Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. In late 2022 the Albanese government established Jobs and Skills Australia, a statutory body with the task of advising government on matters relating to employment, training, workforce pressures and the jobs of the future. For too long, we've had a skills crisis in this country. We've got the second-highest labour supply shortage across all OECD countries, and that's simply not good enough. Across the 20 most in-demand occupations, seven are facing workforce shortages, primarily driven by a lack of people holding the necessary skills to perform the role. More and more we're relying on vocational training for the jobs of the future, while fewer students are opting to pursue those pathways. Employers are struggling to fill positions, with 65 per cent of employers looking for staff and reporting recruitment difficulty in December 2022. This is worse in the construction sector, which reported a shocking 80 per cent recruitment difficulty. Rates of job advertisements are increasing, and yet it's more challenging than ever to find the right person for the right job.

This skills crisis was born out of the inaction and incompetence of those opposite. For 10 long years, they failed to act when the problem was right under their noses all along. They didn't do anything to alleviate the skills crisis in this country. They were too busy with the internal machinations of their own party room. They were too preoccupied with keeping their own jobs to stop and pay attention to what was happening to Australians' jobs. This mess was created by them, and, as is always the case, it takes a good Labor government to clean it up.

Despite all of this we're already starting to make inroads, with the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey published earlier this year showing that the rate of reported recruiting difficulty is already 11 per cent lower than the record high of 75 per cent in July 2022. Sector-specific workforce planning will be the bread and butter of Jobs and Skills Australia, helping us to dig our way out of this Liberal skills crisis. We wasted no time in holding the Jobs and Skills Summit last year, bringing together unions, business, academia and the broader community to put forward initiatives to help build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce. The summit looked at mechanisms to boost wages, drive productivity, grow our economy and deliver more opportunities for those who have been traditionally disadvantaged in our workplaces. Types of disadvantage can take many forms, but it is indisputable that women, people aged over 55, people living with a disability, young people, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians are among the most unfairly impacted when it comes to the jobs market. We're changing that.

In bringing together some of the brightest minds in the country for this summit, we were saying to the Australian people that we hear you and we're working nonstop to deliver for you. Last year, the member for Lalor and I hosted the Outer Western Melbourne Jobs and Skills Summit to hear directly from locals across our region about the shared vision for a more prosperous future for local families. We discussed the need for more access to vocational and tertiary pathways for local kids, bringing more local jobs to our communities and so much more. The valuable insights gathered at the Outer Western Melbourne Jobs and Skills Summit were fed straight back to the government here in Canberra, and to the Jobs and Skills Summit. In Hawke, we're home to a thriving, diverse and rapidly growing electorate. The centre of the electorate is an area covered by Melton City Council and is expanding exponentially. Each week we welcome over 57 families, and there are over 60 babies born. Melton is on track to have a larger population than Canberra by 2050. Our people hail from all over the world, and we all chose to call our towns and suburbs home because of the wonderful opportunities that we have access to. It's a great place to raise a family.

But too many are doing it tough. We have a local workforce that is willing to fill the gaps and ready to grow our local economy through commercial investment in warehousing, construction, transport, health care and so much more—the opportunities are endless. We're soon going to welcome some large projects on our doorstep, and my community stands at the ready to play their role in making sure that that work gets done. But our community, particularly the more regional western fringes, as well as the peri-urban centres of Melton and Sunbury, are facing extreme skills shortages across key workforce areas, most notably in our health workforce. GP clinics are struggling for lack of staff. We need to find collaborative ways to deal with this issue. I'm hearing this from locals constantly. It's an issue I have a laser-like focus on, and I will continue to raise it in every possible forum. Last night's announcement by the Treasurer of the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive is a huge step towards better health care for our community.

Like the people in my electorate, I've held a range of jobs that have all shaped me in different ways. When I first left school, I was a labourer in a factory. I've worked in child care, I've washed dishes and I've answered the phone at a call centre. These formative experiences showed me the value of a hard day's work. This is what has driven me to come to this place to stand up for Australian jobs and Australian workers. Indeed, families in my electorate hold the shared ambition of making the lives of their kids and grandkids better, giving them a good education and providing them with more opportunities than ever before. This government shares their motivation to reach for a better future. That's what this bill is all about.

We're getting on with the job of making Jobs and Skills Australia a match-fit organisation ready to face the challenges Australians encounter every day. This bill will ensure that Jobs and Skills Australia has an economy-wide perspective, focusing on the core themes that will define the coming decades in terms of our future workforce—vocational training, in-demand jobs of the future, making sure migration is meeting our skills needs and boosting our higher education sector. Through this bill we're delivering on a key election commitment—to establish Jobs and Skills Australia to provide impartial advice on workforce trends as well as to work hand-in-hand with business, the states and territories, unions, education providers and regional stakeholders to better understand and coordinate a national approach to these issues.

