Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. This bill, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, seeks to establish Jobs and Skills Australia to drive vocational education and training. As part of its legislation, the government is seeking to repeal the existing National Skills Commission and reconstitute its functions within this new Jobs and Skills Australia, to be an agency within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The bill establishes Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body within the department, which will provide advice and collect, analyse, share and publish data and other information on Australia's current and emerging market and its current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities. Currently, the NSC monitors, researches and analyses employment dynamics across different demographic groups, industries, occupations and regions. It considers how changes in the labour market will impact jobs and how these changes will impact the economy's education and skills needs.

As a constructive opposition, we will assess proposals on their merits, but, as I think one of the earlier speakers said, we will not be giving the government a blank cheque on this front. As a constructive opposition, we will assess proposals on their merits, but, as one of the earlier speakers said, we will not be giving the government a blank cheque on this front.

Whilst we accept that Jobs and Skills Australia will be established, we are sceptical of the new arrangements, given there is no clarity on how the organisation will be structured or on its full remit and responsibilities. The bill establishes the agency but not much more. This, as the member for Sturt said, seems to be more of a rebranding exercise than anything else at this point. Many locals within my community of the Redlands have talked to me about the challenges of the current skills shortage on their business. Unfortunately, we're reaching the point—we've well and truly reached the point, I'd say—where a lot of these businesses are giving up on trying to find new skilled workers to fulfil the duties that they have in their operations, and I think that's got very dire consequences for the future of Australia's economic growth. When you reach a point where businesses are deciding not to grow, because they can't find the workers, they've given up.

Whilst delivering better information, coordination and leadership of Australia's workforce and skills is definitely a noble aspiration, such a function is already being provided by the National Skills Commission, which was established, of course, by the former government back in 2020. It's unfortunate that the government has not been able to outline the full remit and scope of this agency within this bill. It's unclear how this agency will be much different from the current agency, the National Skills Commission.

I will touch on the skills shortage a bit in greater detail from my experience of my electorate and what my constituents are telling me in relation to this issue that this agency is seeking to address. In my electorate there are many great organisations that are tackling the task of skilling our workers. We've got the TAFE at Alexandra Hills. They do a fantastic job and are very highly in demand for young people and older people across my region. They were the recipients of a $1.2 million upgrade to their electroengineering facilities through the former government's Revitalising TAFE Campuses Across Australia program. That course is very popular at the Alex Hills TAFE, and the teachers there do a fantastic job.

Another one to mention is the Australian Industry Trade College at Redlands. They're on the move. They've got a brand-new campus and a new facility that's been constructed. They've only been around since 2016, with a year 10 cohort, but since then they've expanded. I'm advised they now educate approximately 200 young people in the Redlands from year 10 to year 12. They're expanding and growing. As I mentioned, they're going to new premises. They're doing a fantastic job. I will also do a little shout-out, if I can—

Thank you. I've received the member for Leichhardt's permission on that! I give a shout-out to other local private RTOs such as Redlands College, Carers Queensland, EDB Training Services at Capalaba, PCD Training, Horizons Foundation, Capalaba State College and Sheldon College, who do a great job as well with this tertiary training, on-site training solutions and coach-commanded training. It's unclear to me what rebranded bureaucrats in Canberra will do for local operators within my electorate. It's unclear to me what Jobs Skills Australia is intending to do, through the bill that we are debating tonight, to support frontline efforts with these local organisations.

We still don't really know where we are with the functions of this new agency, and I'm concerned, given the movements of the union movement at the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, about the role that the government intends for unions in the final formation of the JSA. I have seen in my home state of Queensland the impact that statutory authorities and statutory bodies have had under a Labor government which has stacked them with people from the union movement. I have seen the impact that that's had on business through the decisions and the operations of those entities. The government has told us the JSA will be cost neutral, because the existing funding for the NSC will cover the work of the JSA. The feedback that I've been getting in relation to the NSC is that it's performing its functions very well. It's unclear how the JSA will be different from the NSC, when it will receive the same amount of funding as well. That's another thing that the government has revealed in relation to this. I've also been advised that the minister expects the staff of the National Skills Commission to transfer over to the new body. So we've got the same level of funding, we've got the same staff and we've got a very similar remit, by my reading of it, and there isn't a great level of clarity as of yet.

