David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Jagajaga proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government’s decade-long neglect of training, resulting in the failure to build a modern, competitive economy to ensure the prosperity of future generations of Australians.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The skills crisis is an inconvenient truth for this Prime Minister. Australia’s skills crisis is hurting Australian families and Australian businesses, and now we know that it is hurting the Prime Minister. It is hurting the Prime Minister, and that is why he has been forced to act in the way that he has today. The Prime Minister created this skills crisis. He is responsible for the massive skills shortage which is hurting Australian families, driving up interest rates and making it impossible for Australian businesses to find the skilled labour that they need.

We know that since it was elected this government has turned 300,000 young Australians away from TAFE. That is 300,000 young people who could have had the opportunity to learn a trade, to learn a skill, being turned away because of this government’s budget cuts back in 1996-97, the freezing of TAFE spending up until 2000 and of course the slashing of university budgets.

What have we seen today from the Prime Minister? A desperate attempt to catch up and deal with an issue that Labor have been putting on the agenda since the last election. Labor have put forward costed policies to make sure that we get enough electricians, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, and so the list goes on. We want to make sure that we have enough of those skilled tradespeople on the job, working in this country, so that we can prosper again. We know, the Reserve Bank knows, Australian families know and of course business knows that the skills crisis is the No. 1 economic issue facing this country. But what does the Prime Minister think? Does he think there is a skills crisis? I will read a couple of his quotes. Back in March 2005, in response to one of my questions, he said:

... I have absolutely no intention of embracing this absurd rhetoric—which is quite false, when you actually look at the increase that has occurred—that there is some kind of skills crisis.

In September this year he said:

All I ask is that you not mistake boiler-plate rhetoric about a skills crisis ... with anything approaching actual policy insight.

Today the Prime Minister provided $800 million to fix a crisis that does not exist. He has spent $800 million of taxpayers’ money to fix something that he does not even think exists. It is quite an extraordinary performance from this Prime Minister. We on this side of the parliament know, and we have been saying it over and over again since the last election, that the lack of skilled workers in this country is the No. 1 economic issue in Australia. It demonstrates the lack of economic management on the part of this government. We know that it is the skills crisis that is pulling down investment, slowing economic growth and, most importantly, as the shadow Treasurer continues to point out, dragging down productivity.

What is the government’s answer to the productivity challenge? We know what they want to do. The member for North Sydney, the Minister for Human Services, let the cat out of the bag yesterday. Their idea is basically to make everybody work harder, to drive wages down and, if we refuse to work for those lower wages, bring in more people from overseas. That is the government’s answer to the productivity challenge facing this country. Labor’s answer to the productivity challenge facing this country is to invest in the skills of our people. We know that that is the only way for our country to go forward.

Let us look at what the package that was announced today does. Some useful things are finally being done, but it is absolutely extraordinary that this government has ignored the fact that two-thirds of Australian apprentices are under the age of 25. There is absolutely nothing in the package that was announced today, called the Skills Future, that is going to address the issues that affect the people who are our future, the young people of this country—the future of Australia. There is nothing in this package to invest in their future. There is nothing to help them complete their training.

One of the shameful statistics that this government needs to take responsibility for is the 40 per cent dropout rate of apprentices in training. Forty per cent of them drop out of their training. Why? Because the wages are so abysmal. Do you think the government could have done something about that today? Of course they could have. First of all, they could have picked up the policy that we have had out there for some time, our trade completion bonus, or they could have thought of something else to do to help these people finish their training. But, no, there is absolutely nothing to help those young people who are desperately needed in our economy.

I want to touch on another issue that is so important in this area, and that is the need for us to focus on the standard of education that our apprentices are getting. We hear a lot about standards in areas that the federal government says it has no responsibility for. The Minister for Education, Science and Training wants to reintroduce the teaching of Latin. That should help to deal with the skills crisis! What Labor want is serious investment in the traditional trades. We want some decent standards attached to the training of tradespeople. We do not want any of the tick-and-flick training practices that go on in far too many workplaces in this country. What we want is decent, high-quality training to make sure that we address the skills crisis.