To start to deal with the issues we're facing, this bill proposes some key functions for Jobs and Skills Australia to take on, including: identification of labour market imbalances; an analysis of the role played by the demand and supply of skills; building an evidence base of the impact of various workplace arrangements, including insecure work, on economic and social outcomes; analysing workforce and skills needs to support decision-making in relation to Australia's migration program and regional, rural and remote Australia; undertaking studies, including opportunities to improve employment, VET and higher education outcomes for cohorts of individuals that have historically experienced labour market disadvantage and exclusion, such as women, people over 55, people with disability, youth, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians; and to contribute to industry consultation forums, moving forward. These functions, when implemented, will enable Jobs and Skills Australia to undertake its full range of its core business and governance arrangements that it is designed to fulfil.

Enshrined in this bill is a requirement for a statutory review of the functioning of Jobs and Skills Australia within 24 months. It's important we undertake this review to ensure it is operating in the way it is set out to. We are embedding a commitment to tripartite governance, with a new commissioner supported by deputy commissioners and a tripartite ministerial advisory board. The government, alongside Jobs and Skills Australia, will hear directly from the tripartite partners about the issues facing specific industries, to inform the best possible decision-making. These insights will be invaluable as we work to fix skill shortages across our country.

The commissioner will be appointed in a long-term, permanent capacity through a merit based selection process, to make sure we find the best person to lead this organisation. Further to this, the ministerial advisory board will consist of independent experts with lived experience and the skills required to get this important job done. They will hail from backgrounds in tertiary education, industrial relations and union experience, including people with a regional and rural focus and individuals representing those in the priority focus groups, to make sure we have the full picture, with honest and frank advice being delivered to a government who will be listening.

When Jobs and Skills Australia was formed under interim arrangements late last year, it didn't wait to start the hard work it had been tasked with. It has already commenced a clean energy capacity study as well as a national audit on adult foundational skills. These pieces of work will be essential in enhancing the government's understanding of the critical capacity shortfalls in these areas, providing data driven outcomes that can be acted upon. The enhanced functions introduced in this bill mean that they'll be able to analyse workforce needs, building an evidence base to measure the impact of workplace agreements and the trends that need to be planned for now to ensure we make the most of emerging fields into the future. This bill fits into a broader narrative—a broader piece of work—that this government is undertaking to promote jobs and skills in our country.

In the October budget we committed $6.3 billion for VET in the 2022-23 financial year. Through this we funded 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational places in 2023, setting us up for generations to come. Over the next five years we'll grow this to 480,000 fee-free TAFE spots. We're establishing a TAFE Technology Fund to modernise our institutions and facilities. Not only that, we're providing $2.3 billion to the states and territories to help them run their skills and training system in the 2022-23 financial year. This government is working towards a new five-year national skills agreement with the states and territories, aligning with the vision and guiding principles set by the skills ministers and agreed to at National Cabinet.

Without wasting a moment since coming to government, we also passed the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 late last year. After a decade of deliberate wage suppression as a design feature imposed by an out-of-touch government, we're finally seeing pay rises for Australian workers—long overdue pay rises that are sorely needed in today's economic climate. We proudly backed in a 5.2 per cent wage rise for minimum wage workers—something that the Fair Work Commission delivered last year and a measure that those opposite fought tooth and nail against. It doesn't stop there. We're achieving fairer wages by modernising our workplace relations system and improving the bargaining system, delivering better productivity and flexibility for employers, as well as improving pay and conditions for Australian workers.

To counter these achievements, in the dying days of the Morrison government, they were too busy appointing their Liberal mates to lush government paid positions. While those opposite are more concerned with jobs for their mates, we're embracing jobs for Australian workers. We're saying that, if you're an employer in Australia, we want to make it easier for you to find the right people. We want to make it easier for working families across our communities to make a living, to live comfortably and to create a better life for their kids and grandkids.

I commend Minister O'Connor for his dedicated work in bringing this bill to this place. I look forward to working closely with him well into the future as we address the skills and training needs of my electorate and my community in Hawke. We've got a great opportunity to enhance the offering for locals across our shared geography, and I'm excited to see what the future holds. The measures being implemented by this government have already started to make it easier for employers. We saw that in March when around 27 per cent of surveyed employers expected to increase their staffing levels within the coming three months. There's been a strong increase in full-time employment and strong improvements to unemployment rates. The skills gap in this country remains a pressing issue—one that we're well on the way to addressing and one that we have an indomitable focus on. While the work being done is conducted with a long-term vision in mind, we're seeing short-term benefits right now in our jobs market—a credit to those who are leading the way.

