Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is beneath you, Senator Scarr. It is actually a deeper cultural problem, across all workplaces: it is about valuing younger workers and looking after people; it is about building a culture at work where people are treated with respect and are paid decently and know they've got a future; it is about the institutions representing them having a say at work; and it is about people being valued for the work that they do. This is serious stuff that actually matters in ordinary workplaces and we ought to take those issues seriously.

The other issues that drive big apprentice drop-outs are, of course, about pay and working conditions. If most apprentices live below the poverty line, they will continue to drop out in large numbers. It takes until the fourth year of an apprenticeship to be paid above the minimum wage. If young people can earn substantially more bagging groceries or working in a call centre, they will continue to drop out of apprenticeships. We need to recruit more apprentices and support more women into apprenticeships. Many trades, particularly the construction industry, represent some of the most gender-segregated workplaces in the country. For example, only 2½ per cent of automotive tradespeople are women. A University of Sydney study shows that only 50 per cent of automotive tradespeople would describe their workplaces as environments where men and women are treated equally. Other trades have dramatic under-representation of women. They include electricians, telecommunication trades, construction trades, metal fabrication and plumbing. These figures have remained stagnant and have not moved for three decades. As a country, we need to deal with industry policy that creates good jobs and that doesn't send good jobs, in particular good manufacturing jobs, overseas.

Like so many other areas of policy, the government doesn't have a plan for our skill system beyond advertising campaigns, hiring actors, putting the hi-vis on and doing press conferences. It's important that we improve the system of trade support loans. This is not the first time I've stood up here supporting a piece of government legislation but opposing the way that the government has failed to deal with the sector properly. We will support this legislation, but it barely touches the surface of what we need to achieve for Australian workplaces and to deliver real apprenticeship and training opportunities for people particularly in our regions and in our suburbs.