Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, a very important bill introduced as the very first piece of legislation of the 47th Parliament by the Albanese government. This government is wasting no time in getting on with the business of government and delivering on its election commitment in establishing Jobs and Skills Australia. It's a solid reflection of where our legislative priorities are, and I want to thank the Minister for Skills and Training, the honourable Brendan O'Connor, for taking immediate action to help address the significant skills and labour shortages by introducing both the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill and the parallel bill to the House.

We've had nearly a decade of lost opportunities with successive Liberal-National governments residing over the decline of some of our most important national industries, not least of which is Australia's local manufacturing. This decline wasn't an accident of fate. Nobody is more aware of this reality of decline than the people of my electorate of Calwell, a community that was once home to our very proud automotive manufacturing industry before, as we all know, the previous coalition government shut it down. This was a result of deliberate calculated policies driven by an ideology and a government that spoke of Australian jobs and Australian workers in rhetoric only, all the while targeting Australian workers and the unions at the expense of addressing some of our most pressing economic challenges.

We can now see its effect. The smoothed four-quarter average estimates relating to unemployment data have shown my electorate of Calwell to have amongst the highest rates of unemployment across Australia. At the same time, according to the latest OECD economic outlook, Australia is experiencing the second-most severe labour shortages in the developed world. This double edged reality is because we've had an economy presided over by a coalition government that ignored sector shocks and the state of Australia's skills when it came to areas such as manufacturing and the new economy. Such is the myopic view of jobs and the economy from those opposite that their impact has been wide and far-reaching, especially in my own electorate.

In their ideological potholes they failed, while in government, to see that a skilled workforce is a more productive workforce and that, if you put in place policies that shock entire sectors, there is a need to ensure that those workers are reskilled so that they can continue to contribute to our future economic growth. What I find most encouraging about these bills is not only the preparing capacity studies for industries and the review of the training of vocational sector but the commitment to undertake specific plans for targeted groups. For my community especially, these include older workers who need to retrain or upskill, having been victims to industry decline and shut downs as well as our young people, in particular, our young women, who need to be not only trained but also given the confidence to build their future within the emerging and growing industries of the future economy. I'm hopeful and confident that Jobs and Skills Australia will look to futureproof our economy through a workforce and skills analysis that creates a pathway to the jobs of the future as well as to those needed today—to the current and emerging sectors and industries that will help drive our future economic growth. By that, Mr Deputy Speaker, I mean real and active workforce planning with an active approach to addressing skills and training to help support the vital sectors.

These are the issues most important to the people of my electorate and to our national economy. It's heartening to see that we as a government are starting off our national agenda with a focus on Australia's labour market. It was the first policy announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as Leader of the Opposition and it's the first piece of legislation introduced by him as Prime Minister.

The previous government's decade of inaction was made worse by its approach to skilled migration. As Deputy Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration in the previous parliament, I saw the inadequacies of previous approaches firsthand. The committee's inquiry into Australia's skilled migration program took place at a time when labour market gaps were emerging while our borders were shut as a result of the COVID pandemic. Instead of recommending that the government identify skills shortages and deliver urgent training and reskilling opportunities to Australian workers so that they could fill these jobs, the then government members turned to temporary migration as a short-term fix and solution. It was a missed opportunity to rethink our skilled migration program and to help create real, impactful change in two areas very close to my own heart and interest: migration and national skills and jobs policies.

What was the result? Data from the National Skills Commission shows that the number of vacancies listed in Melbourne was 65.8 per cent higher in April 2022 compared to its prepandemic level. Yet we have industry uncertainty across the board. We have skilled workers pleading to be retrained or upskilled into job opportunities in areas that will fuel our economic growth into the future. It's amazing how informed one can become simply by speaking to ordinary men and women working on shop floors across industry sites. It is their capacity to help shape our future economy that we should use to inform and drive policy on skills and labour shortages.

This bill is a beginning, which is why I am pleased that this bill lays the foundation for second-stage legislation for a permanent structure and governance arrangements that are informed by employers, unions and education providers. That's what we need—a tripartite approach to skills and training supported by a government committed to addressing Australia's current, emerging and future labour market needs and delivering on the policies to meet those needs. It is indeed just the beginning of our commitments in this area, with a further suite of policies designed to make real, impactful change. These policies include the Australian skills guarantee, which will ensure one in 10 workers on major federally funded government projects is an apprentice, trainee or cadet. This translates to a commitment to training thousands of workers. Our fee-free TAFE policy will deliver 465,000 fee-free TAFE places, including 45,000 new places that include those for students studying in industries of national importance and industries facing skills shortages. The TAFE Technology Fund will ensure that at least 70 per cent of Commonwealth and VET funding is for public TAFE. Public TAFE has been the backbone of training for our young and mature-age workers and in skilling and reskilling, and I'm absolutely delighted that this government has placed public TAFE at the centre of our programs going forward.

A number of commitments made as part of the government's $1.2 billion A Future Made in Australia skills plan will help close the gap on key areas of skills shortage, and the new energy apprenticeships will encourage Australians to train in the new energy jobs of the future and will provide the additional support they need to complete their training. That's a funding commitment of $100 million to support 10,000 new energy apprenticeships and a new energy skills program to develop fit-for-purpose training pathways for new energy industry jobs. I note that, rather than shooting from the hip, we will be a consultative government, working in partnership with the states and territories, industry and unions to support this progressive agenda to prioritise growth and investment in the renewable energy sector.

I saw how these policies are inspiring confidence on the ground last night, when I had the opportunity to speak online at an event called Women in Trades, which was held in Broadmeadows in my electorate. I want to thank AMWU Victoria for the amazing work that they are doing in working towards getting more women into the trades. I also want to acknowledge the support of a very fine TAFE institution in my electorate, the Kangan Institute; the federal government's National Careers Institute; and all our local employers, career practitioners and tradeswomen, who were represented yesterday and who were there to give young women an opportunity to ask questions about their futures should they pursue a trade.

We don't need to increase the representation of women in manufacturing, but we do need to increase the representation of women in the manufacturing trades. The work and initiatives of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in supporting workers across the manufacturing and trades sector is to be commended. I look forward to working far more closely with the AMWU and other unions that share a common purpose in training young people, especially young women. A big thank you goes to Courteney Nunn, who is AMWU Victoria's Careers for Women in Trades Project Officer, for the work she has done so far in helping women advance in historically male-dominated trades and industries and explaining to young women that this is a genuine career option for them.

Ours is a government that will look to prepare Australians for the jobs of the future, to improve the quality of work and to tackle issues of underemployment, casualisation, job insecurity, long-term unemployment and stagnant wages. I certainly welcome these measures and look forward to working with all the relevant ministers and the government and helping contribute to shaping these policy frameworks, because, ultimately, they are to the benefit of the people in my electorate and to the benefit of Australia as a whole. I commend this bill to the House.

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