Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday, it was wonderful to welcome the shadow minister for small business, industry skills and training, Sussan Ley, to my electorate of Casey. We had a politics in the pub at the Chirnside Park Country Club—thank you very much for hosting. It was wonderful to talk to many tradies and small business owners about the challenges that they are facing. I am fortunate to represent the electorate of Casey, which has the highest number of tradies in any electorate across the country as a percentage of workforce. In talking to the plumbers, the sparkies, the bakers and some builders that were there as well about the challenges they are facing, one issue of great concern that came up is apprentices and being able to get access to apprentices. It's harder than ever, and under this government, in Labor's first year in office, Victoria lost one in 10 apprentices and trainees. It's a drop of 11,630 people. It's getting harder and harder for businesses to bring apprentices on. In many cases they're being required to pay and put up money that they don't have to support these apprentices. It was an issue that kept coming up, along with things like energy and the continued cost increases in raw materials. While our businesses are doing it tough, they still have a sense of optimism that they will be there, and they're going to keep providing the materials, the buildings and the work we need across this country. Thank you to the Deputy Leader, Sussan Ley, for coming out, and thank you to all those tradies for the work they do building our nation.