This bill will legislate significant changes to Jobs and Skills Australia that will improve the lives of working Australians and better enable the Albanese Labor government to continue to deliver for the men and women that rely on Labor governments across our country.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023, the second tranche of legislation related to Jobs and Skills Australia. As a coalition we've been constructive when it comes to Jobs and Skills Australia and supported its establishing legislation. But ongoing support is not guaranteed and, as an opposition, we will not write a blank cheque when it comes to creating taxpayer funded board roles that are set aside for union representatives.

This bill seeks to finalise governance arrangements for the agency, which sits within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Jobs and Skills Australia will be charged with identifying skill needs across the economy and developing policy responses to build Australia's workforce. It will play a key role in advising Australia's migration program, as well as providing advice about how to reform our skills and education systems. This is really important work.

Workforce shortages and skill gaps are critical issues in my electorate. Hospitals are struggling for doctors, nurses and allied health staff; aged-care homes are unable to recruit the workers they need; industry is desperate for workers; agriculture is having trouble recruiting; and schools are struggling to put teachers in front of every class. The list goes on, and we need solutions. For many sectors, sourcing workers from overseas is the short-term solution but it remains problematic. My predecessor, the former member for Nicholls Damian Drum, fought very hard to establish a Goulburn Valley Designated Area Migration Agreement—a DAMA. A DAMA is an agreement between the Australian government and a designated area that enables businesses to address specific labour shortages within that area. DAMAs ensure that employers recruit Australian citizens and permanent residents as a first priority, but then recruit overseas workers to fill gaps where needed.

The GV DAMA, one of only 12 in Australia, includes the local government areas of Greater Shepparton, Moira Shire and Campaspe Shire. It commenced with a moderate 56 eligible occupations to address acute labour shortages, and it can endorse up to 200 additional occupations per year over the five-year term of the agreement. It has been requested that an additional 115 occupations be included in the Goulburn Valley DAMA table of approved occupations following a review at the end of year 1. These were submitted last October but are still pending approval, and this has left many businesses in limbo. What should be a streamlined process to meet urgent need has proved to be anything but and, of the 50 occupations endorsed, only six visa applications have been approved since April 2022. DAMA applications applied for by employers were being approved in three weeks but are now taking three months, and the visas are taking another four months. It's frustrating that a scheme designed to address critical workforce shortages in my electorate has become bogged down in bureaucracy.

Our migration system does need reform, and the Minister for Home Affairs has detailed in recent weeks the challenges of reforming our migration system to make it fit for purpose. I appreciate that it's complex and cumbersome, and I acknowledge that there seems to be some genuine intent to reform the system. One of the first actions of the government in response to the independent review of the migration system led by Dr Martin Parkinson, is to increase the temporary skilled migration income threshold from $53,900 to $70,000 annually from 1 July. Of the 50 occupations endorsed under the GV DAMA only six had remuneration of over $70,000, so we will end up with workers recruited from overseas being paid more than their Australian colleagues. The unions would argue that what we need to do is increase everyone's pay, but they're not the ones who have to run businesses or be concerned with profitability. They will, however have a big say in the running of Jobs and Skills Australia.

This bill establishes the ministerial advisory board of the Jobs and Skills Australia agency, mandating the following: a chair; two members representing the interests of states and territories; three members representing the employee organisations, which you can bet your bottom dollar will be union officials; and three members representing employer organisations—and there can be up to four additional members. The bill also widens the remit of Jobs and Skills Australia to include the impact of workplace arrangements. It's another board stacked with the government's union mates.

The opposition wants to remove the mandating of three members of employee organisations, or unions, on the ministerial advisory board of Jobs and Skills Australia and instead mandate the inclusion of a small business representative and two rural, regional and remote representatives. The ministerial advisory board should also have representation from each state territory. This is a much more balanced and sensible approach and, under these arrangements, the government would still be able to appoint officials from unions as general members of the board but they would not have positions earmarked for them. Labor have said that they would end the jobs-for-mates culture, yet here they are trying to legislate jobs for their mates and their paymasters. This is important work and it shouldn't be clouded by the government attempting to do favours for their mates in the union movement.

One business that has achieved some outcomes under the GV DAMA is PJ's Concrete Pumping in Shepparton. I see the trucks, with very happy workers on board, rolling past my electorate office all the time. Peter Don, the director of PJ's, is also happy. He said:

GV DAMA has provided us with a new pathway to appease labour shortages and meet the demands of our industry. Not only does it provide benefits for our business, but it allows our regional community to realise its true economic potential.

As we know, you can't realise your true economic potential without staff.

