Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

():  I have many criticisms of this government, given its ongoing failings—its failure to have a plan to cut interest rates and drive down inflation, its inability to get spending under control, its decision on national security to play footsies with the Corbynite Left—but there's one area where this government operates in a rarefied air, where it has no peer or equal, where it excels beyond anywhere imaginable, and that is in the area of self-congratulations. This is a government that believes what it wants to believe even when the facts tell a different story. As a government, it's all talking points and no answers. It's a government that either blames others or congratulates itself, and this motion is typical of the self-congratulation genre.

The government prides itself on the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia, it says. As opposition leader, Anthony Albanese said:

We will create a new and independent agency to be called Jobs and Skills Australia which will research workforce trends and provide impartial advice about what skills are needed now and what skills will be sought after in the future.

It sounds like a great idea, except the Morrison government was already doing it. Jobs and Skills Australia is just a rebranding of the National Skills Commission established by the Morrison government: same staff in the same department in the same building drawing the same pay cheques with a new logo. It's like an episode of Utopia.

This motion of self-congratulation celebrates the new National Skills Agreement. The government boasts that through the National Skills Agreement it's providing an increase of over $3.7 billion over the next five years. That would have been paid through the previously operating agreement; that amount would have been $12.6 billion. High fives all round, except this is the same funding level as committed to by the coalition in 2022. So if you want to offer praise, I say start with the member for Cook, his Skills Commission and his funding envelope.

Of course, this is the same funding envelope that caused Labor to say—erroneously—that the coalition was cutting money out of TAFE. Now Labor celebrates the fact it has a National Skills Agreement with the states and territories. It secured one because it gave away the fundamental bargaining position of a Commonwealth, namely that arrangements needed to be tied to outcomes.

If you believe this motion, Australia is entering a new nirvana when it comes to skills. The first year of the government's performance says that's not the case. Data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research shows that in Labor's first year of government, new training starts have declined by more than 37 per cent. Of even greater concern is the decline in commencements for female trainees in apprenticeships. It's about 43 per cent. We are witnessing a collapse in commencements. That means there are 37,000 fewer Australians commencing training than when Labor took government. That means in only one year the supply of new electricians, mechanics, childcare workers, cooks and carpenters will slow, and in a country already facing skills shortages that's terrible news. It's a warning of darker days to come. And labour shortages and supply chain pressures all feed into higher inflation, with shortages harming those areas where we need significant growth, particularly in the care sector and in the digital economy.

This motion also contains the obligatory condemnation of the last coalition government. These motions are a sort of standard cocktail formula with three parts self-congratulation, one part condemnation, shaken not stirred. Yet the facts disprove the condemnation. In the final months of the last coalition government, trade apprentices in training hit record highs with over 415,240 apprentices and trainees in training. That was up 21.6 per cent for the same time in 2021. Under Labor, we've seen trade apprentices in training numbers fall to 387,500, a 6.6 per cent fall in one year. This from a government who promised they had all the answers for skill and trade shortages.

All we get from this government is marketing and rebadging. We've had TAFE centres of excellence promised. Like most Albanese government announcements, it has been announced and re-announced many times. But still, halfway through the term, we don't know where the centres are going, we don't know what they're going to do and we don't know what their role will be.

This is a government with no sense of urgency. This is despite the fact that the Skills Priority List found that 36 per cent of occupations are experiencing shortages. That is 332 occupations out of 916. That's up five percentage points, or 66 occupations. And those shortages are occurring across vital areas such as health care, ICT and the trades. There are shortages across the construction sector and outside it, with persistent shortages in occupations like chefs, motor mechanics, fitters, hairdressers and metal fabricators.

Australia needs a robust, vibrant economy that doesn't suffer from these skill shortages. And so what do we on this side of House want to see? We want to see the government stop congratulating itself on a job not done and get back to working on removing the skills blockages that are hindering national productivity and economic growth.

See this speech in context