Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to continue my remarks on the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022. We handed the Albanese government a skills and training system, not just training up but powering ahead on the back of record investments guaranteed by a strong economy. Our policies invested over $13 billion in skills over the past two years alone. But we didn't just clean up Labor's mess; we made the most significant reforms to Aussie skills in over a decade. Guided by an expert review that we commissioned, the Joyce review, we got on with bringing our skills system into the 21st century.

We overhauled and put in place industry-led clusters to speed up qualification development so our skill system could keep up with the evolving needs of our modern economy. We established the National Skills Commission to provide evidence based leadership on the skills we need for our workforce today and for tomorrow. The National Skills Commission has not only been instrumental in driving data driven decisions in skilled migration but has exposed seriously concerning differences in the amount apprentices and trainees are getting charged to study across states and territories. The NSC has been unanimously endorsed by industry. The Independent Tertiary Education Council of Australia said that the National Skills Commissioner, supported ably by a professional team, has done some excellent work with respect to skills planning and forecasting, and that it regards Jobs and Skills Australia as the National Skills Commission-plus. In fact, the Business Council of Australia has warned, 'JSA needs to build on this foundation and ensure that the NSC's good work is not eroded.'

We reformed and increased training incentives through our new apprenticeship incentive system, including introducing direct payments to apprentices to see them through their studies and into a job. Our policy settings got apprenticeship numbers up to record levels. For the first time in our history, we hit over 220,000 Australians taking up a trade apprenticeship. We did all of that while saving a generation of Australian workers from the biggest hit to Australia's workforce since the Great Depression.

What does that look like? When I was recently in Lismore, I saw firsthand the importance of trades as that town rebuilds. Many of those tradies had apprentices that were supported through the pandemic. In fact, whether it's round tables that I've held up in Queensland, over in Perth or in Western Sydney, everywhere I have gone people have said that we've got the skills and apprentices supports right, throughout the pandemic.

Reports that Labor is looking for savings in the skills budget are particularly worrying. That is the exact opposite of what the Australian economy needs right now. We've heard a lot of talk about skills from Labor over the past week, but, as any tradie will tell you, talk is cheap. It's getting the job done that matters. And when it comes to this mob, their form does not fill you with confidence. So whilst we accept that the bill will pass, we will be keeping a watching brief on Jobs and Skills Australia, because we know just how vital skills are for the strength of our economy and we desperately want the Labor government to get this right—for once. I thank the House.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise with great pleasure to speak to the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 and the Jobs and Skills Australia (National Skills Commissioner Repeal) Bill 2022. I really wanted to speak to this important bill. It establishes the future for Australia. It is seminal. It is a linchpin in the infrastructure for the future of a highly skilled, highly productive workforce and, thereby, economy.

I'd like to congratulate the Minister for Skills and Training, my good friend the member for Gorton. He is, indeed, a friend to workers, to small business and large corporations alike. He's an asset to this new government, and he gets the benefits of tripartism upon which the new Jobs and Skills Australia will operate. The issue of tripartism is one lost—completely lost—on the previous government. They have no idea what it means, its benefits; they are blind to the way the world has benefited from tripartism.

At the ACTU, when I was president for over nine years, I was lucky enough to represent Australia at the International Labour Organization, the ILO. It's an international body that has operated on this basis to create international standards for the world of work. They create amazingly complex legal instruments that manage to set out basic principles for rights at work. Australia, of course, is a signatory to many of the standards and conventions created through true dialogue, true debate, that operates between unions, employers and governments. These are the bodies that make up tripartite outcomes.

My experience was amazing, and I am forever grateful for having had the experience of representing the trade union movement in Australia at the ILO. In the time that I was there some emerging conventions were forged. One that stands out for me is the forced labour or anti-slavery convention. Australia is a signatory to this convention, one that I am amazed to say the previous government signed to. There are conventions for child labour and conventions for the prevention of violence and harassment at work. This is a particular one that I am very proud of, because I was there working very closely with my friends at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian government, where we led the debate to include the employer's role in helping deal with domestic violence.

Our role in that was a great example of tripartism. Australia led the way in a tripartite manner. We now have paid family and domestic violence leave for all workers across this country. We created core standards, like the right to freely organise, that states that workers should be able to join unions without fear. And, more recently, the ILO has developed the rights of health workers in a pandemic. There are hundreds of conventions, protocols and guidelines.

The process was an amazing thing to be a part of. Union and workers' representatives from right around the world would meet with governments from right around the world, and, of course, employers—large employers in corporations, smaller employer groups and employer representatives. Every interest was recognised—core outcomes. But we all really came together to find common ground where we knew we could work to make sure workers were protected and businesses prospered. Often than not, we were not far apart. Often than not, it was easy to come to an outcome—like at the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, where all interests were recognised and where great outcomes were achieved. Sometimes it wasn't so easy. Sometimes we worked late into the night and even early mornings to get consensus, but we always got there.

In my time at the ILO, I learned about the way many European and other countries held tripartite negotiations in their own economies. I was lucky enough to meet and chat with the former Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel is considered, in Germany, to be a conservative, and I remember thinking to myself at the time, 'I would really love to meet a progressive if she is a conservative.' She was the leader of a country that values tripartism. We spoke about workers' councils in workplaces, which are commonplace all over the German economy, where employees and unions meet regularly with their employers. They saw issues out at the workplace. I spoke with her at the time that she was establishing a minimum wage panel based on Australia's tripartite model. She was very impressed with our model. I spoke with her about the importance of how her government—she told me her government actually funds unions and employer bodies to negotiate in good faith. Imagine that! They are funded to go about doing their job without fear or favour.

Germany is a high-wage, highly productive economy. I spoke to Angela Merkel about how she managed to maintain a robust manufacturing sector that is highly competitive and highly efficient, but is highly paid. Workers get decent wages. Her answer was simple. She said she invests in a skilled workforce and in innovation through universities and industry research. She makes sure there is accessible quality education, both vocational and university based, keeping one step ahead of the game. She said it's important to listen to and value a highly skilled workforce. All these things together keep the economy, particularly the manufacturing sector, moving ahead.

Angela Merkel also said to me that she used to hold Australia in high regard, setting the standard for giving workers a voice alongside employers and the states. She said, 'It doesn't seem to be like that anymore.' She actually asked me why Australia had gone backwards with respect to tripartism and workers' rights. Well, the answer was simple: the previous government, the LNP, did not value unions and did not value members. They were more interested in doing the bidding of big corporations and big business. We are all wondering why we have stagnant wage growth, why we have low productivity, why the workers' share of national income in this country is at a decades-low level, why productivity is sluggish. An important part of improving productivity is having an engaged, well-paid, secure and respected workforce. Including workers' voices at every level of the economy, including at the highest level, is an important part of achieving that. It is absolutely just as important as hearing from employers, hearing from training providers in the area of skills provision and hearing from state and territory governments.

Labor is getting on with the job of making this country better for everyone, leaving no-one behind. We won't lock anyone out. The previous government ignored workers and actively had policies to keep wages low, to shut workers out. On the back of the Jobs and Skills Summit we are putting in place the necessary changes that will move this country ahead, taking everyone with us. We have plans on every front, including this bill establishing Jobs and Skills Australia as an incredibly important part of the future—an independent agency that will provide advice to the government on Australia's current, emerging and future labour markets. It will provide advice on the necessary workforce skills and training. The body will work closely with state and territory governments, with industry employers, with unions and with providers to ensure a shared understanding of the key issues facing Australia's labour market.

It will examine the VET system and recommend changes that will make sure the system is fit for purpose and delivers for our workers, giving them the skills that are in demand and ensuring good, decent jobs—jobs for our industries that are desperate for skilled workers. The previous government cut around $3 billion from the VET sector. It was not focused on the areas where shortages exist. It's clear that urgent action is needed to address the skill shortages and to match participation in training with the types of skills in demand right now and, of course, those that will be demanded in the future.

Jobs and Skills Australia will focus on the whole labour market. It will be driven by actual data and proper analysis, with real-time workforce forecasting. It will examine the needs of emerging industries so that we aren't left scrambling to keep up with industrial advancements. It will ensure that our regions are part of any plan. It will consult with the public and keep them up to date with its important work. This is just the beginning of our commitments in the jobs and skills area.

It will stand alongside the Australian Skills Guarantee, which will train thousands of workers by ensuring one in 10 workers on major federally funded government projects is an apprentice, trainee or cadet. We will deliver 465,000 fee-free TAFE places, including 45,000 new places for students studying in industries that were affected by COVID-19, industries of national importance and industries facing skills shortages. It will especially target school leavers, workers wanting to retrain or upskill, and unpaid carers, who are predominantly women, to get back into the workforce. It will ensure that at least 70 per cent of Commonwealth VET funding is for public TAFE. I take this opportunity to thank TAFE teachers, who have stuck at it through really hard times, particularly the Melbourne Polytechnic, which offers great service to my electorate.

