Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

The Bill before us—the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2007 provides funding for three more Australian Technical colleges—announced in this year’s budget.

This bill will amend the ATC Act to allow for an additional $74.7 million in funding for the three additional Australian Technical Colleges announced in the 2007-08 Budget.  This appropriation will take the total cost of establishing 28 colleges to $548 million.

Now the skills crises did not just happen over night—the skills crisis we know has arisen as a result of complacency and neglect by this government—despite warnings for many years about skills shortages.  This Government has presided over a skills shortage of 200,000 and what do we see from the Australian Technical Colleges initiative. These colleges will see less than 10,000 graduates by 2010.

Having illustrated that this initiative is patently inadequate and is more about a political fix for this government—a government that becomes more out of touch and arrogant as each day passes. 

Labor will not oppose the bill, as we are willing to support, in principle measures that are, in theory, aimed at addressing the skills crisis facing our country.

Indeed not withstanding the flaws of the Government’s ATC plan, Labor has committed not to close the colleges down, if elected.

Enough money has been wasted already duplicating infrastructure for the purposes of political gain.

So Labor will not be tearing up contracts.  We won’t be closing ATCs.

Labor is committed to sitting down with relevant parties when the contracts do expire to work out the best and most appropriate way of folding the management of the ATC’s into the state based systems.

This just makes sense. Why have separate systems working against each other that are working towards achieving the same goal?

Having said that, one thing needs to be made quite clear—the ATC’s—the Howard Government’s attempt at fixing the skills shortage facing this country is unfortunately nothing more than a blatantly political answer to what is a serious practical problem.

Everything about it smells of politicking and the poor performance figures of the existing colleges sadly prove this.

The Minster for Vocational and Further Education, Mr Andrew Robb recently attempted to claim that there had been an increase in the number of apprentice completions in the last four years.

However what Mr Robb did not say is less than half of completions in 2006 were in the traditional trades- such as plumbers, carpenters and electricians—where we face the most acute skills shortages.

And while the Minster tries to beat up figure to mask 11 years of neglect in the lead up to this years election—the skills crisis in Australia continues.

Indeed according to the Governments own figures, Australia will face a shortage of more than 200,000 skilled workers over the next five years.

Why?  Because for 11 long years the Government has chosen to sit on its hand and to under invest in traditional trades training.

Because it decided to slash funding to the existing state-based TAFE systems ,with commonwealth revenues in vocational education decreasing—when they should have been increasing—by 13% between 1997-2000 and only increasing by a pitiful 1% from 2000-2004.

Indeed it has been estimated that the Governments grave neglect and under funding in this area has resulted in over 325,000 people—seeking trades training and skills—being forcibly turned away from TAFE training facilities since 1996.

There is not doubt that the Howard Governments neglect of the traditional trades is responsible for the situation we find ourselves in today.

And the Government’s solution?

To establish around 28  ATC’s in  ‘nominated’ regions around the country—90% of which are unsurprisingly located in marginal electorates—such as Bass and Braddon, in Tasmania, at a cost of around half a billion dollars.

They have chosen snub and shun the existing state-based TAFE system—preferring to spend tax-payers dollars on building duplicate facilities to compete with that of the states.

The result?

After three years and more than half and billion dollars the Governments ATC’s the fact are these:

• have not yet produced a single graduate
• Only 1800 enrolments
• Just two out of 21 colleges are meeting their 2007 enrolment targets
• An average cost of nearly $175,000 per student
• Only one third of colleges legally registered to provide training; and
• Outsource the bulk of their training to TAFEs or registered training organisations.

Indeed according to the Minister for Vocational and Further Education only nine of the current 21 colleges have no involvement with the TAFE system. So what exactly is the ½ billion in tax-payers money actually going to?

With currently only 1,800 enrolments on total, and some colleges struggling to find apprentices for students that have enrolled—it does not look like there is much end in sight to the skills crisis facing Australia.

This is the Government’s answer to the skills crisis problem it has created over the past eleven years. This is the best that it could come up with.

This is so typical of this government—a government that for a long time now has and will continue to under invest in essential ‘infrastructure’ such as trades training. 

It just proves that for a long time now—this government has been hiding behind the economic prosperity of the mining boom—but yet has had no real plan for the future.

And here we are—three years on from the 2004 political stunt that is the ATCs and with another federal election looming all we have from this Government is to duplicate the states trades training system, spend millions of dollars doing it and not even produce one single graduate!

And it is not just in the case of trades training that the Governments lack of vision for the future is being exposed.

It has for the past 11 years it has placed its head in the sand and denied the reality and threat of climate change.

It has failed to come up with a ‘broadband’ solution for all Australians.

And it has ignored the struggle faced by many families around Australia when it comes to managing their everyday living costs—whether it be paying the mortgage, rent, or paying for childcare, groceries and petrol.

This Government just does not get it. It has proven that it does not comprehend what is needed in the short term to ease the pressure on working families in this country—many of which are at breaking point—or what is needed in the long-term keep our economy strong after the mining boom diminishes.

Indeed, the way in which it has chosen to respond, after 11 long years on neglect, to the skills crisis facing this country is illustrative of just how this government operates- slapping together a political appeasing, short-term policy targeted at voters in marginal electorates in an attempt to ensure that they retain power at the next election.

There is no long-term plan for the future, no genuine commitment to overcoming the problem faced and no real policy that is likely to bring about real results.