It's not only migration; it's long-term solutions. It is my experience that long-term solutions are best when they are developed in the regions by the regions and government works with them to make them happen. One example—and this is yet to be funded, unfortunately—is the Goulburn Valley clinical health school. This is a partnership between Goulburn Valley Health, the hospital that is predominantly in the Greater Shepparton area in my electorate, and La Trobe University. It deserves the support of this government.

We need so many more nurses, midwives and allied health staff than the region can attract or recruit from overseas. The clinical health school is designed to train our workforce in the region where they will stay and work. It follows on from a great initiative of the previous coalition government—the University of Melbourne's school of rural health cooperating with the La Trobe University to offer an undergraduate biomedicine degree. This means that a young person from the region—they might not want to go to Melbourne to study, they might not be able to go to Melbourne to study or they might not be able to afford to go to Melbourne to study—can do a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in the region at La Trobe University and then move to a postgraduate degree, which is called the Doctor of Medicine, offered at the school of rural health in Shepparton. This is an end-to-end medical degree. We're going to have the first of these young graduates coming out at the end of 2025. At this stage there will be 40 new doctors in regional areas. These regional kids going to regional universities are going to fill that critical gap or shortage of health professionals in the region.

It's a great initiative. It is a commonsense approach to the jobs and skills shortage. It came from people in the regions coming up with ideas and working together with government to deliver them. That's why it's so important that we have regional and rural representatives on this Jobs and Skills Australia board. We need more solutions like that that are going to deliver outcomes and not just do reviews and, frankly, become a bit of a talkfest. The regions should have an opportunity to solve their own problems and to implement their own solutions.

We don't have ag visas to provide workers for the agriculture sector. It was a coalition initiative that Labor opposed, so we're not going to get anything like an ag visa. The agriculture industry is very disappointed about that. I urge those opposite to come up with something. If you want to call it something different—not 'ag visa', because that was too aligned with us—go for your life, but come up with something that delivers workers for regions that are growing the food that all Australians eat.

I note that there's the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme—and it's important—and that there's some extra money in the budget for PALM, which is a good thing, but that doesn't suit every agricultural industry. An example is the dairy industry. I was in Picola recently. Picola is a beautiful little community near a place called Nathalia up towards the Murray River in my electorate. I was there to talk to the young Filipino people who are working on a pathway to permanent residency. I talked to them about the dairy industry. One guy told me it's his dream job. Not only is it his dream job but his family are living in Nathalia and are all employed and the kids are going to school. It's that great story of migration to regional areas that we all know so well.

Jobs and Skills Australia needs input from regional and rural areas to make these good decisions and to listen to people in the regions about what works in the regions and not have it dictated by union officials, quite frankly, or Canberra bureaucrats. Now that the PALM scheme exists but the ag visa has gone, the dairy industry must navigate the 482 temporary skills shortage visa and the DAMA for Nicholls. And both currently have shortcomings that need to be addressed.

So we need a longer-term plan. We have a huge shortage of skilled and semiskilled workers in the regions as well as the cities. It is important, for all those reasons I have outlined, that regional voices are part of the new ministerial advisory board of Jobs and Skills Australia. There are great ideas out there in the regions about how to solve regional issues. If we ensure that those regional voices are at the table, we will have a much better chance of getting the outcome that we all want, which is a thriving and profitable regional sector.

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

I am pleased to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. Since we formed government, we've really hit the ground running because we're aware of the skills gaps facing us. Certainly during my last nine years as a federal MP, I've seen clearly huge gaps in the agricultural sector, in hospitality and in tourism across my area. All the data—and real-life, real-world experience—show that we're better able to match those areas of skills shortages with the people that need to hit those areas. But really we need some independent, merit based and evidence based information and data to actually find where the gaps are and match the people to those gaps, and that's what Jobs and Skills Australia is all about. We're working to ensure that industry has a stronger and more strategic voice and a broader role in how our VET system delivers better outcomes.

Previous coalition governments at a state level really just gutted and destroyed TAFE. The Campbell Newman government in Queensland, when it was in power for three tumultuous and tempestuous years, just gutted TAFE. They did everything they possibly could: they privatised and outsourced—they did everything they could. I met multiple people who were TAFE teachers who lost jobs during that period of time. And I saw the disinvestment in my area in terms of TAFE. We want to make sure that TAFE is back as a centrepiece of the training for skills and jobs in this country. It's so important.

This bill establishes permanent functions and governance arrangements for Jobs and Skills Australia, as the Albanese Labor government continues to tackle the national skills crisis and to deliver on the commitment to collaborate and seek wideranging advice from tripartite partners. The legislation establishes a tripartite ministerial advisory board.