The TAFE Technology Fund will exist to improve IT facilities, workshops, laboratories and telehealth simulators right across the country. Our Future Made in Australia Skills Plan also has TAFE commitments. These are made as part of the government's $1.2 billion Future Made in Australia Skills Plan to focus on closing the gap in key areas of skill shortages.

We will have new energy apprenticeships that will encourage Australians to train in the new energy jobs of the future and provide the additional support they need to complete their training. There will be a New Energy Skills Program that will, in partnership with the states and territories, industries and unions, develop fit-for-purpose training pathways for new energy industry jobs. As part of this program we will establish mentors—experienced workers in new energy industries will help train and support new apprentices. In conjunction with this program we'll support the government's agenda to prioritise growth and investment in the renewable energy sector as part of the Powering Australia plan.

And we will develop, certainly on the back of the Jobs and Skills Summit, a full employment white paper. This will be informed by, as I said, the job summit outcomes. It will investigate and report back on issues, such as how we can best prepare Australians for jobs of the future, how we can improve the quality of work, how we train workers up over a lifetime and how we tackle issues of unemployment, casualisation, job insecurity, long-term unemployment and stagnant wages. It will help people with a disability engage in the workforce. It will listen and deliver for First Nations communities. Importantly, it is the beginning of us establishing how we make sure that any Australian who needs a job can get a job.

I'm excited by this legislation. It is just the beginning. It is setting up the infrastructure that will ensure a fantastic future for our country, one set by all parties in a true sense of tripartism that means everybody owns it, everybody shared in its development and everyone will want it to succeed. That is how you do inclusive government.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Listening to the member for Cooper, you would think that everybody on this side demonised unions and the role they play in the workplace. That's not so. I was a member of a union—the Australian Journalists Association and, later on, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance—for 21 years. I didn't need to be a member of the union for the last 11 of those years, because I was the editor of the Daily Advertiser and the Riverina Media Group at Wagga Wagga, but I chose to maintain my membership. I appreciate, understand, recognise and acknowledge the role that trade unions play in Australia, and I think many, if not all, members on this side do too.

But militant unionism, unnecessary strike action—some of the things that unions do—are the sorts of things that really make things hard, particularly for small business, and that's what we object to. Everything is okay, but in balance. I certainly acknowledge that, and I certainly acknowledge the role that unions no doubt played at the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra last Thursday and Friday. It was good that unions were represented. Sometimes I think the CFMEU go way, way too far and they could very well pull their heads in—and stop the donations as well, to the Labor Party. But the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 is important, as the member for Cooper just acknowledged. I know that is true in regional Australia at the moment, and I know it was mentioned at the summit.

I appreciate the fact that the Leader of the Nationals, the member for Maranoa, was present and took part. I was pleased that he did so. You've got to be at the table to hear what's going on, and I appreciate the fact that he contributed to that. I also acknowledge why some others didn't and understand their reasons for not doing so. Indeed, I hope it wasn't just a talkfest. I hope, as the member for Cooper no doubt does, that we get some meaningful action not just on jobs and skills but, indeed, on the vacancies that exist in regional Australia at the moment. It's critical that we fill those roles, especially as we approach what will be another bumper harvest for many farmers in the Riverina, the Central West and elsewhere in regional Australia. This is potentially their third bumper harvest in a row. I know that many companies, large and small, are doing everything they can to prepare for such a harvest. Indeed, GrainCorp is building bigger and better infrastructure around the countryside. Many others besides are doing likewise in preparation for what is going to be a considerable tonnage of grain. But we do need to find the workers to help harvest those crops. It's not just grain but fruit, and stock are realising record prices at saleyards. Abattoirs, of course, are always very busy around the countryside. The role that regional Australia plays in feeding and clothing our nation and many others besides is considerable, but we can't keep doing it if we don't have the workers.

Tonight here in Parliament House we're going to see the annual AgriFutures dinner. In particular it's a celebration of the role women play in regional Australia. It's an increasing role, I have to say, in that they're filling many of the roles once occupied only by men. I acknowledge all of the wonderful state and territory finalists in the national award. I well recognise the 2019 AgriFutures Rural Women's Award national winner, Jo Palmer, from The Rock, for the role she continues to play with Pointer Remote Roles, a company she established to link up people and vacancies. It's playing a vital role in regional Australia, and no doubt it will continue to do so.

I talk often to Kim Houghton from the Regional Australia Institute—a body that, I acknowledge, started in the Gillard years—which plays an important part in advocating for and on behalf of regional Australia. Just the other day I received my weekly text from Mr Houghton, who indicates that, according to the most recent Regional Australia Institute data, regional job vacancies are now at a record-high 86,900 advertised jobs in July 2022. That's a 24.7 per cent increase on the same time last year, and this is significant. The Regional Australia Institute's Regional Movers Index measures the latest data on the movement of population to regional areas from capital cities. Once upon a time it was always regional people, often our best and brightest, going to the capital cities to look for work—to look for opportunities. Now it's the other way around. Millennials continue to make up the biggest proportion of people moving to regional areas from capital cities. That's a good thing, but, of course, we've got to find the housing for them; we've got to find the rental properties for them. I acknowledge the shadow minister at the table and the role that he played in helping to do just that in the last government.

Net migration to regions remains 30.2 per cent higher than two years prior to COVID-19. COVID-19 taught us a couple of things, and I know Prime Minister Albanese often says that it taught us that we have to make more here in Australia. I acknowledge that. Certainly, whilst I appreciate the member for Cooper indicated a desire to manufacture more in Australia, we're already doing a lot in that regard, and a lot of it often doesn't get recognised. A lot of it often just goes straight through to the keeper, because great news stories don't always make the front page, and actually making stuff in Australia doesn't always make the pages of the papers—more's the pity.

But the other thing that COVID certainly taught us is that we can do anything, anywhere, as far as meetings are concerned. People can have an input in the boardrooms without having to physically be in a capital city, in a central business district, in a high rise in Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane or another metropolitan centre in Australia. You can do it from wherever you are in regional Australia, whether you're in Manangatang or Mangoplah. You can Zoom in. None of us even knew what Zoom was prior to COVID, but we politicians certainly all know this now, because we're now safe from nobody! Everybody wants a telepresence meeting! And, of course, as the good MPs that we are, we make that possible; we make ourselves accessible. You can Zoom in from anywhere in regional Australia. Thanks to the telecommunications funding that the Liberals and Nationals put in place around regional Australia, you can have access to those boardrooms to make sure that you can have your say and make your voice heard.

The government has said it will honour the Australian agricultural visa agreement established between the former coalition government and Vietnam. This ag visa and these sorts of arrangements are so important in filling that vacancy gap I mentioned earlier. The government's approval of this will no doubt come as a relief to growers and producers throughout my electorate who have been affected by the workforce shortage. It's not the jobs and the skills, necessarily; it's the vacancies. Skills are important, of course, but we need skilled and unskilled workers. We hear different figures, but we are somewhere in the order of about 90,000 backpackers short of where we would normally be.

The difficulty with that is that many of the backpackers left Australia when COVID first hit our shores, and much of the decision and desire to come to Australia is based on backpackers going back and telling their friends what a great time they had in Australia—'Get over there; it's fantastic. You can work in a farm, work in a factory, work wherever and earn your money.' Often, most or many of them go on a holiday just prior to leaving our shores. It's fantastic. They do the work and then they spend all their money here. They have a great time. They go back home and tell their friends. And they come from the Americas. They come from Europe. They come from all over. But the trouble was when they left, because we had two years of planes being grounded, largely through lack of international flights. That was sensible, that was practical and that was necessary, but we did it and we stopped that dialogue between our backpackers. Subsequently, even though Australia is still a great place, and even though we've still got many vacancies, the backpackers aren't readily coming back. We hope they will.

Earlier this year I visited a factory called Apollo Fabrication in Young. Young is known as the cherry capital of Australia, and well that might be. I think they grow the best cherries in all of Australia. Others might disagree, but it's a local tradition and I'm biased, so let's just say that. The operations and sales directors of Apollo, Caleb and Nathan Jackson, told me that the company had been involved in manufacture for some of the most iconic buildings in Sydney—the updates to them, the refurbishment of them and the new infrastructure there. I mention particularly Mascot airport and the Sydney Cricket Ground. When I visited this factory at Young, 14 of the approximately 50 employees were apprentices, great young people who are doing wonderful things for this company. Apollo is committed to investing in regional areas and employing from regional areas. I mention this because it is just one story, one little snapshot, of what we are doing as far as manufacturing right here in Australia. If the current government can do more of that, well and good. I will support that because it will promote Australian manufacturing.

