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

I am pleased to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. Since we formed government, we've really hit the ground running because we're aware of the skills gaps facing us. Certainly during my last nine years as a federal MP, I've seen clearly huge gaps in the agricultural sector, in hospitality and in tourism across my area. All the data—and real-life, real-world experience—show that we're better able to match those areas of skills shortages with the people that need to hit those areas. But really we need some independent, merit based and evidence based information and data to actually find where the gaps are and match the people to those gaps, and that's what Jobs and Skills Australia is all about. We're working to ensure that industry has a stronger and more strategic voice and a broader role in how our VET system delivers better outcomes.

Previous coalition governments at a state level really just gutted and destroyed TAFE. The Campbell Newman government in Queensland, when it was in power for three tumultuous and tempestuous years, just gutted TAFE. They did everything they possibly could: they privatised and outsourced—they did everything they could. I met multiple people who were TAFE teachers who lost jobs during that period of time. And I saw the disinvestment in my area in terms of TAFE. We want to make sure that TAFE is back as a centrepiece of the training for skills and jobs in this country. It's so important.

This bill establishes permanent functions and governance arrangements for Jobs and Skills Australia, as the Albanese Labor government continues to tackle the national skills crisis and to deliver on the commitment to collaborate and seek wideranging advice from tripartite partners. The legislation establishes a tripartite ministerial advisory board.

Now, I listened to those opposite again and again just railing against trade unions as if people who work in and for trade unions—workers' representatives, who've often come from the shop floor but sometimes from universities, from different life experiences, to represent workers as delegates and shop stewards, union officials and organisers—ought to be demonised. The previous speaker was just attacking trade unions as if somehow they don't play an important role in society. Unions play a very important role in society. Those opposite are very happy to stack boards and tribunals or whatever they like with their mates. Yet, when it comes to trade unions actually representing workers on the ground, they rail against that, as if we are somehow doing the most horrendous and evil thing. The venom drips from their lips when they talk about it—it's just astonishing. They need to get over it and realise that these are good, hardworking Australians who represent their members' interests to the best of their ability in their workplaces, whether they're teachers or nurses or those working on construction sites or in the mining sector or the public service. It's just astonishing, the degree of venom that those opposite have for union representatives.

What is happening in this advisory board is that there are going to be up to four representatives from an employer background—including, of course, somebody from the small business sector. I come from that sort of sector; when I was a practising lawyer, it was a business that had dozens of employees. It was so important to maintain a viable and profitable business. There are 2.5 million small and medium-sized businesses—family businesses—and they cover about 97 per cent of the total number of businesses in the country. In my area, a regional and rural area, it's so important to get viable businesses in these country towns like Lowood, Esk, Rosewood, Toogoolawah, Kilcoy and places like that; it's really important.

There will be representatives on this advisory board, and those opposite should get over it. There will be four representatives from workers organisations. Those opposite should realise that it's important. Most people in the business community work constructively with their employees in the workplace, whether they're represented by a local organisation or indeed a trade union. They should realise that that's what employers do—they work together with employees to make sure the business is as profitable and productive as it possibly can be.

Getting advice from the board will be important to ensure that Jobs and Skills Australia's guidance to government on current and emerging workforce needs is informed by a wide range of views, insight and expertise. That's absolutely crucial. The bill legislates a requirement for the JSA to consult with the ministerial advisory board in the development of its work plan. Why shouldn't employer and employee representatives be a part of that process? This will ensure that JSA consults widely with stakeholders to address workforce shortages to help build long-term capacity in priority sectors.

That includes, by the way, representatives from regional and remote areas on the advisory board. It's really important. Australia is a very urbanised, concentrated country, but it's important not to forget people who live in the outback, in the bush and other places like that. People who live in regional areas often feel significantly disadvantaged, more so if they're living in remote communities, often First Nations communities.

It's important to look at priority sectors and the capacity in those sectors. The lack of skilled workers is one of the greatest economic challenges facing Australia, and JSA will play a critical role in addressing our current and emerging workforce, skills and training needs. A permanently established JSA will develop a work plan to help the government improve skill development, employment opportunities and economic growth. The Albanese government has consulted broadly on the permanent model of JSA and will conduct labour market analysis to ensure we respond to existing and emerging skill demand by investing in appropriate education and training. That's what we need. We need dollars and cents in training going to the areas where there are shortages to address those shortages, as I said at the beginning of this speech.

According to the OECD, Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortage. If we're going to be a productive nation, if we're going to thrive, we're not going to thrive by bringing down wages; we're going to thrive by upskilling our people. It's about the skills, talents, creativity and innovation of our people to develop products and services that the public overseas want. That's the way we're going to develop our country. That's the way we need to do it.

The JSA will take an economy-wide perspective in identifying where skill shortages exist and project where they're likely to be in the future. New proposed functions include providing advice on demand and availability of workers in particular industries and occupations; focusing to a greater extent on regional, remote and rural communities; and supporting decision-making in relation to our migration program. For a long time, about two-thirds of our migration program has been skilled migration, and we need that. You only have to go to an aged-care facility or a hospital or see who's working in the disability sector and in home care. You can see that we're getting so many people coming into our health, aged-care and primary care systems, particularly in GP practices. You can see that everywhere. So migration is absolutely crucial.