Now, I listened to those opposite again and again just railing against trade unions as if people who work in and for trade unions—workers' representatives, who've often come from the shop floor but sometimes from universities, from different life experiences, to represent workers as delegates and shop stewards, union officials and organisers—ought to be demonised. The previous speaker was just attacking trade unions as if somehow they don't play an important role in society. Unions play a very important role in society. Those opposite are very happy to stack boards and tribunals or whatever they like with their mates. Yet, when it comes to trade unions actually representing workers on the ground, they rail against that, as if we are somehow doing the most horrendous and evil thing. The venom drips from their lips when they talk about it—it's just astonishing. They need to get over it and realise that these are good, hardworking Australians who represent their members' interests to the best of their ability in their workplaces, whether they're teachers or nurses or those working on construction sites or in the mining sector or the public service. It's just astonishing, the degree of venom that those opposite have for union representatives.

What is happening in this advisory board is that there are going to be up to four representatives from an employer background—including, of course, somebody from the small business sector. I come from that sort of sector; when I was a practising lawyer, it was a business that had dozens of employees. It was so important to maintain a viable and profitable business. There are 2.5 million small and medium-sized businesses—family businesses—and they cover about 97 per cent of the total number of businesses in the country. In my area, a regional and rural area, it's so important to get viable businesses in these country towns like Lowood, Esk, Rosewood, Toogoolawah, Kilcoy and places like that; it's really important.

There will be representatives on this advisory board, and those opposite should get over it. There will be four representatives from workers organisations. Those opposite should realise that it's important. Most people in the business community work constructively with their employees in the workplace, whether they're represented by a local organisation or indeed a trade union. They should realise that that's what employers do—they work together with employees to make sure the business is as profitable and productive as it possibly can be.

Getting advice from the board will be important to ensure that Jobs and Skills Australia's guidance to government on current and emerging workforce needs is informed by a wide range of views, insight and expertise. That's absolutely crucial. The bill legislates a requirement for the JSA to consult with the ministerial advisory board in the development of its work plan. Why shouldn't employer and employee representatives be a part of that process? This will ensure that JSA consults widely with stakeholders to address workforce shortages to help build long-term capacity in priority sectors.

That includes, by the way, representatives from regional and remote areas on the advisory board. It's really important. Australia is a very urbanised, concentrated country, but it's important not to forget people who live in the outback, in the bush and other places like that. People who live in regional areas often feel significantly disadvantaged, more so if they're living in remote communities, often First Nations communities.

It's important to look at priority sectors and the capacity in those sectors. The lack of skilled workers is one of the greatest economic challenges facing Australia, and JSA will play a critical role in addressing our current and emerging workforce, skills and training needs. A permanently established JSA will develop a work plan to help the government improve skill development, employment opportunities and economic growth. The Albanese government has consulted broadly on the permanent model of JSA and will conduct labour market analysis to ensure we respond to existing and emerging skill demand by investing in appropriate education and training. That's what we need. We need dollars and cents in training going to the areas where there are shortages to address those shortages, as I said at the beginning of this speech.

According to the OECD, Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortage. If we're going to be a productive nation, if we're going to thrive, we're not going to thrive by bringing down wages; we're going to thrive by upskilling our people. It's about the skills, talents, creativity and innovation of our people to develop products and services that the public overseas want. That's the way we're going to develop our country. That's the way we need to do it.

The JSA will take an economy-wide perspective in identifying where skill shortages exist and project where they're likely to be in the future. New proposed functions include providing advice on demand and availability of workers in particular industries and occupations; focusing to a greater extent on regional, remote and rural communities; and supporting decision-making in relation to our migration program. For a long time, about two-thirds of our migration program has been skilled migration, and we need that. You only have to go to an aged-care facility or a hospital or see who's working in the disability sector and in home care. You can see that we're getting so many people coming into our health, aged-care and primary care systems, particularly in GP practices. You can see that everywhere. So migration is absolutely crucial.

The JSA is going to conduct studies to look at how we improve employment, VET and other higher education outcomes and make sure that we don't exclude people and we address issues of labour market disadvantage and exclusion. It's important that we build on that evidence base to look at economic and social outcomes and work closely with industry in a consultative forum such as the Jobs and Skills Councils to strengthen the national evidence base. It's important that we do it empirically. Not only will JSA respond to the current skill crisis; it will lead to more strategic planning and investment in education and training. Jobs and Skills Australia has already begun to work on a foundation skills study and, working in partnership with key stakeholders, to assess capacity in terms of the clean energy industry. It's very, very important we do that in an open, transparent way.

