Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. How is the Albanese Labor government working with states and territories, in particular Western Australia, to ensure we're addressing the skills shortage that the government has inherited?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Swan for her question and her interest in the VET sector in her electorate and beyond in her great state of Western Australia. Can I say, as members know, that when we were elected we inherited not only a trillion dollars in public debt; we inherited a massive skills deficit across the economy. For that reason the Prime Minister called a Jobs and Skills Summit. From that summit we had an announcement of 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, which is providing certainty for the VET sector to provide the courses that students and existing workers need to fill the skills gaps in sectors and occupations across the economy. Of course, the National Skills Commission's last report—and this does explain, I think, the scale and breadth of the problem—showed that there'd been almost a doubling of occupations on the shortage list in 12 months, from 153 to 286 occupations, which really does explain how important it is for us to get this right. The other metric that I think is important and relevant to the House is to look at the completed trade apprenticeships. In 2012 it was 57,000. In 2021, 20,000 fewer completed trade apprenticeships in the VET sector, which really means that we need reform in the VET sector, as well as supplying the investment to provide the courses for the skills that are needed in our economy.

I'm very happy to announce today the Minister for Education and Training, Minister Ellery, and I signed an agreement between the Commonwealth and Western Australia for that great state. It now has an extra 18,800 places in areas of shortage. That's right; we've got thousands more in aged care, agriculture, construction, hospitality, tourism and all those areas in the economy that are crying out for skills—a very important announcement by the Commonwealth and Western Australia. It really does speak to the need for us to work very closely with state and territory governments. When we came to office there was no national skills agreement in place between the previous government and any state or territory government. Not one government had signed up to a national skills agreement. We're getting on with the job. This is the third jurisdiction that has signed up. Many more agreements will be made prior to the end of this year. We are getting on with the job of supplying the skills in the labour market to employers that are desperate for those skills in this economy, and we'll keep doing that until we get it right. (Time expired)