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

After a decade of inaction by the Morrison, Turnbull and Abbott governments we have seen a shocking skills shortage crisis in regional Australia. I see it every day on display in my electorate in South East Queensland. When you cut $3 billion from TAFE, training and skills you will have a consequence and the impact will be worse in regional Australia. I thank the member for Mayo for moving this motion because she would see this issue in her electorate and I certainly see it in the country towns in the electorate I represent.

The economy is being held back by the failure of the previous government. The lack of policy, leadership and planning for the past 10 years has been astonishing. We have a lack of skilled workers in regional areas. I see it, for example, in areas such as the meat industry in my electorate. I have JBS, Dinmore, Kilcoy Global Foods up in Kilcoy and Greenmountain in Coominya. We see all the time skilled jobs that people want to engage in, so we need to take steps and we need to take action as quickly as we possibly can. That is why the Albanese Labor government's commitment to 465,00 fee-free places at TAFE and 20,000 additional university places is so critical. I commend the government for putting the Jobs and Skills Summit and Jobs and Skills Australia high on our agenda as they will be absolutely crucial. Indeed, in my electorate we're having a jobs and skills summit as well in Ipswich, and I encourage people in the chamber of commerce, in the charitable sector and in other sectors including in the faith based sector to engage in this process as well.

But we see a lot of discrimination, particularly in regional Australia, of people with disability, of First Nations people and of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. There are great barriers to labour participation in regional areas and it is made worse by the discrimination of so many Australians from backgrounds where they are disadvantaged. The reality is, to get rid of these barriers of discrimination against older Australians and people from these types of backgrounds, business, government and unions have an important role to play.

Arrangements to support older Australians are really critical. I note the motion calls for an opt-in scheme to increase income test thresholds for pensioners with limited savings as an incentive to engage in paid work. It is interesting that so far only three per cent of pensioners are actually taking up the advantage of the current work bonus concession. There is capacity for pensioners working in my electorate and elsewhere. I see the opposition are calling for the work bonus for pensioners to be doubled despite the fact the coalition did nothing about it during the nine long years they had in office. Again and again, we saw bills before this chamber where the coalition wanted to keep older Australians working longer. For example, they spent five years trying to raise the pension age to 70. The opposition should know that people who work in certain industries find it particularly hard if they are working in certain trades, for example, the police or the military. They have high levels of work related injuries, can't work for longer periods and have to retire earlier. We see this all the time. We acknowledge that recent increases in inflation and the cost-of-living are huge issues for older Australians, so we need to do more and do better, and that is why Labor's Jobs and Skills Summit and Jobs and Skills Australia are critical for identifying areas where there are shortages and for removing the barriers to older Australians, young people and people in migrant communities. These things are really important, and we need to take steps to do them. I understand the sentiment from the member from Mayo. I understand where she's coming from, and this government is committed to removing those barriers. People living in regional Australia have worse health outcomes, have fewer job opportunities and struggle with challenges that people who live in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane do not know and do not experience. So we need to do all that we can.

One of the first actions of this particular government, which I commend, is allowing older Australians and people in regional communities to manage their money. That's why we're moving to abolish the Morrison government's privatised cashless debit card. It's really critical for regional Australia.

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