I want to take the opportunity to set out what we see as the real policy needs that the Prime Minister has refused to address today. It has taken a very long time for the Prime Minister to even get up here and make the announcement that he has. We have been setting out detailed policy. Last September, the Leader of the Opposition set out a major skills blueprint and really threw down the challenge to the government—a whole year ago—to say: ‘These are the things that really could be done to address Australia’s skills crisis. Let’s go to the root cause of the problem. We need to make sure that in our secondary schools right around Australia we get more young people interested in the trades. It is the case that far too few of our young people are going into the traditional trades.’

So what did Labor propose a whole year ago? We proposed serious investment in trade facilities in our secondary schools for those 12- and 13-year-old kids who are interested in the trades and who want to try them out. We want the best trades facilities in our schools for them. We recognise that for those kids who are in years 9 and 10 it is a difficult time. They are starting to think about what sort of job they might go into. We proposed—a whole year ago—a trade taster program so that those kids could try out different trades and see which one they were suited to. A second initiative put forward by Labor—another initiative raised in the same speech given by the Leader of the Opposition—is that Labor is going to have specialised trade schools in each school district, and we will make sure our young people in years 11 and 12 have the choice to go to those specialised trade schools. We are not going to just have 25 of these technical schools around the country. We know they have to be available in every single school district and, of course, we will do it in a cooperative way with the state and territory governments.

Since then we have announced a number of other policies. We have also announced that we would like to see an extra 4,000 school based apprenticeship positions and will pay a little bit extra to the schools associated with every school based apprenticeship position to make sure that they work well for the young person and for the business that is prepared to take them on. Those are all detailed policies that Labor has put forward. Have any of them been picked up today by the Prime Minister? Not one of them—and I have not finished yet. Labor has also proposed—and this is extremely important—that every single trade apprentice, and there are over 60,000 of them every year, will get a skills account. Over the life of their apprenticeship that means they will get $3,200 in their skills account for them to use to make sure that they do not face up-front TAFE fees. It is a very important initiative announced by Labor.

What do we get from the Prime Minister? All we get is complaints about TAFE fees. He said today in his ministerial statement, ‘Oh, those TAFE fees, they’re terrible; they’re affecting whether or not young people do a traditional trade.’ Did he do anything about them? Did he announce anything today to address TAFE fees?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga does not need any help.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is the Prime Minister of this country. If he wanted to do something about TAFE fees, of course he could. More importantly, he could just pick up Labor’s policy. Of course, we have made sure that we have discussed this with the state and territory governments. We know that we have to get an agreement with them to make sure that there is no increase in TAFE fees. It is Labor in opposition that is putting forward the only practical means to get rid of these up-front TAFE fees that are making it so hard for our young apprentices. We have also recognised that something urgently has to be thought up to address the terrible dropout rate in our apprenticeships.

So, once again, it is Labor that has put forward a practical way to address this problem. Labor has proposed a trade completion of $2,000 tax free to go into the pockets of our young apprentices. One of the things you find out when you go around and talk to these kids in their TAFEs and in their workplaces, as we on this side of the House know, is why they drop out. On $6 or $7 an hour, it is very, very hard for them to afford to keep going. So Labor knows that we have to do everything we possibly can to put some money in their pockets—$1,000 halfway through their apprenticeship and another $1,000 at the end of their apprenticeship to keep them in training and to make sure that we do not have 40 per cent of them dropping out of their trade and therefore not going on to fill the very serious gap in skills that we have.

Remembering the figures that were announced in the Prime Minister’s ministerial statement today, when it comes to apprenticeships there is the additional wage subsidy that will go to 10,000 mature age apprentices. The Australian Industry Group says we need 270,000 extra tradespeople. The Prime Minister is going to give this wage subsidy to 10,000. That is his answer to Australia’s skills crisis, to making sure we do something to address what is holding this country back—10,000 against 270,000. Contrast that to the huge suite of policies that Labor has put forward over the last one or two years. They are detailed, costed policies which are all about making sure we get young people at school interested in a trade, that we keep them in the trades, that they can afford to pay their TAFE fees and that they have some money left over in their skills account to do one of the things that the Prime Minister actually announced today.