The budget delivered in March by the former coalition government sought to continue to support jobseekers and young people, and it certainly achieved that goal. At the time, we already had 3,765 apprentices in the Riverina, and new measures in that budget, with expanded wage subsidies, were designed to lead to more opportunities for apprentices and trainees, and it worked. It worked and it will continue to work. The national unemployment rate decreased to 3.4 per cent in July on the back of the policies that we put in place, the work that we did and the many job vacancies that were available because of the economic policies that we'd implemented. This is so important. We had an unrivalled record in creating job opportunities for people, in giving them the skills and the job opportunities. If Labor can empower the country to do even more then that's got to be desirable too, because we want our people, particularly our young people, in work.

We want to give our seniors the opportunity to keep their payments and do more work if they feel they want to or need to, so that they have that choice. I encourage that. I can well remember the former shadow Treasurer, now the Treasurer, saying that we would be looked upon as having succeeded or not in the pandemic by the jobless rate in Australia. Well, by that measure, we succeeded. The work that we did during the pandemic to ensure that people remained in work, that people had the opportunity to take a job if there was one to take, and, of course, to get the health outcomes led us to being rated No. 2 in the world according to the Hopkins research index. That is something to be proud of. I know Labor will go around besmirching and demonising what we did as a government, but rest assured that when it came to jobs, skills and filling vacancies, on those parameters, we absolutely succeeded. Of course, the efforts we made to make sure that we kept Australians safe and healthy during the first global pandemic in a hundred years will be the measure by which we are judged in the future. What we did to keep Australians safe, what we did to avoid losing tens of thousands of people—because that was the prediction—I think is something that the Morrison government should be very proud of. JobKeeper alone saved 700,000 jobs. I feel it is a great pity that the former member for Kooyong is no longer in this chamber. There was a record high of 220,000 trade apprentices. Over three years, some 1.1 million jobs were created post the pandemic arriving on our shores.

I hope the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 and the Jobs and Skills Australia (National Skills Commissioner Repeal) Bill 2022, if passed, succeed, because we want those opportunities, particularly for our young people. We want those opportunities for Australians. We want to make more goods here. We want Australia to be the best it can be, and if this legislation helps then that's all well and good.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 and the Jobs and Skills Australia (National Skills Commissioner Repeal) Bill 2022. During the campaign for the seat of Boothby, few economic issues were raised with me more often than skills shortages. I heard from small business owners and managers who simply couldn't find the trained staff they needed to keep their cafe, shop or family landscaping business operating—let alone expand. I heard from conveyancers and psychologists, healthcare services and childcare services. An aged care provider told me they put on 15 staff one month but they lost 22 the same month, and they were paying above-award wages. An allied health provider told me her staff were receiving unsolicited job offers from other providers every week.

And yet I also heard from, and have long been acutely aware of, people who couldn't find gainful employment. Many of these people were doing everything right, to use the jargon. They had tried to upskill themselves to meet the relevant skills gaps in our economy, but they faced barriers. The cost of training was too high; training and work weren't available anywhere near where they lived; and there were not enough after-hours training programs, meaning many, particularly those with caring responsibilities or those who were already working in the daytime and wanted to upskill, simply couldn't attend. This challenge, the match of jobs and skills and the disconnect between the two, is what drove this government to bring together voices from across our economy and society—from businesses, unions, civil society, academia and community groups—to discuss how we can improve this area, and it is the principle that underpins this legislation.

Briefly, the legislation is the first step in implementing the government's election commitment to establish a new statutory body: Jobs and Skills Australia. This bill represents the first of a two-stage legislative process to implement this commitment. The second stage is to be completed in a timely fashion after consultations with governments, unions, industry and employer groups. Jobs and Skills Australia will be tasked with providing expert independent advice to the government on current, future and emerging skills and workforce training issues. This advice will help inform the government policies and programs that we will need to improve the nation's training systems, and ensure that skilled workers can be appropriately matched with industry needs—evidence-based decision-making.

The bill will prescribe an initial set of functions for Jobs and Skills Australia, including providing advice to the Minister for Skills and Training and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and their agencies in relation to providing advice on Australia's current and emerging labour market. This includes advice on workforce needs and priorities; providing advice on Australia's current and emerging future skills and training needs and priorities, including apprenticeships; and the adequacy of the Australian system in providing VET, including training outcomes. And Jobs and Skills Australia will also be tasked with producing accurate and up-to-date data and analysis, such as workforce forecasting, assessing workforce skill requirements and undertaking cross-industry workforce analysis. Crucially, Jobs and Skills Australia will also be tasked with informing the public about issues in employment and skills, to ensure greater transparency and collaboration from all sectors.

As I have said, this bill is the starting gun in improving our jobs and skills framework. Much like the future Jobs and Skills Australia, I and many of my Labor colleagues have been in the process of hearing directly from those in our communities who are impacted by jobs and skills shortages. Two weeks ago today I convened a group of around 45 business leaders, local government officials, civic society representatives and leaders for the 'Boothby Jobs and Skills Summit'. There we heard of the skills shortage that goes to the aims of this legislation. Indeed, as many in this House know, 17 per cent of businesses reported not having enough employees in February 2022. This is particularly acute in the higher skilled occupations, at a staggering 67 per cent. This was something noted by many of the advanced manufacturing groups who attended the Boothby summit, and particularly those from the Tonsley precinct.

It is also the case in areas of paramount importance to our economy and our society: the care sectors of the economy. Anyone with any interaction with our care providers—whether it's aged care or disability care or trying to juggle getting access to early childhood education and care—knows we have a jobs and skills crisis. Care centres are understaffed and overstretched; job vacancies run into double digits for many centres. It was a theme that underpinned just about every discussion at the Boothby summit, because the skills shortages in that area have a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of Boothby families and the economic productivity of our community. We know that a lack of access to affordable care hampers many people, particularly women, in their efforts to get back to work.

It is also why it is so important—and I'm deeply heartened by the approach of the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs' recent announcements—that we clear the visa backlog and increase the skilled migration cap. While we know that we have a low unemployment rate at the moment, we also know it's because the borders were closed and the people haven't come back. We as Australians are suffering for that shortage.

I was fortunate to be invited to attend the National Jobs and Skills Summit here in Canberra last week, and I was struck by the sense of positive purpose and of constructive engagement between people from all sectors of our economy and society, both business reps and worker reps. I was also particularly taken with one panel, which focused on the lived experience of those people in our society who face significant social, cultural or economic barriers to entering the workforce. These might be people aged 50 and over whose experiences are too often overlooked by assumptions about the currency of their skills and their adaptability; or Australians with disability, who want the same opportunities afforded other Australians to contribute to our economy and society and to personally benefit from a career; or those from CALD backgrounds, who suffer when people can't look past a last name or an accent or cultural attire to see the hardworking dedication of millions of migrants to our country—in a country that's built on migrants. That's not to mention women, who are often underemployed in part-time or casual work due to caring duties. These women are looking for more opportunity.

These overlooked workforces are the untapped resource in our economy, and they are already here wanting to work. I'm very keen to see that Jobs and Skills Australia, the statutory body that will come about as a result of this and further legislation, can find ways to bring these people along as we work to solve our jobs and skills crisis together.

This bill is just the start of the government's action to address the skills crisis we've been left. The Australian Skills Guarantee will train thousands of workers by ensuring that one in 10 workers on major federally funded government projects is an apprentice, trainee or cadet. We will deliver 180,000 fee-free TAFE places next year—that's only a few months away. We've seen all state and territory governments and the Commonwealth commit to guiding principles to underpin a five-year national skills agreement from 2024, and I have to say Australia is thrilled to see people working together—states and Commonwealth. These same governments have made an agreement with the BCA, ACCI and the ACTU and developed the Statement of Common Interests on Skills and Training for the jobs summit. That is a level of cooperation that seemed impossible not so long ago.

The government has also committed to the TAFE Technology Fund to improve IT facilities, workshops, laboratories and telehealth simulators across the country. It has also committed to new energy apprenticeships to encourage Australians to train in the new energy jobs of the future by providing $100 million to support 10,000 new energy apprenticeships—jobs of the future. And, of course, we will produce the jobs summit and full employment white paper. This will be informed by the National Jobs and Skills Summit and will tackle challenges associated with improving the quality of work, underemployment, casualisation and job insecurity as well as stagnant wages. I'm so looking forward to the consultation on the white paper, because I know that businesses and workers in Boothby and across Australia are champing at the bit with commitment and ideas. They want to be involved. There's a feeling of relief and excitement—Australia is back in business again.

The Albanese government, and the Prime Minister and Treasurer in particular, have shown their ability to bring people together from across our economy and society, and I commend these bills as the first step in addressing our jobs and skills shortage and allowing Australia and all of its people to achieve their full economic potential.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this bill, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, which changes the name of the National Skills Commission to Jobs and Skills Australia. What a day it is, and I was here when it happened! It's a story for the grandkids! Anyway, we won't be standing in the way of this cosmetic change that the government is putting through the House right now. But, equally, I want to take the opportunity to make it very clear that we on this side of the House won't be letting window dressing like this be something that the government uses to mask having a genuine approach to the significant challenges that businesses in Australia are facing. Obviously skills are central to that.

