Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on the plight of apprentices. Before the election, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, spent a lot of time in a fluoro vest and a hard hat, gladhanding apprentices and workers. He said: 'An incoming coalition government will help more young Australians to start a trade, stay in a trade and finish a trade.' But these were hollow words. It is now clear that the Prime Minister has treated apprentices with the same contempt he has treated everyone else whom this budget has hurt. What the Prime Minister did not say was that he would trash the tools for trade program and halve its funding which paid for apprentices' tools. He has cut the scheme's funding from about $1 billion to $476 million over four years and replaced it with the inferior Trade Support Loans Program, which is just going to plunge people further into debt.

It is very clear to anyone who works in this field or has a background in it: no tools, no apprentice. The Prime Minister has wrenched the tools from the hands of thousands of apprentices across the country. According to the Minister for Industry, Mr Ian Macfarlane, this cut is okay because apprentices were spending the money on 'tattoos and mag wheels for their cars and birthday parties'. How cynical, wrong and removed from reality can you get.

I would like to read an email from a fourth-year apprentice called Matthew, who said: 'The changes affect me and two other apprentices in my depot along with thousands of other apprentices nationwide who rely on these payments. While I do not agree with the changes to apprentice funding, I am disgusted that they can change the system apprentices such as myself are halfway through.' Another fourth-year apprentice, coincidentally also called Matthew, said: 'The current Abbott government are just going to rip this up without any thought of how it will affect us. Every bit of money helps, especially as I am also supporting my wife and daughter, and paying a mortgage. The removal of this payment is approximately six per cent of my annual income and I could only imagine the uproar if Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey were asked to delete six per cent of their annual income.' This is what an apprentice called Luke said: 'I am grateful that I was the beneficiary of the tools for trade program throughout my apprenticeship. I used the money to buy tools like big ticket items such as drills that cost upwards of $700. Apprentices already struggle with a low income, studying and paying bills. These incentives are what attract young job seekers in the first place without the added stress of paying loans like a tertiary student.'

This is the reality and it is gut-wrenching to hear. Worse still, the Prime Minister's new loan scheme will not cover thousands of current second-, third- and fourth-year apprentices across the country for whom the tools for trade program is essential. So what happens to them? Where do they get the money from to pay for their tools midway through their apprenticeships? The Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the industry minister just could not care less. It appears that the Prime Minister has simply left thousands of apprentices who depend on the tools for trade program simply swinging in the breeze. What makes it worse is that the cuts to funding for the tools for trade program are completely avoidable. The Prime Minister could have kept the tools for trade scheme intact and instead ended the $12 billion taxpayer subsidy to the fossil fuel industry to fund it. The Prime Minister could have gone one better and increased the funding to the tools for trade program by, for example, not needlessly spending at least $24 billion on 58 joint strike fighters.

Earlier this year, the Greens called for a construction-led stimulus package for the south-east of the country and Western Australia. What I said in February is just as true now. Now is the time to cut $12 billion in corporate welfare from the fossil fuel sector to drive a clean economy and secure jobs in south-east Australia. By building more public housing and fast-tracking public transport projects, we can find jobs for the workers facing redundancy, address the housing crisis and care for the planet all at once. Supporting construction, design and manufacturing jobs by building 77½ thousand new houses over the next 10 years would create thousands of jobs, including for apprentices. The Abbott government could do this right now but chooses not to. What we need is a plan that reboots our manufacturing base, uses our manufacturing expertise and retools workers, apprentices and manufacturing for the new economy that is emerging right around the world. But if we take the tools away from the builders, the plumbers, the carpenters and the electricians of tomorrow, our very future is in doubt. I say to our apprentices: the Greens will fight to put tools back in your hands.