One of the things that we announced at the beginning of this year as part of the skills account was that anything left over could be used to do business or entrepreneurial courses. So, thank you, Prime Minister, we are glad that you recognise this is a very important issue to pick up. For goodness sake, pick up all the rest of Labor’s policies—Australia urgently needs it. Australia needs it, our families need it and our businesses need it; otherwise, just get out of the way.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the day when Australia’s unemployment has reached the extraordinary low level of 4.8 per cent, Labor brings on a matter of public importance that says that we do not have a modern, competitive economy. It accuses the government of failing to build a modern, competitive economy. The Australian economy is outperforming comparable economies around the world. The OECD, the international organisation that surveys all of the advanced economies of the world, recommended this year that Australia be the role model economy for other economies around the world.

In fact, the OECD report of this year confirmed an extremely strong endorsement of the government’s economic management and Australia’s economic performance. The survey noted:

Recent macroeconomic performance continues to be impressive ...

It went on to say:

Living standards have steadily improved—

this is in Australia—

since the beginning of the 1990s and now surpass all G7 countries except the United States.

We have one of the highest living standards in the world and an economy that the OECD says should be a role model for other countries around the world, yet Labor bring on today a matter of public importance—according to them—that says that the government has failed ‘to build a modern, competitive economy’. I have to ask: what parallel universe does the opposition inhabit? We are being lectured on a modern economy by the keynote speaker at the Marx Centenary Conference. The member for Jagajaga declares a war on capital, yet she can come into this House and suggest that the OECD has got it all wrong and that she, in fact, knows what a successful economy is all about.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sydney!

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney is warned!

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

According to the OECD, we have one of the highest standards of living in the world. Today the Treasurer was able to announce some very good news. In the month of September, there were 36,000 new full-time jobs created. The unemployment rate is 4.8 per cent—the 37th consecutive month of unemployment below six per cent. There was a time when people thought six or seven per cent was full employment. Today Australia has 4.8 per cent unemployment in this country. It is breathtaking hypocrisy for Labor to accuse the government of failing to build a modern, competitive economy.

Let us have a look at what the situation was when Labor were in government. This is their idea of a modern, competitive economy. Back when Labor were in office, Australian government debt had reached almost $100 billion after five successive budget deficits. They had already sold off Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank and they were still able to rack up a debt of $100 billion. Interest rates had peaked at 17 per cent for homeowners. They averaged 12 per cent under Labor. Unemployment reached almost 11 per cent, averaged at 8½ per cent. Inflation averaged at more than five per cent. This shameful record of Labor hit average Australians hard, damaged small business and destroyed the confidence of this nation.

We have heard a lot today from the opposition. I want to remind the House of a comment from the Leader of the Opposition when he had responsibility for education and training. He said:

... I had sort of finally got to accept that I would never be Defence Minister again, so I lost a lot of ambition and I stopped straining ... I thought that there was less capacity to achieve in that [education] portfolio than just about any I have had.

That is a disgraceful admission from a man who would want to be Prime Minister of this country. Compare this to the energy, the commitment and the reforming zeal of the Howard government. The admission of failure on the part of the Labor Party does not stop at federal Labor. The Victorian Labor education minister recently admitted that the Victorian Labor Party got it wrong when it closed that state’s technical schools in the 1980s. That was state Labor that closed technical schools in Victoria. I should also remind the House that back in 1993 when the Leader of the Opposition was Minister for Employment, Education and Training, the number of apprentices in training was down to 122,600. Under the coalition government, there are now more than 403,000 Australian apprentices in training.