This bill, as has been admitted by other speakers, is changing the name of the National Skills Commission to Jobs and Skills Australia. Apparently there's another bill which isn't ready to come before this House which will have some kind of detail around how this new jobs and skills commission will operate. I don't know how it's going to be any different to the National Skills Commission. There have been a lot of these entities through the ages. If this is the rebranding that they needed to do so that they could get through a day of the campaign and say they had a skills policy by announcing the formation of this new entity then so be it. But I will be looking very closely at the other legislation that comes forward and, more importantly, what actually happens when it comes to an agenda of working with the businesses of this country that understand what their skills needs are and the support that they need from government to solve some very serious challenges that they have in their workforce.

I note that the government had a Jobs and Skills Summit last week. I would have thought for this body to have any value it would have been good to have it in place before that summit, if that summit in fact had any genuine purpose. But that didn't happen, so we will wait and see what this agency does, given it wasn't welcome to have any part whatsoever in what apparently was a totemic meeting held in this building last week to solve jobs and skills for the future of our nation. We watch with great interest.

In my home state of South Australia, we have some unique skills challenges that I wish in the best of faith that someone in this new government could have some interest in and play a role in addressing. The defence sector is a very significant one in particular. We are obviously very grateful for the decisions of the previous government which are going to transform the industry capacity of South Australia through the most significant naval shipbuilding programs in this nation's and probably the Southern Hemisphere's history. That is going to create a lot of very highly skilled jobs for people with very significant and unique skill sets.

I will tell you who knows how many people they need and what skills they need to have. It is the businesses that are in the supply chains and the businesses that are going to be building those vessels and contracting all of the requirements for those programs. I very much hope that anything that is established structure-wise has at the heart of it working with the businesses that are creating the jobs and know what skills they need. We have had some bad experiences in South Australia when it comes to Labor governments doing the absolute opposite, particularly in 2015 and 2016 when the industry based RTOs were absolutely decimated by a decision of the Weatherill government, which removed funding from those registered training organisations that were operated by people like the AHA to train the cooks, chefs and other skilled workers they needed in the pubs, restaurants and cafes of South Australia, or the MTA, training people with the motor mechanic skills to work in those businesses. Those RTOs, civil contractors and many more were absolutely decimated because that Labor government said, 'We don't want industry'—who you would think would know a lot about the skills and training requirements they had—'providing that VET training; we're going to centralise it and have a control-and-command approach to it through government decision-making and government funding,' and cut them out. That was an absolute disaster, and of course it destroyed what had been industry taking the lead on their skills requirements and saying: 'We're very happy to actually take responsibility for forming training organisations and understanding and committing to the number of people that we need to train at an industry-wide level. We will provide the employment pathways to them. We'll obviously work with our member organisations to make sure that we're not training people that they don't need. And we'll also forecast, we'll look into the future, because we can talk to our members about how their businesses are growing and changing and what new needs they might have into the future—we'll predict all of that and train for our sector.'

So we can have a national body with a new name—though I was a strong supporter of the National Skills Commission, and I do not understand the rationale for any criticism of that entity or why it needs to be changed, although I understand the realpolitik of the new government having to have a skills policy and that saying they were going to create a new body was a way of saying they had one during the campaign. I note that they also indicated that the staff of the National Skills Commission would just be transferred into this new agency and it wouldn't have any new cost. So, really, how they'll be performing any different function to the National Skills Commission, when it's the same people doing the same jobs that they're doing within the National Skills Commission—if their party platform from the election is to be believed and it has no new cost—will surprise me.

But, nonetheless, I urge the government to prioritise those partnerships with businesses and industry sectors—some of whom weren't welcome last week. Restaurants and caterers were not invited to the Jobs and Skills Summit. If you think there are no jobs and skills challenges in restaurants and catering, you have got no idea whatsoever about one of the very significant sectors that has huge challenges and needs to be listened to and heard. But they weren't welcome last week. That is very peculiar, and it shows to me that last week was not about any genuine discussion about skills and jobs; it was about political theatre. You may have achieved that objective, but I can tell you that if you don't take these challenges seriously and come up with serious solutions to them then this government will be in a lot of strife very quickly.

Although that might have political value for those on this side of the House, we actually do care about the welfare of the businesses of this country and the people that are employed in those businesses. We don't want the government to fail them. But, unfortunately, that attitude—doing things like not inviting restaurants and caterers—is absolutely failing one of the most important sectors in our economy. It's one that really struggled—probably struggled the most, with the tourism sector, of course, more broadly—through the pandemic. So they weren't welcome and their perspective, apparently, is completely irrelevant to a national jobs and skills summit. Well, let's hope that this new entity, which we're rebranding in this bill from the National Skills Commission to Jobs and Skills Australia, can convince the government—whenever they're actually formed with this other piece of legislation that isn't even ready yet to come into this chamber—and change the attitude of the government on things like that.

Certainly, on this side of the House, we want to see industry and business listened to, and we do want to see genuine solutions to those challenges. In my home state of South Australia, we've obviously got some major opportunities if we get this right. For the interests and welfare of my electorate and my home state, I want us to get the necessary skills training requirements right. So I wish this process well, even though I'm very sceptical about it. But, in good faith, we are not standing in the way of the rebranding in this bill. This will be a great episode of Yes, Minister one day. Nonetheless, we are not here to prevent your rebranding. Good luck with the logo and the website, '.gov.au'—all of those things; you can do all of that. But, please, at some point, I hope this government takes seriously the genuine challenges that we've got in skills. On that basis, I commend the bill to the House.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In that contribution, the member for Sturt provided unsolicited advice to the government. As I understood what he said, he said, 'If this government doesn't take this issue of skills shortages seriously and come up with solutions, the government will be in real trouble.' I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the member for Sturt for sharing his real-life lived experience with the chamber and the government. Of course, that's what happened to the previous government. We can't pretend in this chamber that the skills shortages have arisen from nowhere in the last 100 days. I appreciate the member for Sturt sharing that real-life lived experience of what happens to a government that doesn't take skills shortages and workforce planning seriously. I can assure the member for Sturt that many of his questions about Jobs and Skills Australia, which is established under this bill, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, would be answered if he read the provisions of the bill. If he still doesn't understand the purpose of this legislation and the institution being established, I am sure the minister's office would be more than happy to give him a briefing on it.

We know that, as a nation, we are absolutely experiencing skills shortages across a range of industries—industries that are important to our economic growth, industries that are important to the functioning of communities, industries that are essential to the health and wellbeing of Australians. It defies logic to suggest that these skills shortages have arisen in the last 100 days. Whilst there were issues during the pandemic lockdown that have contributed to the skills and worker shortages in this country—including the decision to abandon migrant workers and tell them they can leave the country—it is also not the case that it is the last three years alone which has led to the rise of skills and skilled worker shortages in Australia. The truth is there has been a decade of a lack of workforce planning in critical industries across this country, not least of which are health industries.

What was revealed, not caused by but exacerbated by and revealed by the pandemic, was the absolute absence of proper workforce planning for nurses, GPs and other health practitioners, who are crucial to the health and wellbeing of communities like my community in Dunkley. Nurses who carried this community through the pandemic, who worked in hospitals in back-to-back shifts until many of them could hardly even stand up, who are still exhausted and still dealing with COVID waves, COVID patients and a backlog of patients who haven't had other health issues treated, will tell you there has been a lack of planning for their profession. There has been a lack of looking at initiatives like how to get more nurse practitioners into the system so they can look after people with chronic illnesses, like people living with cancer, to take some of the burden off the GPs and to provide good health for people who need it.

In my community, like many other communities, we are also looking at skills shortages in areas which, quite frankly, defy belief. In the last term of parliament, under the previous government, which members of the opposition have crowed about—of its success, apparently, in helping skill up Australians and provide workers—I had hundreds of businesses contact me about skills shortages but I had two different businesses in Carrum Downs contact me, in desperate straits, about not being able to find workers. There is a stair manufacturer in Carrum Downs who went from having more than 200 job applications for vacancies in about 2018 to only having five per month over a two-month span, with 50 per cent of applicants not turning up for interviews. They needed people to do welding, to make staircases, and they couldn't find enough welders to get work completed—facing the possibility of needing to close after 25 years of being a family business in my community that employs locals.

There was another engineering business in Carrum Downs that sent me an email saying, 'We run an engineering business and we're having an awful time trying to get tradespeople or even apprentices to interview. What is happening to our education system? We are struggling to get anybody through the door, let alone working for us.' They noted that I'd sent them a sticker about supporting 'Australian made' because I ran a campaign, last term, about supporting Australian made and buying Australian. But they made this point: 'If there are no workers available, how are we to have this happen and what are we to do?' They ended their email by saying, 'The youth of Australia need options in education for apprenticeships, and with many trades needing staff something needs to change.'

