Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Skills Australia Bill 2008. This bill provides for the establishment of the statutory body Skills Australia—a body that will supply the government with first-class independent advice about the skills needs of this nation now and into the future. Skills Australia, which will be made up of members from a range of backgrounds, including economics, industry, academia and training providers, will work with the government to boost the skills of the Australian workforce.

Crucially, this partnership will make sure that the ever-expanding gap between skills training and the demand for skills closes. It will mean that the areas of greatest need for skills injections are highlighted and targeted. Some of the industries which may receive the new training places include health and community services, construction, mining and service industries. Ultimately, though, Skills Australia will give the government its advice on the distribution of 450,000 skilled training places by 2011 to ensure a good fit between the skills which industry needs and the skills Australian workers have. Indeed, industry demand will be central to ensuring this new dawn of skills training is as effective and productive as it can be. This new body will be an important part of a total skills package of $1.17 billion over four years. It will represent a financial and intellectual investment in the skills arena.

Many on the opposition benches have tried to deny Australia is in the grip of severe skills shortages—just as they have tried in the past to deny the growing hold of climate change, just as they have refused to believe that workers have been ill-treated and exploited under Work Choices and just as they have stubbornly refused to accept the need for a national apology to the stolen generations. Those opposite can deny it all they like, but the reality of the skills crisis is hitting home and it is hitting hard—yet another dark and devastating legacy of the Howard government.

But even the former government’s own figures, through the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, indicate that Australia faces a shortage of more than 200,000 workers over the next five years. In just eight years, by 2016, that figure will have grown to 240,000. Like climate change, the skills crisis is not an overnight predicament. It did not sneak up on us; it has been building for years, threatening our future prosperity.

In fact, the Reserve Bank of Australia warned the Howard government as far back as 1997 that this problem would hurt our economy, adversely affecting growth and putting upward pressure on inflation and, therefore, interest rates. But the former administration, which seems to have suffered dreadfully from selective deafness, ignored 20 warnings over a decade. To make matters worse, the TAFE system, the largest training provider in Australia, had its funding slashed. This disinvestment meant TAFE could not properly meet the call for training. It meant that more than 325,000 people were turned away from TAFE over the life of the Howard government. So, with all of its denial and neglect, it is little wonder that we are behind the eight ball when it comes to skills, to climate change, to water and to relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia—and the list goes on. We have ground to make up. In fact, we have a lot of ground to make up.

This bill is part of a new direction in skills training—a new focus; a new priority. This is about investment rather than disinvestment, about moving forward and about improving Australia’s outlook. The new government is serious about meeting the many challenges left to it by years of inaction and apathy. In addition to planning for Skills Australia, this government already has set about making other changes that address skills shortages. It has started talks with other nations to expand the working holiday visa program for young people and adjust that program to allow longer working stays for people in the construction sector. There also will be an extra 6,000 places available this year in the skilled migration program. Further, the government already has called on industry experts to look at ways of easing labour shortages in the long term through skilled migration.

Because of the urgent nature of the skills crisis and the pressing need to lift the national economy’s productive capacity and reduce inflationary pressures, this new government has hit the ground running. Because we know we must act now, this legislation has been brought before the parliament as a priority. Because there is no time to waste, the government will make available from next month the first 20,000 of the 450,000 extra training places it has committed to. The first of the new places will target people who currently are not working—a strategy which obviously will have even further benefits. This government, through Skills Australia, will not just allot new training places and then walk away from the issue; it also will make sure that most of the 450,000 high-quality training opportunities lead to a higher level qualification. This sits well with the Business Council of Australia estimates that say almost half of those skilled workers needed in the next decade to meet the demand will need to be qualified to certificate III level or higher. The government also will work with the states, through the Council of Australian Governments, to develop a truly national skills agenda.

So this bill is one part—an important but not isolated part—of a broader plan of skilling Australia for the future. It is part of a collaborative plan that will encompass contributions from all interested and relevant parties. The consequence of the bill will be a more skilled workforce, a more confident, fulfilled workforce. It will be a workforce that can better meet industry demands and address the gaping chasm between demand and supply, the skilled and the unskilled, the included and those that have been neglected.