Labor—state and federal—have a track record of failure and a lack of commitment to providing young Australians with choice and opportunity in training and education. The Howard government has been able to provide opportunities to young Australians and we are also focusing on enhancing the skills of the entire workforce. The Prime Minister announced today a major package of skills initiatives worth $837 million over five years: Skills for the Future. This will deliver more opportunities for Australians to gain new skills and help develop a much more entrepreneurial workforce. We are focusing on the need for a continuous upgrading of skills over the course of an individual’s life. The package includes a major investment in improving the basic skills of Australia’s workforce. It will particularly assist adults to gain literacy and numeracy skills—basic requirements in the workplace.

There will be new financial incentives to help more Australians who are looking to take up a trade apprenticeship midcareer. Apprentices in traditional trades will also receive support to help them gain the necessary skills to run their own businesses. The package makes a substantial new investment in Australia’s future engineering skills. As well as funding more university engineering places—in fact, 500 new engineering places in addition to the 510 new engineering places I announced in July of this year—our Skills for the Future package offers additional employer incentives so that more Australians gain higher level technical skills at diploma and advanced diploma levels.

Vocational and technical education is a responsibility of the Commonwealth and the states and territories, and the Prime Minister has indicated that he expects the states and territories to invest in workforce education and training to complement the Commonwealth’s initiatives. Federal Labor would do the Australian community a service if it called upon state Labor to support our $837 million package with complementary funding. This $837 million package builds on the Australian government’s previous record commitment to vocational and technical education. Since March of 1996, when the Howard government came to office, funding for vocational and technical education has increased in real terms by 85.2 per cent and the Australian government is spending a record $10.8 billion over the next four years on vocational and technical education.

In the 2006-07 financial year alone, the Australian government have committed $2½ billion, which includes funding for a range of initiatives aimed at addressing skills needs, particularly those in the traditional trades. I have put together a list of initiatives that the Australian government have introduced, to evidence our commitment to skilling Australia. It includes establishing 25 Australian technical colleges in 24 regions across Australia; establishing the Australian Institute for Trade Skills Excellence; providing a tool kit worth up to $800 to Australian apprentices in skill needs occupations; providing two $500 Commonwealth trade learning scholarships to Australian apprentices in skills needs occupations who are employed by small or medium sized businesses or a group training organisation; providing an additional 5,000 places per annum for four years in the access program, which assists job seekers experiencing barriers to skilled employment to obtain and maintain an Australian apprenticeship; providing up to 4,500 prevocational training places in the trades through group training arrangements; working in partnership with the group training organisations to provide an additional 7,000 Australian school based apprenticeships; increasing the funding for Australian apprenticeship centres to allow them to intervene at key points during an apprenticeship to increase retention and completion rates, particularly in occupations that are experiencing strong skills needs; extending employer incentives to include selected diploma and advanced diploma qualifications; and supporting national reforms—getting the states and territories, through the Council of Australian Governments, to agree to support initiatives that are designed to underpin a new and genuinely national approach to apprenticeships, training and skills recognition.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now we just need the states.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Vocational and Technical Education will have an opportunity to speak.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is part of the government’s commitment to addressing skills needs that are evident in some parts of the country. It has to be remembered that the states and territories are responsible for all aspects of training in their jurisdictions. The decisions on courses and the level of fees that are charged are made by the relevant authority in each state and territory. This is so fundamental, yet the member for Jagajaga does not seem to understand that there is nothing to stop state Labor governments from increasing fees. She says, ‘What is the federal government doing about state government fees in TAFE?’ I say, ‘What are state Labor governments doing about state Labor fees in TAFE?’

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Lifting them.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, lifting them. I also point out that, back when Labor was in government, an estimated 89,300 individuals applied for but were unable to gain a place to study in a VTE course and 69,400 of these were seeking access to a TAFE place—TAFEs that are run by state Labor governments. Under the Howard government, unmet demand has almost halved and still most of those people are seeking a place at TAFE.

Young people in Australia need to be supported in their life choices. They need timely and professional advice so that they can pursue a trade or further training or go on to university. The Australian government is committed to improving the quality of career education available to support 13- to 19-year-olds and allow them to achieve a smooth transition through school and from school to further study or work. We are doing this through Career Advice Australia. This is the first truly national career development and transition support system for all young Australians aged 13 to 19 years. This is a significant plank in our support for enhancing job opportunities to ensure we have a more productive workforce. The Australian government is injecting some $280 million into this initiative over 2006-08.

