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

Six foot eight and three foot wide—but you've got more front than David Jones to bring this motion before the Federation Chamber talking down the coalition's record on apprentices. Seriously! Under the coalition, we saw 220,000 apprentices in the 2019-to-2022 term.

Since this hapless, hopeless, helpless government came into power, we've seen 80,000 fewer apprentices, and, shockingly, 44,000 of those apprentices are women. Apparently Labor's 'the party for women', yet they don't care about 44,000 women who have lost apprenticeships. These aren't just statistics; these are real people—real lives and real dreams crushed. So please don't file motions where you haven't done the research as to who the better government is not only for trades but also for apprentices and small business.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:50 to 13:04

As I was saying before the division, what we've seen in the last term of Labor is 80,000 fewer apprentices than in the last term that the coalition was in government, between 2019 and 2022. But it's no surprise, because what we've seen due to Labor's policies is the closure of 27,000 small and medium businesses—27,000. You can imagine how many people had worked for those small and medium businesses. The owners, who have put everything on the line—mortgaged homes, overdrafts—are sent to the wall because of Labor's policies. Of those 27,000, 7,000 are construction companies. That is the highest number ever of closures of construction companies.

What do those companies do? They generally hire apprentices. I can tell you from personal experience in and around Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour—I talked to the tradies because my 17-year-old son is in year 12 at Newman Senior Technical College because he wants to become a tradie and go into construction—they're not hiring. They're not putting on apprentices, because they're worried about the economy. The cost of living has hit hard in those industries. The cost of materials has gone through the roof. Why? Because of the policies of this government. Because of the all-in renewables, we have seen gas and electricity prices go through the roof. That hurts small and medium businesses.

So the tradies are worried. They're not putting on apprentices. We've seen fewer apprentices over the past three years. Then the Albanese government comes out with this $10,000 incentive payment for apprentices who are living out of home. I said to my son, 'Do you know any apprentice who doesn't live at home with mum and dad?' Now, he's got a fairly large network of mates; the answer is 'no'. All spin, no substance.

You would be better off going back to the coalition policy where we funded the employer 50 per cent of the apprentice's first-year wage, then 10 per cent in the second year and five per cent in the third year because we know—as much as I love our young apprentices—you're next to useless in your first year, you know what you're doing in your second, and you actually make money for your employer in the third. These are the incentives that we need to bring back. We need to bring back our policy. If you want to see more houses, if you want to see more apprentices, then vote for the coalition at the next election.

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