What I can now say to these two businesses and many others in my community, and many of the exhausted nurses who just say, 'We need more nurses in the system,' and many of the businesses that run retail and hospitality, is that you now have a government that genuinely understands that we need to plan for the workforces that we need now and into the future. We need to invest in the opportunities for our people to get those skills so that Australians can be skilled up for the jobs that exist now and into the future. We don't have to solely rely on temporary migration, like happened under the previous government.

In February of this year, before the federal election, 17 per cent of businesses reported that they didn't have enough employees, and the recruitment difficulty rate for higher skilled occupations was sitting at 67 per cent. Whilst we have high job vacancies and a low official employment rate in this country, those of us who are in touch with our communities know that there are a large cohort of people who aren't working and want to work but have either been unemployed for so long that they've left the labour market or find it so difficult—because they don't have the skills that are needed—to get the jobs that are available that they've left the labour market or are facing other barriers.

What these people need is a government that's willing to give them the assistance they need to get back into the labour market, to get the skills that they need. That's why this government is committed to TAFE, and to public TAFE. Today, on National TAFE Day, it is appropriate to emphasise, yet again, the important role that TAFE plays in education and skilling up Australians of all ages and from all backgrounds. But enough has not been done to support the TAFE system. In fact, it's been allowed to significantly erode. And the workforce of the TAFE system—the trainers and the teachers and the educators—have not been supported enough to be able to provide that great training and education.

Out of the Jobs and Skills Summit held last week, and the national cabinet meeting that was held immediately before it, we started a new era of Commonwealth and state cooperation on skills and training where TAFE is at the heart. There is a commitment to a billion dollars, co-funded, for the national skills agreement to deliver 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023. And that is a great start.

I come from the state of Victoria, where we have a state government that has also been providing fee-free TAFE places. Every time I visit Chisholm Institute in my electorate, which is a magnificent TAFE, I talk to students who tell me how their opportunities have been transformed because they've been able to enrol in a fee-free TAFE place, and they wouldn't have been able to study without it. There are young people studying to be enrolled nurses and older people who are already working in the aged-care system as carers studying to become enrolled nurses to increase their career opportunities. There are people studying to be social workers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation workers, carpenters, welders, plumbers or car mechanics, who have this opportunity because of fee-free TAFE. What Jobs and Skills Australia will do is make sure that these fee-free TAFE places provided by the federal and state governments are targeted towards skills shortage areas.

You have to have a government that is willing not just to make announcements but also to do the hard work in the background—the planning of how these announcements are best directed and best delivered. And that's why this legislation is part of a package and a commencement of a government that has a strategy to deal with the skills shortage in Australia. It is not just an ad hoc, one-off piece of legislation. We have commitments to ensure that at least 70 per cent of Commonwealth VET funding is for public TAFE; to establish a TAFE Technology Fund; to have a Future Made In Australia Skills Plan; and to have new energy apprenticeships.

It's so important to encourage Australians to train in the new energy jobs of the future. It's so important to provide additional support so they can complete their training. This government will provide $100 million to support 10,000 new energy apprenticeships through our New Energy Skills Program and to develop fit-for-purpose training pathways for new energy industry jobs. It will do so in the spirit that the Albanese Labor government wants to govern in: in partnership with the states and territories, industries and unions. We have a commitment and a plan to deliver a reduction in emissions of at least 43 per cent by 2030 and to do so by giving Australia the opportunity to become the renewable energy superpower that we know that we can and should be.

That commitment, again, feeds into a strategy to make sure Australians are skilled and able to take on the jobs of the future—the smart, well-paid, secure jobs that will come from the development of the renewable energy industry. They're the sorts of jobs that people in my community desperately want for themselves and for their children. It's why there is a sense of optimism and hope that the future will be better—that we will be able to provide a better future for our children—because we have a government that is committed to a strategy to make that happen. I commend this bill to the House.

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the first opportunity I've had to speak on a bill in this House. I'm learning new skills as well, so I'm fitting into the theme of the evening!

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations!

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. This bill, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, seeks to establish Jobs and Skills Australia to drive vocational education and training. As part of its legislation, the government is seeking to repeal the existing National Skills Commission and reconstitute its functions within this new Jobs and Skills Australia, to be an agency within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The bill establishes Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body within the department, which will provide advice and collect, analyse, share and publish data and other information on Australia's current and emerging market and its current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities. Currently, the NSC monitors, researches and analyses employment dynamics across different demographic groups, industries, occupations and regions. It considers how changes in the labour market will impact jobs and how these changes will impact the economy's education and skills needs.

As a constructive opposition, we will assess proposals on their merits, but, as I think one of the earlier speakers said, we will not be giving the government a blank cheque on this front. As a constructive opposition, we will assess proposals on their merits, but, as one of the earlier speakers said, we will not be giving the government a blank cheque on this front.

Whilst we accept that Jobs and Skills Australia will be established, we are sceptical of the new arrangements, given there is no clarity on how the organisation will be structured or on its full remit and responsibilities. The bill establishes the agency but not much more. This, as the member for Sturt said, seems to be more of a rebranding exercise than anything else at this point. Many locals within my community of the Redlands have talked to me about the challenges of the current skills shortage on their business. Unfortunately, we're reaching the point—we've well and truly reached the point, I'd say—where a lot of these businesses are giving up on trying to find new skilled workers to fulfil the duties that they have in their operations, and I think that's got very dire consequences for the future of Australia's economic growth. When you reach a point where businesses are deciding not to grow, because they can't find the workers, they've given up.

Whilst delivering better information, coordination and leadership of Australia's workforce and skills is definitely a noble aspiration, such a function is already being provided by the National Skills Commission, which was established, of course, by the former government back in 2020. It's unfortunate that the government has not been able to outline the full remit and scope of this agency within this bill. It's unclear how this agency will be much different from the current agency, the National Skills Commission.

I will touch on the skills shortage a bit in greater detail from my experience of my electorate and what my constituents are telling me in relation to this issue that this agency is seeking to address. In my electorate there are many great organisations that are tackling the task of skilling our workers. We've got the TAFE at Alexandra Hills. They do a fantastic job and are very highly in demand for young people and older people across my region. They were the recipients of a $1.2 million upgrade to their electroengineering facilities through the former government's Revitalising TAFE Campuses Across Australia program. That course is very popular at the Alex Hills TAFE, and the teachers there do a fantastic job.

Another one to mention is the Australian Industry Trade College at Redlands. They're on the move. They've got a brand-new campus and a new facility that's been constructed. They've only been around since 2016, with a year 10 cohort, but since then they've expanded. I'm advised they now educate approximately 200 young people in the Redlands from year 10 to year 12. They're expanding and growing. As I mentioned, they're going to new premises. They're doing a fantastic job. I will also do a little shout-out, if I can—

Thank you. I've received the member for Leichhardt's permission on that! I give a shout-out to other local private RTOs such as Redlands College, Carers Queensland, EDB Training Services at Capalaba, PCD Training, Horizons Foundation, Capalaba State College and Sheldon College, who do a great job as well with this tertiary training, on-site training solutions and coach-commanded training. It's unclear to me what rebranded bureaucrats in Canberra will do for local operators within my electorate. It's unclear to me what Jobs Skills Australia is intending to do, through the bill that we are debating tonight, to support frontline efforts with these local organisations.

We still don't really know where we are with the functions of this new agency, and I'm concerned, given the movements of the union movement at the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, about the role that the government intends for unions in the final formation of the JSA. I have seen in my home state of Queensland the impact that statutory authorities and statutory bodies have had under a Labor government which has stacked them with people from the union movement. I have seen the impact that that's had on business through the decisions and the operations of those entities. The government has told us the JSA will be cost neutral, because the existing funding for the NSC will cover the work of the JSA. The feedback that I've been getting in relation to the NSC is that it's performing its functions very well. It's unclear how the JSA will be different from the NSC, when it will receive the same amount of funding as well. That's another thing that the government has revealed in relation to this. I've also been advised that the minister expects the staff of the National Skills Commission to transfer over to the new body. So we've got the same level of funding, we've got the same staff and we've got a very similar remit, by my reading of it, and there isn't a great level of clarity as of yet.

The current government has inherited a skills and training sector that is quite healthy, despite the current shortages. In 2019 the coalition released the findings of the Joycereport, providing a framework to bring our skills sector forward into the modern world. For the first time in Australian history, apprenticeships surpassed 220,000, which was a stark contrast to the freefall that we saw under the former Labor government. We established the new apprenticeships incentives scheme, seeing many new apprentices through their studies and careers. That was very well received in the electorate of Bowman. The coalition government also established the National Skills Commission, of course, which is the body that this bill seeks to replace. In the last two years alone the coalition invested a total of $13 billion in skills. Where this money was spent, it was spent incredibly well.

