery and inventiveness of our people. We know that nine out of 10 jobs created in the future will need post-secondary school education, either TAFE or uni, so we need to increase participation in both our universities and our vocational educational sector to make sure our young people are prepared for the world of work, which is changing so very quickly. If we do not value the role of an appropriately funded VET sector for the training, skills and apprenticeships they provide to so many Australians, nor its vital role in driving the economy and enhancing industry, we fail our nation.

This third-term government has had seven years to fix this sector. Rather, they started the cuts and, in the intervening years, they have failed to properly fund and resource the sector. They need to deliver a genuine reform package that overhauls this higher ed sector and properly funds both the VET providers and the universities to deliver the services that the students need.

When it comes to the Northern Territory, it is undeniable that the government's inattention and callous disregard for apprentices and trainees has been a kick in the guts for Territorians. The tradie crisis created by the federal Liberal government—that is, those opposite—is hurting the Territory's economy and denying Territorians jobs. As a result, we now have shortages of bricklayers, plumbers, hairdressers, bakers, electricians, mechanics, panel beaters and other critical trades.

We have so many terrific businesses in Darwin, Palmerston, the rural area and other parts of the Northern Territory, and they want to grow. They want to hire more staff. They want to employ more locals. They want to employ those who have put down roots in the Territory. That's what they would rather do. Unfortunately, they're forced to either go without those additional workers or look for oversees workers, because they're let down by the Prime Minister's failure to back apprentices and trainees.

We have lost over 600 apprentices in the Territory since those opposite came to power. This is the government that promised to grow the North and to develop the North. What a load of rubbish that turned out to be. It has been seven years and all we've seen are cuts to this sector, a lack of resourcing and 600 fewer apprentices. We're trying to grow the North and at the same time we're being hamstrung by those opposite who fail to recognise the essential nature of the skills VET training sector.

This is a government that has bungled so much in that seven years. The fact that they've stuffed up TAFE and training isn't a shock really, but once again it is something that will devastate thousands around the country. What gets me the most is that it's affecting our future. It's affecting the young Territorians, the young Australians. It's affecting those who want to start a career, be able to support themselves and be able to support their families in due course, but their opportunities are far fewer after seven years of those opposite.

The Prime Minister's latest marketing ploy around tradies hasn't really helped anyone either. HomeBuilder has done nothing for tradies. It's a rubbish policy designed for grabs on the nightly news and to shield an incompetent government that has no plan to help tradies at all. The quote from the member for Blaxland, 'It's more Scotty's scam than Scotty Cam,' is a cracker. I think it very nicely sums up this absolute facade.

In the time I have left, I'd like to acknowledge the work done by the Northern Territory government to help support our tradies during the pandemic. The Northern Territory government—I'm proud to say it is a Labor government—has chosen substance over spin and has rightly focused on developing a plan to keep people employed. They’ve backed our tradies.

We need this federal government, those opposite, to start focusing on meaningful reform in this sector over marketing and spin. It's all about the announcement but there's never any follow-through. I remind honourable members that it has been seven years and all we have seen from the government is mismanagement, creating crisis after crisis in the VET sector. Young Territorians and young Australians deserve a lot better and I call on those opposite to pull their fingers out and provide the system that we need to grow our nation.

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