Career Advice Australia helps parents, teachers and schools to better understand post-school options. It encourages business and industry to get involved in shaping the future workforce. It gives students the opportunity to gain employability skills through programs such as Structured Workplace Learning and the Adopt-a-School project. It ensures that all young people have access to high-quality and relevant regional and industry-specific career related information.

We have local community partnerships forming. They are developing relationships with key community groups—with local industry, employer groups, schools and others. They are delivering three important programs on behalf of the Australian government: the Structured Workplace Learning program, the Career and Transition Support Program and the Adopt-a-School project. Career Advice Australia also aims to improve the standard and status of career support given in schools through scholarships for career advisers, Australian Career Development Studies, school and industry leaders forums and the Career Education Lighthouse forums.

We are focusing on not only the 13- to 19-year-olds; we are supporting all workers to help them to upgrade their skills throughout their working lives. The $837 million package that the Prime Minister has announced today will ensure that we do have a productive workforce for the future. We are going to invest $408 million in work skills vouchers for adult Australians with no formal qualifications. We are giving them the opportunity to gain important basic skills to lift their productivity and participation in the labour market. Close to $307 million is going to be provided for a mid-career apprenticeship initiative which will assist up to 10,000 apprentices aged 30 and over each year in trades experiencing strong skill needs. Specifically, the initiative assists those employers who find it difficult to remunerate mature apprentices on adult rates of pay whilst they are in the early years of training and are therefore less productive, and those apprentices who may not participate in an apprenticeship because a career change means dropping to a junior rate of remuneration.

The business skills vouchers for apprentices will ensure that apprentices in trades in demand will be encouraged to undertake additional training in small business skills to enhance their future careers. As I mentioned, there will be 500 new engineering places at universities commencing in 2008. The Howard government is building a strong and productive workforce that will continue to underpin our national prosperity. We believe in choice for our young people. We believe they should be allowed to choose whether they want to go into a trade or to university. (Time expired)

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been quite interesting to hear this afternoon some of the points made by the Minister for Education, Science and Training about this package. Minister, I have a number of words to say, but in particular it is just a case of too little, too late, I am afraid, when it comes to this—far too little and far too late. It is a pity that the minister is now leaving and will not hear the long list of neglect that the Howard government has left behind over the last 10 years when it comes to training. Obviously she does not care and is not interested in relation to this.

It is the Howard government’s decade-long neglect of training that has resulted in the massive skills crisis that we now face in this country which is causing major damage to our economy. It is a major issue that has been brought up on this side of House on so many occasions. The reality is that this skills crisis is purely of the Prime Minister’s doing; it is purely his fault. For 10 long years he has done nothing to help the young people of this nation. It has been 10 long years of neglect—that is what it is; that is what has brought us to this point today. The fault certainly lies with him.

The reason for this crisis is that the Prime Minister, the government and the minister for education place no value on training our young people. What we are seeing and hearing from them today and what we heard from the minister before was about a quick fix. That is what it is: a quick fix and nothing more. ‘How can we spin this one to save our hide?’—that is all they have been doing in here today. First we heard the Prime Minister and then the minister for education. That is all it was about: a quick political fix, not training of our young people.

The reality is: it is not good enough. What the minister had to say is not good enough; what the Prime Minister had to say is not good enough—it is not good enough for the future of our young people and it is not good enough for the future of our nation. The neglect that we have seen from this government goes right to the heart of the lack of values the Prime Minister and this government place on our young people and the future of our nation. They place no value on training young people, no value on fair and just work conditions, no value in a fair go for families and no value in protecting our environment. They have an absolute lack of values when it comes to those very important issues that relate to the future of our nation.