We need to contrast that with the apprenticeships and traineeships record of the former Labor governments—the Rudd, Gillard and Rudd governments—when they last left office. The figures here show a fall of 22 per cent in training numbers between June 2012 and June 2013. That's 111,300 fewer people undertaking skills training. There is no silver bullet in relation to our current skills crisis, but, certainly, a massive disruption to supply like that is going to have an impact on our skills pipeline. This was a direct result of funding cuts under the Gillard government back in 2012. I've got to make sure I get the Prime Ministers right; I don't want to misapply blame. Our policy settings got apprenticeship numbers back up to record levels following these cuts.

For the first time in our history, as I mentioned, we've got 220,000 Australians taking up trade apprenticeships. This was all done, remarkably, during the whole COVID period. I know that the word 'disruption' was used a lot, but I can't think of a word that can better describe the impact that that pandemic had across our economy and on every facet of our society. Training, skills and education were certainly all impacted by that. I know a lot of my local institutions did very well to adapt their offerings to ensure that things kept moving and people weren't missing out on their training.

At the jobs summit the Prime Minister announced a total of 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. The Australian has accurately reported that two-thirds of these places already existed and will only be further subsidised. Another 15,000 are aged-care places that were announced under the former government's budget earlier this year, and the remaining 45,000 are new but were announced pre-election. So there's been a little bit more spin over substance in relation to that announcement. It's really hard to sink your teeth into anything within this legislation that's going to provide us with any comfort that there is some actual substance beyond the spin.

The Prime Minister is on the record saying that the funding will go only to public training providers, and that's a very concerning proposition for me and the private providers within my electorate. It leaves behind 70 to 80 per cent of students who undertake training in private RTOs. It leaves behind as much as 79 per cent of women who undertake training in these private institutions. I think the government should be taking an even-handed approach, an agnostic approach. The government should not be picking winners when it comes to training and skills development. The coalition are also extremely concerned if JSA has embedded a bias for any corner of the skills sector alone, and it's important to flag now that we want to see safeguards to prevent that and prevent unions from dominating JSA and turning it into an entity that supports only public providers.

As I said earlier, we do have concerns that this legislation is nothing more than a rebranding exercise. We want to make sure that there's more substance and less spin in relation to this. The coalition are intending on supporting this legislation based on the limited information that we've been provided with. The Liberal Party understand the importance of skills to the Australian economy. We understand how transformative skills and training are to the lives and livelihoods of Australians. Certainly that's the very strong feedback that I am getting from employers, providers and students when I make my way around the Redlands.

We desperately want the government to get this right. Employers in my electorate need the government to get this right. I know my side of the chamber here is keen to work with the government to ensure we get this right. But we will be keeping a watching brief on Jobs and Skills Australia, seeking to ensure that it is held to account for any inefficiencies with this implementation. I have said that we will not give the Prime Minister a blank cheque. I think that is a very important point that we have made. In closing, I'll note that we look forward to seeing further detail on the establishment of the JSA and we hope that it's more substance than spin.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support these bills, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 and the Jobs and Skills Australia (National Skills Commissioner Repeal) Bill 2022. On National TAFE Day, I want to thank the students, teachers and trainers in my electorate, particularly at places like Bundamba TAFE in the south-west. I was there last week talking to apprentices who were training as baristas, chefs, cooks, mechanics and hairdressers. I want to thank them for the work they do. It is so important in my local community.

Just listening to previous speakers from the coalition, it was almost like they had forgotten the captains of industry who have supported this legislation. ACCI, AiG, BCA and others have supported Jobs and Skills Australia. Listening to coalition speakers, there's just an extraordinary disconnect. It goes to show why they lost the last federal election and why they are out of office. The first bill here delivers one of Labor's key election commitments, establishing Jobs and Skills Australia. The second bill repeals the National Skills Commissioner Act 2020. The staff and resources of the previous commission will be transferred to Jobs and Skills Australia. The previous commission, the National Skills Commission, had an advisory function, but it lacked independence and any form of strategic approach that it's necessary that Labor's Jobs and Skills Australia will bring.

Jobs and Skills Australia will be a cornerstone of this government. This is one of the first pieces of legislation that this Labor government has brought into being. In fact, despite what coalition members have talked about this evening, there is a two-stage legislative process. If they bothered to read the bill and understand what it is about, they would see the first thing is about establishing Jobs and Skills Australia, giving it full remit and legislative governance arrangements. It will be informed by consultation with states and territories, grounded by our commitment to a tripartite model in dealing with state and territory governments, employers, unions, industry and other community organisations, particularly those in the training field. So this is really crucial. It's part of the suite of policies that this Labor government will bring, whether it's in areas like: the new skills program; the New Energy Apprenticeships, $100 million to support 10,000 new apprentices in our new energy areas; our TAFE Technology Fund; or our Australian Skills Guarantee, which is so critical, training thousands of workers—one in 10 on major Commonwealth government projects will be an apprentice, training or cadet. It's absolutely crucial that we do this. There are the fee-free TAFE places that we are bringing forward, arising out of the summit that took place just last week.

The economic challenges we as a country face are immense, brought on very much by nine years of neglect in this space. You can't cut $3 billion out of skills, TAFE and training and not expect there to be a consequence. There were 70,000 fewer apprenticeships and trainees at the conclusion of this coalition government's term in May this year than there were when we last lost office in 2013. The consequences of cuts and of not working with states and territory governments, industry, unions and TAFE is there for all to see. They told people who were so critical to industries like hospitality, retail, agriculture and the meat industry to just go home. That's what the Morrison government said during COVID. 'Just leave the country.'

We're seeing that in the greatest demographic shift since 1991 in this country. The latest ABS data shows clearly the consequence in terms of the demographic shift among states and territories—between regions and capital cities. We're seeing the consequence in industries. We need collaboration and cooperation in industry with various groups—workers, trainees, unions, training providers. That's what we need. It must be across portfolios and across ministries and at state and territory level as well.

The last week's Jobs and Skills Summit was absolutely critical to harnessing the energy, vitality, creativity and intelligence of the Australian community. This government is committed to ensuring full employment, productivity growth and better participation for women, for minority groups, for our First Nations people, for people living with disability and for vulnerable people in our community, to harness their strength and their capacities, and to make sure they're involved. It's not just an equity and justice issue; it's about our economic development and participation as we go forward. It's about reducing barriers to employment so that all can participate, and we saw the result with dozens of initiatives announced just last week. That included the additional $1 billion dollars for the joint federal and state funding for fee-free TAFE places and the acceleration of those places; assistance to pensioners and veteran pensioners to get age pensioners and veterans working more without the loss of their social security payments; the modernisation of workplace laws to improve bargaining and make them more accessible for workers and businesses in a cooperative, collaborative way; and amending the Fair Work Act to strengthen access to flexible work arrangements. We need to do all of these things. An increase in the migration program up to 195,000 places in 2022-23 will help ease widespread critical workforce shortages.

On 10 August we had our own Jobs and Skills Summit in Blair. It featured presentations from the Tivoli Social Enterprises, a community faith-based organisation operating out of the Ipswich suburb of Tivoli at the old drive-in. It's more than movies, as CEO Pastor Fred Muys says. The enterprise provides training through skilling Queenslanders for work in hospitality, conservation and land management, construction, business, youth work and more. This is a great initiative of the Labor government in Queensland. Tragically, even before a report into the program was initiated and delivered to the then Coalition government, Campbell Newman's LNP government scrapped the program. It had great adverse impact on people's apprenticeships and traineeships in Queensland. Fortunately, the Palaszczuk Labor government has brought it back, and it's been my privilege to attend a number of those graduations, where people, with hope in their hearts, can clutch a certificate and recognise the opportunities they gain with those certificates. But so many people, when I turn up to those programs, don't actually go to the graduation, because they're in employment because that program works. That's the kind of dynamic creativity we need in this country. We need people to learn on the job. This social enterprise—a drive-in and kitchen—is preparing food for customers and distributing up to 2½ thousand pre-cooked meals to needy families. This is not just in my electorate but also in the electorate of Wright, and elsewhere. It runs major events at various times.

It's also involved in eco land management and developing koala habitat, because, if we don't preserve our koala habitat soon, we'll be looking at koalas in museums. This was a site of relief during the recent floods. So you can see jobs and skills have a connection to land management, ecosystems, flood relief and a whole range of areas. You can't isolate jobs and skills and think that it has no impact on the economy, on community or on national development.

