Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Vocational and Further Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill provides funding to expand the highly successful Australian technical colleges initiative by building three more colleges, as announced by the Treasurer in the 2007-08 budget. This brings the total number of colleges to 28—spread over 45 campuses in areas of Australia with high numbers of young people and areas experiencing skills shortages. The three new Australian technical colleges are to be established in the regions of greater Penrith, north-eastern Perth and southern Brisbane.

Twenty Australian technical colleges are currently operating, with one more to open in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in July. These colleges have more than 1,800 students currently studying at them. Four more colleges will commence in 2008. These three new colleges, which are part of today’s bill, will open no later than 2009.

This bill increases the funding under the Australian technical colleges program by $74.7 million over the period from 2008 to 2011. The level of funding available to support the establishment of these colleges will ensure that they are resourced to provide high levels of support to both students and the employers who engage students as school based apprentices.

These additional secondary technical colleges are part of a range of measures in the recent budget, worth $668.1 million over the next four years, which look to encourage and enable increased training to address the skills shortages stemming from our ageing population, well over a decade of uninterrupted growth and the economic opportunities presented by the profound emergence of China and India.

This bill also includes the apprenticeship wage top-up, which is a tax-free payment of $1,000 per year for first- and second-year apprentices under 30 in trades facing skills shortages. It will be paid six-monthly to encourage young people to enter the trades and complete their qualification. It is also a signal to those young people that the government, on behalf of the community, acknowledges the significance of what they are doing in making the most of the vocational and technical talents that they were born with.

The second measure included in the budget announcement of funding of $668 million over the next four years is the introduction of apprenticeship training vouchers of up to $500 per year for all first- and second-year apprentices in trades facing skills shortages to help them or their employers meet the cost of their course fees. This measure is not limited to those under 30. The third measure is the establishment of the new Australian technical colleges, which form part of this bill. The fourth measure is support to fast-track apprenticeships to help apprentices reach their qualifications sooner, while still meeting all the requirements of employers and industry. Finally, the fifth budget measure announced is FEE-HELP for diploma and advanced diploma courses to encourage those already with trade qualifications to further build on their skills and knowledge.

These budget measures add to a wide range of initiatives taken by the Howard government over the last few years to address the emerging labour and skills shortages. The impact of a rapidly ageing population, combined with an extraordinary period of economic growth, was exemplified by one example: the May 2007 job and labour force figures. In May alone more than 2,000 jobs were created, on average, every day; that is, 66,000 jobs were created in the month of May. Correspondingly, every day in May, there was an average increase of 530 in the number of people in the 15- to 64-year-old working age bracket. In other words, there were 66,000 jobs created—2,000 a day—and there was an increase of 530 a day, or 1,530 for the month, in the number of people available to take up those jobs. This dramatically highlights the challenges we face in filling the available jobs within the community.

There is no silver bullet. To keep Australia strong and prosperous, we need to tap further sources of labour within our community, continue a healthy and large skilled migration program and train and retrain those entering the workforce and those 10 million who are already in the workforce. We need to act on all those fronts if we are to deal with the labour shortage which in turn creates a skills shortage. Rapid technological advances will be one way that business seeks to compensate for labour shortages. For 200 years business has used better technology to compensate for labour shortages. We will see this happening by the bucketload in the years ahead, given the challenges we face with an ageing population. Training the workforce at every age level—not just those entering the workforce but at every age level—is critical to cope with the new technology. Responsiveness and flexibility among our training providers, whether it be TAFE or other private training provider, are imperative.

If we are to unlock and tap into significant pockets of so far untapped labour resources, we need to act on many fronts. There are 700,000 people on disability pensions, 750,000 people on parenting payments, 490,000 people on unemployment benefits and three million people in the 55- to 75-year-old age bracket. Not all of these people can work, but hundreds of thousands of them have the capacity to work, want to work, could work and should work. We need both a cultural change and an opportunity for these people to enter the workforce and help cover some of the labour shortages and skills shortages that confront the country. That is why in recent years the Howard government introduced the workplace legislation, the Welfare to Work legislation, tax changes for seniors, successive rounds of tax cuts, generational reforms to superannuation, legislation to free up independent contractors, legislation to lead to more permanent and temporary skilled migrants, industry restructuring such as the Telstra sale and changes to media laws, and a 42 per cent real increase in Australian government spending on all education and training over the last decade.