Over the past 10 years, the Prime Minister has denied Australians the opportunity to have real training and a real education so they can better themselves and contribute to our economy. I want the Prime Minister to come in here and answer these questions: in the past 10 years, how many Australians have been denied the chance to reach their true potential; how many tradespeople have we lost in that time; and how many major infrastructure projects have been put on hold because of this massive skills crisis? I believe the values and priorities of the federal government should be about training our young people, to provide jobs and strengthen our economy—that is where their values should lie.

The government’s package that we heard about today raises so many questions. The main questions are: why now, and why have you waited so long? As I said before, the answer is very clear in relation to that: for 10 long years this government has not cared about the future of our nation and our children; this government is concerned about self-preservation and nothing else. That is what this quick fix is all about. This package is not a package providing for the future of our nation; it is a package designed to minimise political damage and that is all it is about.

Let us have a bit of a look at the history of the skills crisis and how we got to this point today. As I said, this government has created the skills crisis. We have had businesses screaming out for years about the need for more skilled staff; we have had the Reserve Bank; we have had so many people within the community talking about it. On this side of the House, we have been talking about it for years, yet the government has repeatedly ignored all of those warnings. In that time, it has turned 300,000 young Australians away from TAFE and, under the Howard government, 40 per cent of apprentices have dropped out of their apprenticeships. As we have heard, there is nothing in this package to address that major problem. The government has done absolutely nothing about it.

According to the OECD, Australia is the only developed country to have reduced public investment in universities and TAFEs since 1995. The government has decreased spending on universities by seven per cent while the rest of the OECD countries have increased spending by 48 per cent. That is an absolutely shameful record. Also, the government has cut $13.7 million from an incentive program to encourage rural and regional businesses to take on apprentices.

Labor has been raising all of these issues year after year. Today, the Prime Minister comes in here and, instead of addressing the real issues that should have been addressed over the last 10 years, puts forward this political fix. What he is doing does not fix the major skills crisis in this country. The crisis has been driving up interest rates and hurting businesses and families. This government has been in complete denial about it. Even yesterday, the Minister for Human Services was in here saying the nation was not suffering a skills crisis but a general labour shortage, and today it is something different. It is absolutely appalling. It goes right to the heart of the government not having an understanding of or a priority for the values that we need in this nation.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are a bit out of touch.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are very out of touch—absolutely out of touch. The failure of this government to train our youth is the reason we have this skills crisis. If we look at teenage youth unemployment throughout this country, it is a shameful record. As of August 2006, it is 21.1 per cent; in electorates like mine, in Richmond, it is 29.8 per cent. That is a huge percentage of young people out of work. It is absolutely outrageous.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Andrews interjecting

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am talking about what it is now—and you can come up and speak to those young people—and how difficult it is for them. At the same time, we have a massive skills crisis as well in that area. It is an absolute failing of our government. We need to train those young people, and they need to be trained now.

Of course, the Prime Minister is not interested in training our youth at all. He prefers to import apprentices from overseas. Instead, we should be training our Aussie kids, not driving down wages and importing workers—that is his solution to it. At the same time that 300,000 Australians are being turned away from TAFE, he has allowed 178,000 skilled workers into Australia. That is an outrageous situation while locals are being turned away. Migration is no substitute for training our young people, particularly those in regional areas where they have limited opportunities.

I believe so strongly in providing proper investment in TAFEs, proper investment in training and proper investment in our universities—investment in our children and in our nation’s future. As I have said, under this government we have seen one of the largest declines in public investment in universities and TAFEs in any OECD country. I will say it again: while the rest of the OECD increased funding by 48 per cent, this government cut it by seven per cent. In its first two budgets this government slashed $240 million from its vocational education and training sector. Is it any wonder that we are now facing a skills shortage, with a history like that and after what they have done? As always, this government’s action is too little, too late. It is not good enough at all.

By comparison, Labor has put forward numerous policies in relation to this issue because we are serious about education and we value education. We value our young people and we value our nation’s future. That is where our priorities lie. Labor over the years has been designing very strong, practical measures to ensure that our kids have affordable education and training choices like providing free TAFE, creating more apprenticeships, providing a lot more incentives to train apprentices in areas of skills shortages and offering young people better choices by teaching trades, technology and science in first-class facilities.