There is a meat-processing plant in my electorate, at Dinmore—the largest in the country: JBS Foods. The second largest is at Kilcoy Global Foods in the northern part of my electorate, in rural Somerset. JBS Northern Division's chief operating officer, Anthony Pratt, spoke at the jobs and skills summit at Brothers Leagues Club Ipswich. He talked about the fact that JBS's capacity is 823 workers short, and that's at Dinmore alone—this is the biggest meat-processing establishment in the country. It mirrors the issues that Kilcoy Global Foods, who I met with recently, have up there in getting skilled workers to work in the rural township of Kilcoy. They're relying very much on skilled workers from the Philippines and elsewhere, many of whom go on to become Australian citizens and make their homes in the Kilcoy and Somerset region.

Sadly, when the former government left office they left a massive backlog of unprocessed visa applications in skilled areas as well—at least four times as many as the former Labor government left in 2013. I want to acknowledge the minister, who is at the table there, in addressing this issue and getting things moving again. It's absolutely critical. Hundreds of extra frontline experienced public servants are dealing with this issue. This is all related, and this is the tragedy and the travesty of this former government. They sit over there in impotence and are not part of the conversation for dealing with jobs and skills in this country. They're just not. They have not listened to the words of ACCI, AiG, the BCA and many business organisations and employers—COSBOA as well. They've just ruled themselves out of this conversation.

Many issues were raised in the Blair jobs summit and these issues are absolutely crucial—for example, in the area of clean energy. James Sturges of eleXsys talked about the opportunities in the skills and training area for our local community. There are shortages across 51 different trades in the energy sector alone. But this is the mob over there who had 22 energy policies, and some of them didn't even last 12 hours! They couldn't even last until question time! James outlined some of the opportunities in clean energy and the relevant technology, and ways to reduce costs and to look at better jobs and skills in our local area. I'm committed to making sure we have community based renewable energy hubs, including a community battery based in Ipswich. Industrial hubs and estates could generate power and deliver cost savings across a number of businesses.

There are opportunities in the circular economy as well—for example, one of the interesting participants in the Blair jobs summit was Pastor Billy Dean from the Raceview Congregational Church. Through their Men's Shed, they're involved in the recycling of plastic. There are opportunities in that area for jobs and skills. He talked about what they do through their Men's Shed in creating a cleaner and better environment, and also in providing job opportunities in the recycling industry.

The interaction, shall I say, with housing is important also, and this is one of the things that came up that shows why this piece of jobs and skills legislation is so critical: it can't be divorced from it. The Housing Australia Future Fund, the $10 billion commitment that this Labor government will initiate, will be crucial for our First Nations people, for veterans, for essential workers, for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and for social housing alone. It's absolutely crucial. In our area we've seen a growing housing problem and a growing homelessness problem, and that was exacerbated by the floods. So the interaction between housing, jobs and skills can't be ignored.

We had evidence from employers at our local jobs and skills summit about the relationship between getting proper housing. In my area, the fastest-growing area in South-East Queensland, the Ipswich area, it's about getting proper and better housing so that we can get those apprentices and jobs in those areas. We heard evidence from employers, whether in the health industry, in the meat industry or in the defence industry, who had to go to motels for their staff because there wasn't enough construction of housing in our local area. There are opportunities for welders, for apprentices and for electricians and a whole range of areas, and these are the areas that I want Jobs and Skills Australia to look at. In my community we made a submission to the Jobs and Skills Summit, and I look forward to our local community also making a contribution to the white paper.

This legislation is absolutely critical, and I wish those opposite would read bills instead of talking points. Have a look at the bill. Have a look at what's there, in the bills, before you come into this place and talking nonsense with Liberal-National talking points. It's important you look at the bill. That's really, really critical in the circumstances.

I want to commend the Minister for Skills and Training for the bills before this chamber. It's a tragedy for our country that those opposite failed to work on jobs and skills. It's been left to a Labor government to take action. It's absolutely critical we do it for my local community, for South-East Queensland and for across the country. We need a government with vision and a government with commitment on jobs and skills, not a government that cuts apprenticeships and traineeships and cuts funding for TAFE.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was a very interesting and not so insightful presentation from the member for Blair, who seems to have a very interesting take on history. I'm sure we can have a greater chat about that at the gym, perhaps, tomorrow morning!

I am very fortunate in my life. I have worked as a carpenter. I've been to TAFE. I was educated at Holmesglen college of TAFE. I was an apprentice carpenter, I became a carpenter and I then became a builder. I then went back and did a law degree and practised as a barrister for 16 years. So I've walked both sides of the fence: I've been to university, and I've been a white-collar worker and a blue-collar worker. There's no doubt that a quality education has the ability to change people's lives. There's absolutely no doubt about that.

Since I was elected in 2016 I have made it my mission to make Fisher, on the Sunshine Coast, the place to be for education, employment and retirement. I want to ensure that the many young families who move to the Sunshine Coast can give their kids a good education on the coast, can get a good job on the coast and, ultimately, can retire on the coast. The last thing parents wants to see is their kids having to move away from home to get a better job or to get an education. The ability for a regional area, like mine on the Sunshine Coast, to provide good education and good quality jobs is so incredibly important.

It's really interesting to sit here and listen to those opposite talk about how the coalition government, purportedly, ran down skills and education. When the member for Maribyrnong was involved in skills and training, apprenticeships were at an all-time low under those opposite—those who now profess to be gurus who will change the world.

When I think of skills and education, I think of groups on the Sunshine Coast like STEPS employment group. I think of STEPS Pathways College, that connect people who live with disabilities. They can get better training and go on and lead independent lives. I think of Your Employment Solutions, another organisation on the Sunshine Coast that works with young people who live with disabilities. I think of the Sunshine Coast trade and training technical college that's attached to the Caloundra high school. This is a college that gives young people an opportunity to learn a trade while they're at school.

These school based apprenticeships are unbelievably fantastic. It gives young people an opportunity to learn a trade whilst they're at school. We talk so much about the importance of tertiary education. Yes, tertiary education can be important, but we must never forget the importance of trades. If we, as a nation, continue to run down trades, as we have done over the last—certainly in the last iteration of the Labor government, that tried to push everybody into university.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish! Complete bunkum!

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely correct! If we do that, then good luck trying to get your toilet fixed. Good luck trying to get a house built. Trades give young people an opportunity to learn invaluable skills that will take them anywhere in the world. If you do a trade in Australia, you will never, generally speaking, be without work. You can always find work. With an Australian trade qualification, you will be able to get work anywhere in the world because of the high quality and high esteem that that trade is held in around the world.

It is important, in my view, that we walk the talk in this place. At every opportunity I get I talk about the importance of trades and not necessarily making a career out of going to university. If you want to go to university, that's fine. That's great. We need lawyers, we need doctors; there's no suggestion about that. But we also need plasterers, we need plumbers, we need electricians, we need carpenters, we need hairdressers et cetera.

A couple of years ago, I started what I call my Ready, Set, Go bursary, which provides $1,000 to young people who are in a trade and who want a little bit of help. They want a little bit of help for tools or maybe a bit of help towards buying a ute, whatever it might be. I think of people who the bursary has supported, like Tom Loane and Morgan McCosker, who are both electrical apprentices, and Courtney Byron, who is an apprentice hairdresser. We in this place need to walk the talk, and we need to be supporting our young people into trades.

In relation to our work on skills and training when we were in government, those opposite will tell you all sorts of things about what we did and we didn't do, but these are the facts.

These are the facts, Member for Moreton, so just listen. We invested record funding into vocational education. The result was historically low unemployment and historically high employment participation—particularly for who, Member for Canning? For young people and women. You can't look at the scoreboard and say the maths is wrong.

We also saw a record number of apprentices and trainees. Through our $2 billion JobTrainer program, we supported over 300,000 students through subsidised vocational training. Through our Job-ready Graduates Package, we delivered reforms which make employability in the future economy the priority for higher education funding. Through the JobMaker Hiring Credit scheme, the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements and the Completing Apprenticeship Commencements program and our wage subsidy program, we were able to support hundreds of thousands of apprentices, trainees and employers to grow our skilled workforce.

I've still got plenty of mates who are in the building industry, and, let me tell you, they loved the subsidies that we introduced for training apprentices. We understood that many in the workforce were working without formal qualifications, some for many years. That's why in 2015 the federal government, our federal government, the coalition government, changed the Standards for Registered Training Organisations to require all nationally accredited providers to offer recognition of prior learning. Essentially, if you can demonstrate that you have the work experience and informal training equivalent to the skills or competencies in the qualification, the RTO will provide you with a pathway to obtaining a formal qualification. We handed the Labor government a world-class vocational skills and training system which had recovered from years of Labor meddling and neglect and which wasn't just growing but powering ahead in a strong job market and national economy.

As my colleagues on this side of the House have outlined time and time again, we want to be a constructive opposition—don't we, Member for Canning? We want to be at constructive opposition. We want to work with government to deliver better outcomes for Australians. We want to deliver better outcomes for Australian families and their businesses. Now, sometimes, we're going to agree with the government, and sometimes we're not. We will hold the government to account all the time; in this spirit of wanting to be a constructive opposition, it is important that we hold the government to account—that we hold them to account for their promises and we hold them to account for their inactions.