It is the lack of results and the duplication of the state based system that has led to Labor retaining strong reservations about the effectiveness of the Australian Technical Colleges program and its capacity to genuinely combat the severe shortage of skilled labour in the country.

Enrolment figures discovered during Budget Estimates reveal that just two of the 21 existing colleges are meeting their enrolment targets.

Indeed the combined total of enrolments for the two Northern Tasmanian campuses located in Burnie and Launceston is just 120, 55 students short of the 175 student target.

So what is this going to mean?

Economic growth in areas like that of Burnie and Devonport on the North-West Coast of Tasmania that are currently experiencing a period of increased development will stunted because there is simply just not enough skilled tradesmen to keep up with the amount of work on offer.

Indeed this situation is not confined to the North-West- it is one relative to the whole state, with the Tasmanian Survey of Business Expectations for the March quarter 2007 noting that “the availability of suitable qualified employees continues to be the number one constraint on business.” in Tasmania.

Therefore government’s decision to opt for this short-term, ‘band-aid’ solution to the problem is not only failing to overcome the skills shortage, it is preventing and stifling economic growth in regional centres all across the country.

And what’s more, it is not only preventing economic growth but it is denying people that want to take advantage of jobs created through increased development the opportunity to work, because they are unable to access the requisite trades training.

These are the kind of situations that we have to look forward to under the Government’s short-sighted, politically motivated plan.

It is clear that the immediate solution to such a skills shortage is not going to be found in the technical college program- with enrolments not even coming close to refecting the demand for skilled labour.

Skill shortages are holding back businesses and denying opportunities to young Australians:

• A survey of more than 760 producers by the Australian Industry Group report, Australia’s Skills Gap: Costly, Wasteful and Widespread, one in two firms are experiencing difficulties obtaining skilled labour; and yet,
• according to another Ai Group report, It’s Crunch Time, one in five young adults have not completed year 12 or a Certificate III vocational qualification.

Inadequate workforce skills have contributed to Australia’s declining productivity performance in recent years—putting at risk our long term economic prosperity.

Skill shortages have also been identified by the Reserve Bank as being a factor contributing to higher inflation and interest rates.

What is needed is an approach that utilises existing institutions and structures and allows kids to receive the training they require, right from high school.

In contrast to the Government’s approach, Labor has announced that its $2.5 billion Trades Training Centres plan aimed at helping the 1 million students in Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 in all of Australia’s 2,650 secondary schools access trades-based training.

The plan will provide secondary schools with between $500,000 and $1.5 million to build or upgrade trades training facilities and provide $84 million to ensure all vocational education and trades training students get one day a week of on the job training for 20 weeks a year.

It will also see the development of new Job Ready Certificate as a statement of a student’s readiness for work in addition to a Year 12 Certificate and any separate vocational education and training qualification.

Labor’s plan is aimed at tackling the skills crisis head on, by providing all Australian’s with the opportunity to access trades-based training- not just those that live in marginal electorates.

And of course Kevin Rudd and Labor recently announced the establishment of Skills Australia—if Labor wins the election.  

Skills Australia, will be an independent statutory body to advise government on fixing the nation’s skills crisis—which is expected to worsen.

Government’s own research shows we will need 240,000 more skilled workers by 2016 to ensure our economic future.

Skills Australia will play a central role to ensure we lock in a full-employment economy and developing a highly skilled and innovative workforce for the future.

Skills Australia will provide government with recommendations about the future skill needs of the country.

The recommendations made by Skills Australia will help inform government decisions to encourage skill formation and drive ongoing reform to make our education and training system more responsive to business and economic needs of the nation.

Skills Australia will make sure that the skills crisis we are currently suffering from doesn’t happen again—because Labor will have a national approach to it.

For too long kids in this country been lead to believe that a university degree was the only desirable qualification.

For too long, this government has neglected to acknowledge the crucial role that workers with trades based qualifications play in keep this country running and afloat.

This neglect is reflected not only in their under funding of trades training over the past eleven years but also in their Industrial Relations reforms that deny such workers, along with the rest of the country—their basic rights and conditions.

A Government that respected and acknowledged the hard work and long hours that the majority of these trades-based workers put in would not put in place laws that take away their basic rights and conditions.

Workers in trade-based industries—such as plumbers and electricians—because of the nature of the industry—more often than not are forced to work long hours in substandard conditions to get jobs done.

They often incur situations that put then in a relative degree of danger and are forced to be on call during traditional non-working hour times.

These are the people that keep things running in our towns and cities—they are the ones behind the scenes-making sure everything works and are often the one’s called upon to  avert disaster.

They should be not only valued but acknowledged for the vital role they play.

But for eleven long years the government has chosen to neglect the valuable role that such workers play—by under investing in trades based training and stripping many existing tradies of their basic rights and conditions in the work place.

This Government after eleven long years in power—roaming the corridors of parliament—have lost touch with the people of Australia and what is needed to see this country prosper into the future.

They have forgotten what it really takes to make things work in this country.

Labor has committed to keeping the existing ATC’s open, if it wins the election.

Labor also has chosen to support this bill, not wanting to deny any initiative aimed at in theory aiding the skills shortage in the country.

But when all is said and done the Governments ATC’s policy proves one thing—that this is a government that is short-sighted, election driven and out of touch.