Last August, we celebrated the skills sector with National Skills Week, an annual celebration to raise the profile and status of vocational learning. At the time, I took the opportunity to visit Bundamba campus at TAFE Queensland South West in Ipswich—we still call it Bundamba TAFE in my area—to speak to the people who work there. After a decade of inaction, Australia is still facing a skill shortage, and that was clearly evident when I went to Bundamba TAFE.

One of the biggest challenges facing employers in my electorate is finding workers with skills for the jobs available. This is particularly in the hospitality, service and care sectors, and also in the small, family-run businesses which are so common in Ipswich and the Brisbane valley. Anecdotally, some business are limiting their opening hours or service, while others have sadly had to close due to staff shortages. People working in hospitality say the Ipswich region is often stuck between the city and the regions. They're not close enough to the city to attract university students at times, or backpackers, but they're not regional enough to be eligible for some employment incentives for migrant workers and tourists, so they're falling between the cracks.

Businesses have reported that a recent change has meant that chefs can now work under regional employment incentives but not bar staff, waiters or baristas, and that's important for them. This reflects the fact that Ipswich is often classified as greater Brisbane and outer metropolitan, when the reality is we're really a regional centre like Somerset in the Lockyer Valley. We need to address some of these apparent anomalies and for these incentives to include Ipswich being treated as a regional area for funding purposes as well as in terms of the workforce shortage. It's all the more frustrating that these labour shortages are occurring at a time when Ipswich is experiencing higher than average youth unemployment. The latest census data shows that in 2021, more than 14 per cent of 15- to 24-year-olds in Ipswich were classified as disengaged with unemployment and education, compared to nine per cent overall in South-East Queensland. The upside of this means there are plenty of jobs out there, and the students and apprentices that I caught up with at Bundamba TAFE from the hospitality, automotive and hairdressing study areas will all have great job prospects when they graduate.

I also held a Blair jobs summit in August last year to gather ideas from local employers, unions and community groups on how to tackle skill shortages and deliver more jobs in Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area. Some of the ideas coming out of the summit included suitability of employment training and education, regional classifications for funding, the increasing impact of inflation on businesses and households, and problems with access to housing in the Ipswich region. What's clear is that there are wide-ranging issues behind skills shortages in regions like mine from housing affordability, availability and liveability to a lack of training facilities and pathways, construction costs and access to materials, lower wages in the regions and competition for skilled workers across industries.

In the short term, strengthening the migration system will help regional areas that are struggling to attract and retain skilled workers. In the longer term, increasing participation of underemployed groups, increasing the pipeline of workers in areas of shortages and better pathways from training to work will address these concerns. Addressing the challenges requires many actors across the sectors—including trade unions, I say to those opposite—and they need to work together. The government is also developing an employment white paper that will plot a path for reducing unemployment and underemployment and to keep them low. It just goes to show these issues are challenging and complex, and anyone who was at the Blair jobs and skills summit will recognise the complexity that local employers are facing as well as the community sector.

Last night, the budget showed that we are on the right track with respect to an economic plan to tackle cost-of-living pressures and housing affordability and local manufacturing through the National Reconstruction Fund. In my local economy, we've had a fair share of challenges with floods and storms and bushfires, but there are enormous opportunities in areas like food and beverage manufacturing, meat processing, biotech, IT and the defence industry, of which I have been so supportive. I recently hosted the Prime Minister on a visit to Springfield in my electorate. It was a great opportunity to meet with local business leaders including Springfield City Group's Chairman, Maha Sinnathamby, and hear about the vision of that particular company to attract major employers and skilled workers to the region in areas like advanced medical manufacturing and quantum computing.

This is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, with an average age of 29 years, and the Prime Minister acknowledged that it has the potential to become Australia's answer to the Silicon Valley, saying, 'The advantage that Springfield has is it's not just a smart, local community driven by education; it also has a business community that wants to commercialise these opportunities.' I agree with the Prime Minister. The government wants to support this with initiatives like Jobs and Skills Australia and the National Reconstruction Fund. It's all about good jobs—secure jobs, high-skill and high-wage jobs—allowing locals to get the skills they need for the jobs of the future. That's why we need to drive jobs and growth in outer metropolitan and regional areas like Springfield, Ripley Valley, the Somerset region and Karana Downs in my electorate.

At the same time I want to see opportunities for disadvantaged groups in our community, including young- and mature-age workers; First Nations and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; people with disability; and veterans. In particular, we note that vocational education is so important going forward that nine out of every 10 new jobs in the next five years will require a post-school qualification. That's why it's imperative that we upskill our young people, particularly in my community, to make sure they get the kinds of jobs that I have referred to.