The current government has inherited a skills and training sector that is quite healthy, despite the current shortages. In 2019 the coalition released the findings of the Joycereport, providing a framework to bring our skills sector forward into the modern world. For the first time in Australian history, apprenticeships surpassed 220,000, which was a stark contrast to the freefall that we saw under the former Labor government. We established the new apprenticeships incentives scheme, seeing many new apprentices through their studies and careers. That was very well received in the electorate of Bowman. The coalition government also established the National Skills Commission, of course, which is the body that this bill seeks to replace. In the last two years alone the coalition invested a total of $13 billion in skills. Where this money was spent, it was spent incredibly well.

We need to contrast that with the apprenticeships and traineeships record of the former Labor governments—the Rudd, Gillard and Rudd governments—when they last left office. The figures here show a fall of 22 per cent in training numbers between June 2012 and June 2013. That's 111,300 fewer people undertaking skills training. There is no silver bullet in relation to our current skills crisis, but, certainly, a massive disruption to supply like that is going to have an impact on our skills pipeline. This was a direct result of funding cuts under the Gillard government back in 2012. I've got to make sure I get the Prime Ministers right; I don't want to misapply blame. Our policy settings got apprenticeship numbers back up to record levels following these cuts.

For the first time in our history, as I mentioned, we've got 220,000 Australians taking up trade apprenticeships. This was all done, remarkably, during the whole COVID period. I know that the word 'disruption' was used a lot, but I can't think of a word that can better describe the impact that that pandemic had across our economy and on every facet of our society. Training, skills and education were certainly all impacted by that. I know a lot of my local institutions did very well to adapt their offerings to ensure that things kept moving and people weren't missing out on their training.

At the jobs summit the Prime Minister announced a total of 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. The Australian has accurately reported that two-thirds of these places already existed and will only be further subsidised. Another 15,000 are aged-care places that were announced under the former government's budget earlier this year, and the remaining 45,000 are new but were announced pre-election. So there's been a little bit more spin over substance in relation to that announcement. It's really hard to sink your teeth into anything within this legislation that's going to provide us with any comfort that there is some actual substance beyond the spin.

The Prime Minister is on the record saying that the funding will go only to public training providers, and that's a very concerning proposition for me and the private providers within my electorate. It leaves behind 70 to 80 per cent of students who undertake training in private RTOs. It leaves behind as much as 79 per cent of women who undertake training in these private institutions. I think the government should be taking an even-handed approach, an agnostic approach. The government should not be picking winners when it comes to training and skills development. The coalition are also extremely concerned if JSA has embedded a bias for any corner of the skills sector alone, and it's important to flag now that we want to see safeguards to prevent that and prevent unions from dominating JSA and turning it into an entity that supports only public providers.

As I said earlier, we do have concerns that this legislation is nothing more than a rebranding exercise. We want to make sure that there's more substance and less spin in relation to this. The coalition are intending on supporting this legislation based on the limited information that we've been provided with. The Liberal Party understand the importance of skills to the Australian economy. We understand how transformative skills and training are to the lives and livelihoods of Australians. Certainly that's the very strong feedback that I am getting from employers, providers and students when I make my way around the Redlands.

We desperately want the government to get this right. Employers in my electorate need the government to get this right. I know my side of the chamber here is keen to work with the government to ensure we get this right. But we will be keeping a watching brief on Jobs and Skills Australia, seeking to ensure that it is held to account for any inefficiencies with this implementation. I have said that we will not give the Prime Minister a blank cheque. I think that is a very important point that we have made. In closing, I'll note that we look forward to seeing further detail on the establishment of the JSA and we hope that it's more substance than spin.

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