Over 100 days have passed since this government took office. Now, 100 days in the broader scheme of things is not a long time, but this government, the Labor government, needs to start putting some runs on the board. They made Jobs and Skills Australia the cornerstone of their election commitments, and yet, to date, we have no idea what this agency will actually do. We have no information about how it will do what it will do, and we have no information about how it will help do whatever it will do. Is this just a rebranding exercise, or is it a complete dismantling of the system which stood us in good stead over the last nine years? These questions are unanswered, the voices unheard and the concerns unaddressed. What we need to be careful of is that they do not stop this sector in its tracks. The National Skills Commission already does the job of researching, reporting, coordinating and leading efforts to inform and improve Australia's skilled workforce and training agenda.

There is no doubt, as I speak to businesses, that all of us would share that this country is having a skills crisis. There is no doubt about that. Predominantly the reason for that would be COVID. COVID has turned our skills training and the way we work upside down, but that is no reason why we should sit back and say, 'Well, that's COVID; so be it.' It is vitally important for our young people, vitally important for our economy that we encourage people back into skilled labour, back into work. Our unemployment rate is so incredibly low at the moment, but we do need to be encouraging those who have taken part in the great resignation. We talk about the great resignation in the US. Well, I think that's also happened here.

I can't let the moment pass without talking about Labor's Jobs and Skills Summit. This summit, the foundation of Labor's pledge to reform the skilled workforce—well, we all know it turned out to be a bit of a fizzer.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You don't; you weren't there. You boycotted it. You called yourself irrelevant!

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's reminiscent of Labor's Australia 2020 Summit that it held in 2008: a lot of hype, a lot of talk, a lot of waxing lyrical by the Labor movement and the big end of town. The member for Moreton was probably in there getting his photo taken for five minutes and then back out again. We know what some members of the Labor Party were doing at that summit!

I note with some disappointment that there weren't many local service providers invited. In fact, I wrote to the Treasurer and I put forward STEPS Group Australia and Your Employment Solutions, two great businesses in my electorate. I wrote to the Treasurer and I said, 'If you want two small local businesses that do great work in the disability sector, you should have these guys at the table.' There was no response. If they were a union, they'd quite likely have been there. The summit was a summit of unions. The summit did not take into account the many great contributions that private service training providers like STEPS and Your Employment Solutions provide.

I want to finish by saying that, on this side of the House, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that Australians continue to receive good quality skills and training. That's what we have done over the last nine years and we will hold this government to account to do the same.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022, which comes hand-in-hand with the very successful Jobs and Skills Summit, which has been widely acknowledged as being a great meeting and opportunity place. This bill delivers on our commitment to establish Jobs and Skills Australia as a national partnership to drive VET education and strengthen workforce planning by working together with employers, unions and the training and education sector—the three cogs. Jobs and Skills Australia will provide advice on the skills and training needs of workers and employers now and in the future. The body under consideration, set up by this current bill, is intended to be an interim one, as I am sure the previous speaker might have known had he'd looked at the legislation. Thankfully he was able to veer close to it, but he managed to miss it. This interim organisation will only exist until a permanent model for the Jobs and Skills Australia can be established. This bill is a priority because we now know how critical the skills and labour shortages have become in many sectors of the economy.

As I'm sure all MPs have done, I've spoken to many employers in Moreton who are desperate for employees because they can't fill the skills shortages that they need to, especially in manufacturing. Every local manufacturer or business that I've met with has outlined the difficulties they're facing in finding new employees. Jeff and Ben Samuels from QMW, in Acacia Ridge, are acknowledged worldwide for their mining expertise, for their manufacturing and innovation, but, sadly, Jeff and Ben can't find apprentices to employ and train. Just down the road at Hi-Tech Tooling, also in Acacia Ridge, the demand for pharmaceutical and food production has nearly completely taken over from their traditional plastics markets for high-tech tooling, but Richard can't find experienced toolmakers and is very keen to take on more apprentices. Toolmaking is a very unique skill in Australia.

Employers tell me that they're willing to train new employees. This will take time and effort, and it's a huge investment, but they're struggling to find people to employ and train. When they can't find employees locally, some of the businesses try to source skilled workers from overseas, which, in itself, presents challenges due to the significant visa processing wait times—which I note the minister for immigration and citizenship is working to address. Deputy Speaker, I am sure, like all Australians, you're horrified to hear about that figure of one million unprocessed visas. What is very clear is that, after nearly 10 years of inaction, those 10 wasted years of a coalition government, it's crucial that we get a better understanding of the skills we need now and that we'll need in the future to drive a national skills policy.

This new body, the interim body, will replace the National Skills Commission, which was launched by the former coalition government back in mid-2020. Departmental staff supporting the National Skills Commission will be redeployed to Jobs and Skills Australia. Funding for the National Skills Commission will be transferred to Jobs and Skills Australia. The repeal of the National Skills Commissioner Act 2020 and the transfer of its staff and funding will pave the way for Jobs and Skills Australia to step into that national leadership role for the workforce, the labour market and skills advice.

Jobs and Skills Australia will be responsible for providing advice to government on our current, emerging and future labour market and workforce skills and training needs to improve employment opportunities and economic growth. This new body will have a wider remit to work in partnership with key stakeholders compared with the commission and will have a more strategic focus, because this is what Australia needs right now.

This bill presents the opportunity to ensure that the challenges of improving workforce productivity are approached in a considered way so that skills shortages can be addressed and wages increased sustainably. Jobs and Skills Australia will also provide a platform to make sure that expenditure on skills training delivers the outcomes required to support a growing economy. This is because Australia's skills funding framework is a confusing mix of direct and indirect investment from governments by way of employer payments, employee wage subsidies, student funding programs and student loan programs. This will not only ease confusion for employees and students but also ensure that taxpayer funds can be used efficiently and to the greatest effect.

Jobs and Skills Australia will also work closely with state and territory governments as well as industry, employers, unions and training providers to ensure a shared understanding of the key issues facing Australia's labour market. It will also examine the adequacy of the VET system in delivering these skills and making sure training and job opportunities are available to all Australians regardless of their background.

The advice of Jobs and Skills Australia will help ensure that the economy is not held back by these shortages. It will help guide a skills and training sector that will provide workers with choices and opportunities for secure employment because they have the right skills. It will mean that, in the future, local employers in my electorate, like QMW and Hi-Tech in Acacia Ridge, will not be held back by those skilled worker shortages. Jobs and Skills Australia will undertake the workforce forecasting, prepare capacity studies for new and emerging industries, and contribute to the planning for a pipeline of skilled workers.

The pandemic brought about and emphasised the shortage of skills and workers, especially with reduced skilled migration and that lack of support for temporary migrants workers during the COVID lockdowns. We all remember the former government telling those on temporary visas to 'go home' and the horrible damage that that did to our reputation in this part of the world. This shortage in skills and workers has highlighted how the absence of planning and the lack of a coordinated national response to skills and labour shortages over the last 10 years has contributed to the crisis facing some sectors. The Labor government aims to address this, as our Jobs and Skills Summit has demonstrated.

Many of the vital industries that rely on VET graduates are facing workforce shortages made worse by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reduction in skilled migration. My local TAFE—SkillsTech at the Acacia Ridge campus—have for decades provided a trained workforce for local industry. They train painters, mechanics, truck mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, tilers, hairdressers, plumbers, cooks, plasterers—and that's just the half of it. While their student numbers are increasing right now, even they have talked to me about the difficulty they have had in finding new apprentices and new students. The additional fee-free TAFE places announced last week will hopefully go a long way to incentivise new students to take up a course at TAFE.

Many Moreton residents are familiar with the skills and workforce shortages in critical areas such as aged care, disability care and child care. It is very obvious that urgent action is needed to address these skills shortages and to match participation and training with the types of skills that are in demand right now and those that will be in demand in the future.

Jobs and Skills Australia's advice to government will help inform policies and programs to ensure that Australia's training system delivers the skills and workers that industry needs. This will all be informed by stakeholder consultation, because, while there is urgent action required to address the skills shortages, action will require the best evidence and close collaboration across governments, industries and unions to make a significant difference.

We need to start as soon as possible. They'll do that capacity study and, once this legislation is passed and Jobs and Skills Australia is created, fund that $1.9 million for the additional resourcing required. It will undertake a transitions analysis and will inform further development of any training products, career pathways and other activities to best prepare us for the future.

Our government will do what we can to make sure that the White paper on full employment will be released next year so that we can prepare society for good jobs. It's in our DNA as a government to support the aspirations of all workers to find secure and meaningful work. We are the Labor party, it's in our DNA and I commend this legislation to the House.