Those are the sorts of measures we need, particularly given the difficulties we face with people not completing their apprenticeships. There was nothing in that package today at all to address that major issue. We have to make sure the young people get into these apprenticeships and stay in them. That is where the focus should be and we have not seen that from this government at all. We also need to be looking at options to reduce the HECS burden in critical areas of shortage, particularly in our rural and regional areas where there is an absolute, critical need for skilled labour.

All we have seen from this government is how they have systematically denied Australians the opportunity to have real training and a real education so they can better themselves and contribute to our economy. As we have said on many occasions, one of the major factors causing a strain on our economy is the huge skill shortage that we are facing. It has to be fixed. There have been so many warnings from so many different groups—from the Reserve Bank right across to businesses—that this government have ignored time after time, yet the government come in here today and suddenly all these quick fixes start appearing. I think people realise exactly what it is: nothing more than a quick fix.

Investing in institutions and programs designed to give our young people the skills they need to get a job addresses the skills crisis and youth unemployment, and that leads to future prosperity. As I said, the values and priorities of a federal government should focus on training our youth by providing jobs and strengthening our economy, not providing a quick political fix. Yet the only value this government has, the only value it adheres to, is protecting itself, and it keeps doing that time and time again. It is not placing any value on where the solutions are needed and is not providing for the future of our nation. It is only consumed with protecting its own hide and what spin it can put on the next stop round the corner—whatever that may be. (Time expired)

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure the member for Richmond is relieved her time has expired. Somebody must have told her it was a five-minute speech, because she used the same one at least twice. I am pleased to rise today to make some simple and straightforward comparisons between what the people on the opposite benches have done and what this government is doing, and continues to do, when it comes to creating new opportunities for more Australians. It is interesting to note that those opposite have only actually talked about skills as an issue since the government’s agenda on skills was announced in the 2004 federal election. As part of the proposition that this government put forward in September 2004 and during that election period two years ago, we said we would create the Australian technical colleges, that we would invest in tools for the trades—in other words, an $800 tool kit for people in areas of skills shortage, particularly those in small and medium enterprises—and that we would provide a Commonwealth trade learning scholarship to give people in the first couple of years of their trade apprenticeship an opportunity to gain a $500 tax-free grant from the government to help them lift their overall income circumstances. That is when the Labor Party started to talk about it.

For the entire term of government prior to those announcements, the only utterances we heard from those opposite was about universities. Is it any wonder so many people in Australia are enormously despondent as they embark upon the pathway to trade training—the nation building skills that have underpinned all that we have achieved in this country to date? Those people who invested in themselves by investing in the trades are enormously despondent because the Labor Party have not learnt anything over the last 20 or 30 years and because of the academic, highbrow discussion that if you have not got a degree you are a dud. Even today, the member for Richmond’s contribution was an automatic return to the comfort zone. In the Leader of the Opposition’s reply to the Prime Minister’s comments at midday today he automatically returned to the comfort zone of talking about universities and university degrees.

This government has said, ‘Hang on, the people who have the skills, who have the dignity of doing with their hands what they know is in their heads, need to be celebrated and we need to acknowledge what they are: national heroes and nation builders.’ I have to say to the member for Richmond, who sadly mouths the nonsense that is put in front of her by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the gaggle who hang on around her, that if she wants to talk about lost opportunities let us look at some basic statistics here. Ten years after the previous Labor government were elected, and it is about 10 years since we were elected—in other words, in 1993—we saw 1.1 million people unemployed. What sort of denial existed about opportunity for those 1.1 million people? They were unemployed. Labor saw training programs purely as a means of hiding the unemployment figures. They put money in through their Working Nation program to hide people, to take them off the unemployment list, and mandated that they had to go off and train. We had a lot of people who became expert in weaving baskets and cutting carrots!