As the Treasurer put it, we need to give our young people the tools for success in life, and that's why I'm supportive of this particular piece of legislation and supportive of the fee-free places that we announced. And I'm looking forward to some of the extra 300,000 fee-free places provided in the budget last night going to my electorate. (Time expired)

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023, which establishes the permanent governance and functions of Jobs and Skills Australia, the JSA.

COVID-19 and the complete absence of structured workforce planning over decades has led to missed opportunities in our country. By establishing a permanent agency I'm hopeful we can start turning this around. This bill will rename the JSA director as the JSA commissioner and provide for deputy commissioners. It will provide for the minister to establish a ministerial advisory board to advise in relation to the performance and functions of JSA. It will also establish in full the functions of JSA, setting it up as a body that will provide independent advice on the labour market and the skills and training needs of workers and employers. I'm pleased to see that the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee has considered this bill and recommended that it be passed.

In supporting this bill, I will keep speaking out for the unique needs of the workforce in regional, rural and remote Australia. We want to attract the very best candidates, offer the best jobs and provide our people with the skills and training for the jobs of the future. The Labor Party has, historically, had a blind spot when it comes to regional Australia; now is the perfect time to correct this. In last night's budget, I was disappointed by the lack of new funding measures for regional development and by the minimal investment in regional roads. Roads are essential for our workforce, and they need significant investment—most particularly after the recent and devastating floods. There is some funding in the budget, but it's clear it won't be enough to repair the issues we are facing.

I am pleased the government has taken on board feedback that JSA needs to appreciate the unique differences between regional areas in its work, and to use granular data to inform workforce planning and policy and funding decisions at the regional level. No two regions are the same; we face different geographical and socioeconomic conditions, and have emerging or growing industries depending on where we are. To be blind to the differences will result in poorly tailored policy and missed opportunities which set us even further back.

In my electorate of Indi we have an older-than-average demographic, which will need more health care and aged-care services as they age. And COVID, while it brought a welcome influx of tree changers and young families alike to our towns, has placed greater pressure on our schools and our early childhood educators. We have a rapidly growing and maturing tourism and accommodation market with the High Country, cycle tourism, the country's best snowfields, the beautiful River Murray and the Hume Dam and Eildon Weir as major watersport attractions.

We also have a strong industrial backbone operating from Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla. And we have an enormous trades and construction sector. Our agricultural workforce is diverse, from seasonal cropping and commercial-scale viticulture through to boutique horticultural produce. And we are uniquely located between Melbourne and Sydney on the major transportation routes of the Hume Highway and the Inland Rail, with exceptional freight and logistics capacity.

We have a large Defence Force community and a cohort of defence spouses who could be contributing so much more to our regional economy if they were supported to do so.

Ovens Murray is a Victorian renewable energy zone, opening up enormous workforce opportunities for the renewable energy sector from tradies and techies, right through to the most highly qualified engineers.

My electorate is facing strong demand for employees, yet there are major skills shortages. Job vacancies skyrocketed a whopping 327 per cent between May 2020 and March 2023, yet our labour market is tight, with unemployment at 3.2 per cent in December 2022. We have real challenges in the agricultural workforce and the rural health workforce and in hospitality, teaching, childcare, aged care. And overarching all of this is our housing shortfall. Even if we could employ enough people to fill all of these vacancies, there's barely anywhere affordable or available for them to live or to buy.

The budget measures to tackle the regional housing crisis were disappointing, with no funding for the enabling infrastructure needed to open up housing development in the regions. We need this enabling infrastructure—such as sewerage, power, pavements—to unlock the land. It is a structural impediment to getting new houses, particularly medium-density social and affordable housing, on the ground. The number one issue people talk to me about in Indi, along with the job vacancies, is housing. There's so much more this government could do to kickstart housing development in regional Australia to ensure we all have a safe, affordable roof over our heads and those people seeking employment can take up those jobs, because there is somewhere to live.

Indi is facing a major skills shortage in our and social assistance industries. According to the Victorian Skills Authority, the Hume region, which covers virtually all the footprint of Indi, needs another 1,300 full-time equivalents in the coming years to meet demand. Job vacancies for medical practitioners and nurses have skyrocketed, with a 376 per cent increase in job vacancy ads between June 2020 and March 2023, and it's the same for carers and aids, increasing 412 per cent over the same time period. I've spoken many times in this place about the desperate need to support and to grow our health and aged-care workforce, and this must be a central focus for this government.

We have a critical workforce shortage of veterinarians. This is especially acute in regional communities. This is causing treatment delays, and we've been hearing heartbreaking stories of horses and dogs facing agonising pain, waiting to be seen by an overstretched regional vet. Not only is this stressful for the owners and the vets; it's stressful for the entire family. And it is really, really dreadful for the animals.

