Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

That is a great interjection or comment from behind. It is all spin, with no substance. Like we did under the coalition, we need to incentivise the employers. We had a policy where we paid 50 per cent in the first year. Do you know why? With no disrespect to our young tradies, it's because you're absolutely useless in your first year. You're not allowed to do anything under workplace and safety laws. You can't go and run a line as an apprentice electrician unless your boss is standing next to you. The best you can do is drive down to Bunnings and get black-and-white chequered paint or a left-handed screwdriver. That's why we subsidised 50 per cent in the first year. In the second year you can do things, and that amount dropped down to 10 per cent. In the third year that amount dropped down to 5 per cent. It was real. It incentivised employers to bring apprentices on.

Now, in the years that Labor has taken over, you have seen apprenticeships plummet—go through the floor. Why? It's because of policy like this, because of bills with no substance and because tradies are afraid. They're afraid to take on new apprentices, because it's going to cost them money. They're afraid because of the economic environment right now, where people are watching their money if they have it, or where they don't have money, and, therefore, the tradies aren't getting as much work.

We need to bring common sense back into policy like this—commonsense policy like we had under the coalition. This is a mess. It's no wonder the industry bodies are saying, 'We can't support this; it is a mess.' If the industry bodies don't support this, then we don't support it.

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