The JSA is going to conduct studies to look at how we improve employment, VET and other higher education outcomes and make sure that we don't exclude people and we address issues of labour market disadvantage and exclusion. It's important that we build on that evidence base to look at economic and social outcomes and work closely with industry in a consultative forum such as the Jobs and Skills Councils to strengthen the national evidence base. It's important that we do it empirically. Not only will JSA respond to the current skill crisis; it will lead to more strategic planning and investment in education and training. Jobs and Skills Australia has already begun to work on a foundation skills study and, working in partnership with key stakeholders, to assess capacity in terms of the clean energy industry. It's very, very important we do that in an open, transparent way.

Last August, we celebrated the skills sector with National Skills Week, an annual celebration to raise the profile and status of vocational learning. At the time, I took the opportunity to visit Bundamba campus at TAFE Queensland South West in Ipswich—we still call it Bundamba TAFE in my area—to speak to the people who work there. After a decade of inaction, Australia is still facing a skill shortage, and that was clearly evident when I went to Bundamba TAFE.

One of the biggest challenges facing employers in my electorate is finding workers with skills for the jobs available. This is particularly in the hospitality, service and care sectors, and also in the small, family-run businesses which are so common in Ipswich and the Brisbane valley. Anecdotally, some business are limiting their opening hours or service, while others have sadly had to close due to staff shortages. People working in hospitality say the Ipswich region is often stuck between the city and the regions. They're not close enough to the city to attract university students at times, or backpackers, but they're not regional enough to be eligible for some employment incentives for migrant workers and tourists, so they're falling between the cracks.

Businesses have reported that a recent change has meant that chefs can now work under regional employment incentives but not bar staff, waiters or baristas, and that's important for them. This reflects the fact that Ipswich is often classified as greater Brisbane and outer metropolitan, when the reality is we're really a regional centre like Somerset in the Lockyer Valley. We need to address some of these apparent anomalies and for these incentives to include Ipswich being treated as a regional area for funding purposes as well as in terms of the workforce shortage. It's all the more frustrating that these labour shortages are occurring at a time when Ipswich is experiencing higher than average youth unemployment. The latest census data shows that in 2021, more than 14 per cent of 15- to 24-year-olds in Ipswich were classified as disengaged with unemployment and education, compared to nine per cent overall in South-East Queensland. The upside of this means there are plenty of jobs out there, and the students and apprentices that I caught up with at Bundamba TAFE from the hospitality, automotive and hairdressing study areas will all have great job prospects when they graduate.

I also held a Blair jobs summit in August last year to gather ideas from local employers, unions and community groups on how to tackle skill shortages and deliver more jobs in Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area. Some of the ideas coming out of the summit included suitability of employment training and education, regional classifications for funding, the increasing impact of inflation on businesses and households, and problems with access to housing in the Ipswich region. What's clear is that there are wide-ranging issues behind skills shortages in regions like mine from housing affordability, availability and liveability to a lack of training facilities and pathways, construction costs and access to materials, lower wages in the regions and competition for skilled workers across industries.

In the short term, strengthening the migration system will help regional areas that are struggling to attract and retain skilled workers. In the longer term, increasing participation of underemployed groups, increasing the pipeline of workers in areas of shortages and better pathways from training to work will address these concerns. Addressing the challenges requires many actors across the sectors—including trade unions, I say to those opposite—and they need to work together. The government is also developing an employment white paper that will plot a path for reducing unemployment and underemployment and to keep them low. It just goes to show these issues are challenging and complex, and anyone who was at the Blair jobs and skills summit will recognise the complexity that local employers are facing as well as the community sector.

Last night, the budget showed that we are on the right track with respect to an economic plan to tackle cost-of-living pressures and housing affordability and local manufacturing through the National Reconstruction Fund. In my local economy, we've had a fair share of challenges with floods and storms and bushfires, but there are enormous opportunities in areas like food and beverage manufacturing, meat processing, biotech, IT and the defence industry, of which I have been so supportive. I recently hosted the Prime Minister on a visit to Springfield in my electorate. It was a great opportunity to meet with local business leaders including Springfield City Group's Chairman, Maha Sinnathamby, and hear about the vision of that particular company to attract major employers and skilled workers to the region in areas like advanced medical manufacturing and quantum computing.

This is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, with an average age of 29 years, and the Prime Minister acknowledged that it has the potential to become Australia's answer to the Silicon Valley, saying, 'The advantage that Springfield has is it's not just a smart, local community driven by education; it also has a business community that wants to commercialise these opportunities.' I agree with the Prime Minister. The government wants to support this with initiatives like Jobs and Skills Australia and the National Reconstruction Fund. It's all about good jobs—secure jobs, high-skill and high-wage jobs—allowing locals to get the skills they need for the jobs of the future. That's why we need to drive jobs and growth in outer metropolitan and regional areas like Springfield, Ripley Valley, the Somerset region and Karana Downs in my electorate.

At the same time I want to see opportunities for disadvantaged groups in our community, including young- and mature-age workers; First Nations and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; people with disability; and veterans. In particular, we note that vocational education is so important going forward that nine out of every 10 new jobs in the next five years will require a post-school qualification. That's why it's imperative that we upskill our young people, particularly in my community, to make sure they get the kinds of jobs that I have referred to.

As the Treasurer put it, we need to give our young people the tools for success in life, and that's why I'm supportive of this particular piece of legislation and supportive of the fee-free places that we announced. And I'm looking forward to some of the extra 300,000 fee-free places provided in the budget last night going to my electorate. (Time expired)

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