Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate the remainder of my speech on the Skills Australia Bill 2008 which I began earlier today.

Leave granted.

The remainder of the speech read as follows—

Part of the problem we face in addressing Australia’s skills shortage has been that training has not sufficiently matched industry’s needs.

Business and Industry have not been adequately consulted regarding their requirements for skilled workers. Through Skills Australia industry groups can predict and tailor training to the needs of their future workforce.

The Government is bringing everyone in on this one. We are including industry, businesses, academics and unions, as well as every single Australian State and territory for this first time to address this problem together.

Based on feedback from this group we will be able to allocate training places according to industry demand.

By planning and co-ordinating a united approach we will be able to ensure that the skills crisis that the Howard Government created and perpetuated can not and will not happen again.

These reforms will help with a better assessment of Australia’s skills needs and ensure new training places are delivered in a way that meets the needs of industry and our economy.

Industry skills councils will work with employers to identify their skills needs and match those needs with nationally accredited training by drawing on the advice of Skills Australia, its collective knowledge and skills base.

Australia’s training system must shift to a system that is driven by, and which responds to, the needs of business, industry and the economy. In this way, we can meet current demands and also ensure that we are looking ahead to future needs.

As already mentioned, this approach to addressing the skills shortage in Australia has the support and will have the involvement of every State and Territory through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

Already, a level of co-operation has been achieved by the Rudd Labor Government, which could never have been achieved by our predecessors.

The Department for Education, Employment & Workplace Relations has begun discussions with state and territory education authorities to ensure close co-ordination between governments in planning and funding training and skills development. Over coming months we will see the benefits that Skills Australia will deliver.

A significant reason for its success is that it will be working with industry and governments in Australia, rather than against them.

There are many shared and real benefits to be achieved by working together. We can expect a better return on publicly funded training investment and we will see a co-operative approach to the way that investment is applied.

It is only with all stakeholders actively engaged in the skills agenda that we can focus on our outcomes—to increase the productive capacity of the economy through a more highly-skilled workforce.

Mr President, it is important to keep in mind that for almost 12 long years’ vocational education and training was relegated to the bottom of the government’s priorities.

Under the previous government the number of apprenticeships and traineeships commenced as a result of a Job Network placement fell by more than half.

Between 1998 and 1999 there were 32,807 places compared with only 14,925 in the financial year 2006-07.

I bring to Honourable Senator’s attention, an article by Sid Marris in the Australian on 14th February 2008, in which the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI) called on the Rudd Government:

“…to appoint a business person with industry experience as the chair of the new body… (as)…an approach which brings together important intelligence across portfolios will contribute to Australia’s skills planning processes.”

Isn’t it ironic. Here is the so called peak representative body of industry, who have had their feet firmly planted under the desk of Howard ministers – through the connection of Peter Hendy, former Chief Executive of ACCI, who we all now came out of the office of the former Minister for Industrial Relations in the Howard Government, Peter Reith – talking about the inclusion of different groups within training bodies.

And we all know the ACCI’s background, who spent 11 years doing all that they could denying union involvement in training bodies.

Now that their mates have been turfed out, they demand that they should have a place at the table.

The ACCI is just as guilty as the former Howard Government in overseeing the greatest demise of skills training in this nation.

Unlike these narrow interested groups, we on the Labor side of politics, support inclusion. Be it in the workplace, enterprise bargaining or in the development and implementation of skills training.

I also bring Honourable Senator’s attention to an article in the Age on 5th February 2008 by Tim Colebatch in which he states:

“The Howard Government dropped the ball on skills training, and chose infrastructure projects for political ends, not economic value.”

This damning statement of the Howard Government provide proof to the Australian people and to this Parliament that the former Howard Government was utterly negligent - failing to prepare Australia for the resources boom and a burgeoning economy.

Because Australia was simply not ready to respond, many opportunities have been lost.

A skilled country is essential for economic reform and a strong stable economy.

Addressing the skills shortage is part of the Rudd Government’s Five Point plan to address inflation and maintain this country’s economic strength.

We were once a nation of innovation. Now that the 12-year lapse in leadership is well and truly behind us, let’s roll our sleeves up and get on with the real task of not only addressing the skills crisis but ensuring we never find ourselves in this situation again.

If we don’t invest as a nation, we don’t get a return, it’s as simple as that.

The Labor Party saw it coming. Together with the states and territories we will, through new leadership, provide a fresh start on skills and training.

The only answer that the lame Howard Government had was to try and flood the country with foreign workers. And what a wonderful solution that was…

In summary, Mr President, I commend this Bill to the Senate and if any Senator opposite has an ounce of decency in their bones, they will support this Bill through the Senate.