I recently met Dr Andrew Jacotine, Dr Callie Burnett and their staff at ACE Vet Hospital in Euroa, and I received a tour of their incredibly impressive facilities. They are working so hard and under intense pressure to provide high-quality animal care, but they're facing many challenges. They told me that in the current job market regional employers are competing with urban counterparts and losing to much higher salaries found in large metro centres. Trying to get the kind of vets we need out into the regions to do larger animal work is incredibly challenging. And the restrictions on the number of paraveterinary staff make it harder to set up a viable business structure. Andrew told me he's trying to achieve a sustainable industry which serves the needs of the public. I've written to the Treasurer and the minister of agriculture asking for their advice. I want to work with government on this. I was glad also to raise this issue with the state member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, who shares my concerns. We have to work together on this big challenge.

Construction is a major employer in my electorate. According to the statistics provided by the Master Builders Association of Australia, in Indi we have 7,319 people employed in building and construction. That's 10.4 per cent of my constituents. And according to the Victorian Skills Authority, construction is our third highest area for additional workforce, requiring an extra 1,100 full-time equivalent people over the coming years. But the question is: how will we get there? I want to see more work done to plan and grow our local construction workforce.

I'm very proud to have made a substantial contribution to this bill, the previous one and, in fact, to the government's formation of policy surrounding the JSA to make sure that the interests of rural, regional and remote Australians are not sidelined. I travelled to Canberra to attend the Jobs and Skills Summit in September and represent rural and regional voices, to ensure we are considered in workplace workforce development strategies. I was pleased to get this government to agree to add an additional function to Jobs and Skills Australia, to provide advice to the minister and secretary in relation to skills, training and workforce needs in regional, rural and remote Australia. I'd like to acknowledge the member for Kennedy for his support in that work.

I'm also pleased to have secured the government's commitment that JSA must, in performing its functions, consult with other persons and bodies, which may include persons from regional, rural or remote Australia in its work. This is so important, and I thank the minister for his work with me on this. I advised the minister's office to consult with certain regional organisations on the permanent model for the JSA, and I note that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations undertook six months of consultation with more than 200 individual stakeholders. Many of these include those who are nominated, such as the Regional Universities Network and the Grain Growers Association. This agency will be stronger for consulting with these regional peak body representatives and listening carefully to the needs of rural, regional and remote Australia.

I note that this bill modifies my previous amendment so that now JSA have a function to analyse skills and workforce needs—including in regional, rural and remote Australia—and I've received assurances from the minister's office that this alteration ensures regional and rural consideration across all of JSA's functions. It also means that JSA's analysis will now be publicly available—very important. I'm pleased to have secured further amendments to this bill and to the permanent operations of JSA, which will enshrine consideration of rural, regional and remote Australia in its remit. These amendments will be moved by the minister. This bill ensures that a person is not eligible for appointment to the ministerial advisory board unless the minister is satisfied that the person has substantial knowledge of an identified field, and these amendments will now include regional, rural and remote Australia as an identified field. This ensures that people with lived experience are front of mind when the minister is considering potential appointees.

These amendments are preferable to the amendments moved by the member for Farrer, which I will not be supporting, though we share the common goal of making the board as representative of the interests of stakeholders as possible, including rural, regional and remote Australia. That's why I have worked closely with the minister to deliver the amendment just outlined, to ensure and to bring regional, rural and remote and small-business representation expertise to the board.

I want to thank the minister and his office for engaging with me to improve this bill. I look forward to continuing working together to address the particular workforce needs in regional, rural and remote Australia in health, in construction, in renewable energy, in hospitality and in so many more areas. It's in working together that we can get things done, and I will always work together with any government for the benefit of rural, regional and remote Australians.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the few minutes left before we adjourn for 90-second statements, I'd just like to thank the member for Indi for her contribution to this Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023, in both her speech and substance with the minister's office. Like me, as a regional MP, she's worked hard to ensure that the voice of regional, rural and remote Australians is taken into account. I can assure her personally that this government takes regional Australia very seriously. We heard from the minister for regions and infrastructure just today in her statement outlining this government's agenda when it comes to regional Australia. It is comprehensive and it is core to our thinking.

I am very pleased to stand in support of the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill. Last night the Treasurer outlined the government's plan for jobs and skills and to rebuild and modernise our skills sector, to ensure a stronger and more resilient economy and give more Australians the opportunity to access well-paid and secure jobs. I do look forward to speaking in more detail about that and, indeed, to elements of the bill itself, which is before the House. It's comprehensive. There's a lot to get through. I think time's going to get me here, but that's just the nature of this place, isn't it?

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Member for Lyons. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour, and, given that you were abruptly interrupted, you will be granted leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.