In fact, just 122,000 people were actually involved in the apprenticeship system in this country in 1993, when the member for Brand was the minister responsible for employment—really, the minister for unemployment—and the minister responsible for training. Factor into that that 10 years after this government was elected we have 403,600 people in training in apprenticeships in Australia today. That is 403,600 people who understand that the investment they are placing in themselves and that their employers are placing in them is going to make a difference for them because they are going to get skills that will stand them in enormously good stead in the years to come. Contrast the figure of 1.1 million people unemployed with the 4.8 per cent unemployment rate.

In the state of New South Wales, where the poor old member for Richmond comes from, 5.5 per cent is the unemployment rate. Simply put, it is the worst performing economy and the biggest economy in Australia. Her electorate office is about 100 kilometres away from mine—and it is not far from yours, I know, Mr Deputy Speaker Causley. The member for Richmond used to be a police officer on the Gold Coast. Her faction got her to move south of the border to give her a chance to get a seat in this place, and she was elected.

What the member for Richmond needs to understand is that what happens at Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales side of the border, is completely different from what happens at Coolangatta, on the Queensland side of the border. On the Queensland side, kids attending local schools can in fact start full-blown apprenticeships in the trades while they are at school. They can actually go and get a job part-time, working for an employer, earning a wage, and commence their trade training while they are at school. In Queensland there are thousands of kids involved in school based apprenticeships in the trades—learning to lay bricks, learning to fix cars, learning to build houses, learning to be electricians, learning to do all sorts of amazing things—because they can in that state. An initiative of this government to create school based apprenticeships was grabbed hold of by the short-lived coalition government in Queensland and, to the credit of the current government, was kept going. Out of the 16,100 people in school based apprenticeships around Australia, 8,000 are in Queensland.

In the state of New South Wales, not one person is allowed to do a school based apprenticeship in the trades—not one person. I would reckon, at a conservative estimate, that 10,000 or more young people in New South Wales are denied the opportunity to start a trade while they are at school. Why? It is due to the social engineering of the Left of the Labor Party. The Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, says that he is all in favour of school based apprenticeships but he has done all he can to avoid them occurring because of—

Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The unions.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Macquarie, the Chief Government Whip, rightly makes the point that the unions, with their interference in and control of the agenda in New South Wales, have said: ‘No, we want to actually stop people from entering the trades. The last thing we want are more people in the trades. We want to deny people access to the trades while they are at school.’ Now, what sort of damage is that doing to the economy? The New South Wales unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent shows that New South Wales is writing its own ticket to the dump. That is what is going on in the New South Wales government today.

In contrast, this government has created 1.9 million new jobs over the last 10 years and created 205,000 new jobs over the last six months. In fact, if you look at every six-month period through all seasons and so forth over the last 20 years, the average is about 70,000 jobs. But something happened six months ago. It is called Work Choices, and it introduced a sense of trust, a sense of choice, into the workplace. Employers and employees are sitting down together like never before, recognising each other’s value, recognising the rights as well as the responsibilities of people at work and creating opportunities as a result. In every state bar New South Wales—Western Australia are being slow, but I am generous enough to say they are getting there—opportunities are expressly being given to kids while they are at school.

As the member for Page, Mr Deputy Speaker, you would have to be distressed that the North Coast of New South Wales continues to have high levels of unemployment for youth: as high as 30 per cent by some estimates—as put into the Hansard by the member for Richmond. The member for Page would be concerned about that. The member for Page knows that he would like to see an Australian technical college operating in the North Coast of New South Wales. If it were not for the New South Wales state government demanding that no school based apprenticeship could take place, demanding that every teacher—good, bad or otherwise—had to be paid the same and no-one could be offered private agreements, and demanding that all incentives were taken out of the question of training and apprenticeships in that part of the North Coast of New South Wales, maybe the member for Page might have his Australian technical college.

The New South Wales government is holding back Australia. But there is not one word from those opposite about how they are going to exert their influence, through their little left-wing socialist collectives, to get the change that is desperately needed in this country—to get the biggest economy and the biggest state doing the job that should be done, and that is to offer kids in that state opportunities to learn a trade. In any discussion about trades, any comparison between the two major parties puts us in the box seat every time. (Time expired)

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The discussion is now concluded.