All these policy areas combine to deal with labour shortages and make the most of the training that is being provided. For example, over the last 12 months we have seen a 22 per cent reduction in the number of long-term unemployed. Historically, this group has been very difficult to place in the workforce. Without a doubt, the removal of the highly discriminatory unfair dismissal legislation has given thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses the confidence to employ these long-term unemployed in the knowledge that if it does not work out they are not confronted with payments of up to $30,000 in ‘go away’ money.

Many of these long-term unemployed have had a wide range of training opportunities but the mere fact that they have not been in the workforce has previously prevented their employment. The effectiveness of training programs is heavily dependent on many of these other policy measures which are tapping further into untapped sources of labour within our community—older workers, people with disabilities, parents and the long-term unemployed.

It is interesting to note that nearly all of the policy measures that I ran through—the workplace relations reforms, the Welfare to Work reforms, the independent contractor reforms et cetera—have been opposed root and branch by those opposite. There is no understanding and there is no comprehensive program by those opposite to deal with the labour shortages and the skills shortages in this country. Since it came to power, this government has increased spending on training by 99 per cent in real terms. But the training that we have provided cannot be put to full effect unless we have people mobilised to enter the workforce. The example of the long-term unemployed is a classic example of the interaction between policies in other areas of government and the training programs that are so important to meeting the needs of industry and the community.

In the training area, these new five-year budget measures, including the one that is on the table here today, add to many other initiatives introduced over the last few years to deal with this skills shortage—in particular: 25 Australian technical colleges in 24 regions; an $800 tool kit for Australian apprentices; a $1,000 trade learning scholarship for those in their first two years of an apprenticeship; an additional 500 places in the Access Program; 4,500 pre-vocational training places in the trades; an additional 7,000 Australian school-based apprenticeships with group training organisations; 340 Australian apprenticeship centres across Australia; a $13,000 wage subsidy for mid-career apprentices; 130,000 work skills vouchers valued at up to $3,000; 6,250 business skills vouchers for apprentices valued at up to $500; $4,000 employer incentives for every one of the 402,000 apprentices employed around Australia—compared with 154,000 when we took office—a $1,000 rural and regional employer incentive for each apprentice; and $1.2 billion each year to the states to fund TAFEs; as well, living away from home allowance, Austudy, Abstudy, youth allowance, declared drought area incentives and mature age worker incentives. A raft of highly important and targeted programs has been introduced by this government over the last 11 years, complemented by these five additional measures, at a further value of close to $700 million, which were introduced in this budget. To this end, the Howard government has increased real spending on vocational and technical education by 99 per cent in real terms since 1996, from $1 billion to $2.9 billion.

The bill before us today is an important complement to this range of measures. In particular, the Australian technical college initiative has provided important leadership in raising the status of vocational and technical training, and the occupations that relate to that training. Once all 28 colleges are fully operational, including the three colleges that are proposed to be funded by this bill, between 8,000 and 10,000 students will be trained at the colleges around Australia each year. Given that the original 25 colleges were announced in late 2004 and the legislation did not pass the parliament until late 2005, the fact that 20 of these colleges are up and running with students is a truly remarkable achievement and is testament to the strong business and local community support. It normally takes an average of about three years to establish a new school. This government established 20 Australian technical colleges in less than 18 months. The 20 colleges that are up and running have done a wonderful job in establishing buildings, equipment, teachers and curriculum in a short time frame. They should be warmly congratulated for their commitment and enthusiasm for giving young people quality vocational and technical education opportunities.

As a community we made a big mistake 20 or 30 years ago when we closed old-style technical schools around Australia. We talked down the trades, and many have continued to do so since, and we put university education ahead of high-quality technical and vocational education. We have got to the point now where many parents feel that they have failed if their children have not gone on to do a university education. That is most unfortunate and misguided. Most of us are born with strong technical, vocational or creative talents—not necessarily academic talents. It is vital that we hone those talents not only to fill Australia’s skills needs, but because people are happiest and most productive when then are making the most of their particular talents. People should do what they do best.

