Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the disallowance of item 2, schedule 7 of the Migration Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 9). I would like to commend, as I usually do, Senator Ludwig, my colleague from the other side, for an excellent contribution—though it is unfortunate that the issues that were left out of his contribution were more significant than the issues covered in it. He made reference to the Treasurer and said that the Treasurer is somehow to blame for this situation, and I have to say that our Treasurer would probably agree with him. An interesting consequence of having a good economy and good growth is that it causes low unemployment—fewer available people to turn up for jobs. That is a consequence of having a good, strong economy, an economy that is sustainable in terms of growth. Of course, the senator opposite is right: that has been happening since 1996—and the government takes full blame for having a strong and growing economy. But, of course, there are consequences. As the senator opposite has pointed out, there is now a skills shortage. We can call it a skills shortage or a jobs dearth. There are different ways that you can look at it.

The comments the senator opposite made with regard to regional and rural Australia were interesting. I represent, as does the senator opposite, plenty of places in regional and rural Australia. I think regional and rural Australia has every right to share in this growth and this opportunity. This particular aspect of the migration program, the trade skills training visa, is targeted particularly at regional Australia, because those issues are particularly acute there. The senator opposite would recognise that regional and rural Australia do have the right—as do other Australians—to share in the growth in our economy and the benefits that spring from that.

It is interesting that Senator Ludwig indicated that Amanda Vanstone is now the minister for vocational education and training. I can assure Senator Ludwig that this area is not unlike any of the other issues in this government, and we have to deal with a suite of complex issues: the answer is never in a single bolt of lightning. These are very serious issues, and the government takes them very seriously in ensuring that there is equitable growth in each of the portfolios to ensure that all of Australia shares in the growth. Obviously, it is not only about vocational educational and training, investments we have made in universities or the recent investment we made in the TAFE colleges in Australia; clearly, there is a need right now for this growth to be sustainable—and it is; people have confidence in that. Particularly in regional areas, if there is not an answer found to this in the short term, there simply will not be that sustained growth and, frankly, regional Australia will miss out—and I do not think that is good enough.

Interestingly, the Australian of 15 April last year quoted ACTU President Sharan Burrow as saying:

She did not oppose fee-paying overseas students taking up apprentices in regional Australia “as long as it was not at the expense of local students getting their opportunities”.

So, in a lot of ways, she has reflected the view of the senator opposite, Senator Ludwig, in saying, quite sensibly, that there are some concerns; that we do not mind the benefits of such a sensible policy but we need to ensure that there is a policy framework behind that to ensure that there are no unintended consequences and that local people do not miss out on opportunities. I would like to assure this chamber that this is a government that thinks through in a very comprehensive sense every possible scenario with respect to these issues—and we spend a lot of time doing so.

I can assure this place that our policy framework ensures that no suitable Australian will miss out on an apprenticeship position because of an overseas apprentice. That is not just a statement: before an overseas apprentice can fill a vacancy, an approved regional certifying body, an RCB, must certify that no Australian apprentice can be found to fill that vacancy. That is a fact. From recollection, I think there are nine current applications, one of which has been approved and one which was seen to be invalid. It is not appropriate that I talk about the details of those applications, but one would assume that the validity or otherwise of that was simply that they found an apprentice for that particular task. It has to be demonstrated that there is no-one there who can fill that role as an apprentice.

I can assure this place—and I am quite sure that I do not have to give too many assurances to those senators who get around in regional and rural Australia—that this is a real issue in a number of places in Central Queensland and in the places I visited during the break. There is a mine near Borroloola which has spent quite a lot of money recruiting bodies and putting advertisements in the Australian. When they need tradespeople, there is a huge competition for them and it is very difficult to get them.

The approved regional certifying bodies have to certify that no Australian apprentice can be found to fill the vacancy. I know from personal experience that that is the case in many areas of regional and rural Australia. In Roma in Queensland, in Senator Bartlett’s area, Golden West Employment Solutions had a sponsorship application that was approved in December last year. I understand that they employ 413 people. That is not an insignificant number; it is a very serious number. Unfortunately, they have 188 vacancies. That is in Central Australia—in regional Australia. They have 188 vacant positions. Senator Ludwig, I accept some of your criticisms—and it would be great to have more apprentices. We have incentives to provide for that, but it is about the speed at which these things can happen so that places like Roma and Central Queensland and other areas can get the benefits of our growing economy—and filling 188 vacant positions is not going to just happen overnight. This need we have to meet is not on an exponential growth curve, but it is very steep.

The government’s analysis is that we need to provide extra people in these positions through a migration program. I would remind Senator Ludwig that this is not a one-off line; this is part of a comprehensive approach to our migration program. In the 2005-06 budget there was an increase of some 20,000 skilled places. So we have already recognised that there are quite a lot of areas where we cannot meet the demand of the workplace. We have seasonal harvest workers, who basically increase the flexibility of holidaymakers; we have the trade skills training visa, which we are discussing here today; we have the industry outpost positions; and we have the two-staged skilled designated area sponsored visa. It is quite a comprehensive part of the migration program.

I have to say that we have developed this visa very carefully. I think there have been some concerns that, if you have overseas apprentices, there is some possibility that they can be exploited. I can give you the assurance that the overseas apprentices will have exactly the same protections as the local apprentices. They will work under the existing award conditions or under the same conditions, in accordance with our apprenticeship scheme. Obviously, we all need to be concerned about that, Senator Ludwig, and I am glad you are concerned. I hope I have addressed some of your concerns because this is very important. This is about sustainability. It is not about using people. We are about ensuring that everybody gets the benefit of our economy, particularly in regional and rural Australia. That has to be done in a sustainable sense.

We have to monitor the activities that are going to be undertaken. We have to do that in cooperation, of course, with those people closest to that. The Commonwealth does not want to try to manage Roma. In relationships with state governments—in the case of Roma, with the Queensland government—we ensure that they are responsible for the apprenticeship training. That is going to ensure that both the employers and the sponsors are abiding by their obligations. That is a very important aspect of this. They have to abide by their obligations and that includes Australian awards and conditions.

Here we have a need. We know that need cannot be provided for under the current arrangements or in the foreseeable future. We can talk about the history of all of that sort of stuff, but, as a pragmatist, Senator Bartlett, I know that regional Queensland and other areas like that have a need right at the moment. We need to ensure that, in fulfilling that need, we are not excluding other Australians from opportunities. We have a board that gets up every day to ensure that we are not excluding Australians. That is very important. We have someone who gets up every day to ensure that does not happen.

As I said, we have received nine sponsorship applications so far. Only one has been approved. This is not going to be a huge rush. This is part of a suite of programs to ensure that every single Australian can get a benefit from what I think is our excellent management of our economy. For that to continue to be sustainable, and particularly to equitably and in a very just sense ensure that every single Australian can enjoy the benefits of this government’s good work, these sorts of visas are needed. I entreat senators opposite not to support this disallowance motion because it certainly is not in the interests of Australians or of regional Australia.