The Australian technical colleges are an important step by the Howard government towards restoring the status of technical and vocational education and providing young Australians with the opportunity to undertake first-class technical and vocational training at a secondary level. It is an important part of the mix of secondary school education to provide a dedicated, specialist stream of schools which cater to those young people who have outstanding technical, vocational and creative talents. The technical colleges offer the students the opportunity to complete years 11 and 12 of secondary school, while at the same time commencing an apprenticeship in their chosen field. At the end of these two years students emerge with a Year 12 certificate, like every other secondary school student, but as well, they are one-third of the way through an apprenticeship, they have two years experience in the workplace and, importantly, they will have spent two critical years of schooling in an environment which is focused on celebrating and developing the particular technical, vocational and creative talents of these students. In this way, these technical colleges contribute importantly to raising the status of vocational and technical education—something we have neglected for so long and that is now costing us dearly as a community.

I have been to many of the colleges that have opened, and it is wonderful to see the pride on the faces of these young people and their families, who feel that what these students are doing is important and that their talents are recognised and valued by the community. It is very important to turn around the cultural position we have got ourselves into, where a university education is valued more highly than a technical education. We must get back to the situation where a high-quality technical or vocational education is as valued as a university qualification. Yet, the member for Perth and many of his colleagues, state and federal, have repeatedly denigrated the technical colleges. Long before the colleges were even opened, they had been taking pot shots and publicly running them down. As I have reported, we have established these colleges in record time. They are outstanding facilities. Yet they have repeatedly misrepresented the progress of the colleges, the operational arrangements of the colleges, the appropriate funding of the colleges and the strong community support of the colleges. For crass political reasons, and in desperation, to maximise their vote at the next election, they have sought to deny the Howard government any credit for showing leadership in reinstating dedicated technical schools as an essential part of the mix of secondary schools around Australia. Labor have been prepared to play politics with the lives of young Australians. Yet the Labor Party is profoundly hypocritical on this matter. It is important to look at what Labor does, not what it says. While persistently denigrating and undermining the Australian technical colleges and, in the process, continuing to talk down the trades around Australia, undermining the confidence of young people who were born with strong technical and vocational talents, Labor governments around Australia have at the same time proceeded to follow the lead of the Howard government and introduce their own technical schools.

In addition to the 28 dedicated technical schools being opened by the Commonwealth government, the states have subsequently committed to 45 further technical schools. This means that over 70 new technical colleges have either been opened or are in the pipeline around the country. This is a great result and it follows the strong leadership of the Howard government. When we promised 2½ years ago, in the face of much opposition, to open 25 new Australian technical colleges for years 11 and 12 students we broke the mould; we returned to a situation where we had dedicated technical schools at a secondary level around the country. We showed leadership as a government. Fortunately, fortuitously and for political reasons, because there is a political imperative in all of this, the state Labor governments around the country have proceeded to follow suit. In recent budgets around the country state Labor governments have also promised to add to the number of technical schools. Given that vocational and technical training is 100 per cent a state responsibility, it is a good thing that Labor governments have decided to follow suit and to introduce their own schools. By 2009, with these 70 new technical schools—state and federal—close to 35,000 young Australians will be in dedicated technical colleges for years 11 and 12, finishing the year 12 certificate and also being one-third of the way through an apprenticeship. That is a real revolution in technical education. This critical mass will make a huge difference to Australia’s long-term skills needs and will restore the status of technical education. I am certain that state and federally there is room for more of these dedicated technical colleges so that we get a proper mix amongst our secondary schools around the country of both technical and academic schools

In the coming decades, Australians with trade and technical skills will be in huge demand. It is predicted that over 60 per cent of jobs will require high-quality technical or vocational qualifications, yet currently only 30 per cent of the population have these skills. It is vital that we continue to make the necessary reforms. Today in my speech to the House I have referred to a raft of reforms. It is important to build on these reforms. The bill before us today is an important complement to the suite of measures that the Howard government has taken to ensure that Australia meets the challenge of labour and skill shortages in the years ahead. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate (on motion by Mr McClelland) adjourned.