Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's good to hear from another Queensland senator tonight about some of the issues facing skills in Queensland. Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, I congratulate Senator Roberts for bringing up so many issues around manufacturing and skills—and even privatisation. We know that some of the best and brightest apprentices in Queensland are Ergon apprentice electricians and we want to make sure that we do not privatise our electricity assets, because we would not have those apprentices there.

Tonight I want to speak a little bit more about the National Skills Commissioner Bill. There has never been a more important time for this country to make sure that we have the skills for the future so we can recover and rebuild after the coronavirus pandemic. While the Prime Minister is out there making announcements about bringing forward infrastructure, which is something Labor had been calling for before this pandemic, we are in a skills crisis. We have slogans about how much infrastructure we're going to build, but we don't have the skills to build it. We have a government with a track record of killing skills, underfunding TAFE and ignoring young people. Although Labor supports this bill, we urge the government to step up to the plate and build a skills system that will deliver the skills that we need and the jobs that young Australians deserve.

As indicated, I'd like to speak about the skills crisis facing regional Queensland at the moment. When it comes to apprentices and trainees, the Morrison government is failing North Queensland. And new modelling suggests that it's likely to get much worse. According to Department of Education data, in Townsville, in the electorate of the member for Herbert, Phillip Thompson, there has been a massive drop in the number of apprentices. There are 1,200 fewer apprentices and trainees—or 35.88 per cent—than when the Liberal-National government came to power in 2013. In Mackay the member for Dawson, George Christensen, has seen his electorate suffer the steepest drop in the state, with 77.46 per cent or 1,453 fewer apprentices and trainees since September 2013. In the federal electorate of Leichhardt, in Cairns, where I live, MP Warren Entsch has already overseen a massive drop of 28.66 per cent or 932 apprentices and trainees since the Liberal-National government came to power in 2013, and that's according to data from the department of education. In the federal seat of Kennedy we've seen another significant drop of 46.16 per cent.

It's clear from these numbers that North Queensland has suffered a large drop in apprentices and trainees, falling from 17,837 in September 2013 to 9,575 now. This drastic fall will come on top of the 20,000 apprentices and trainees that Queensland is expected to lose this year alone, according to new modelling from the National Australian Apprenticeships Association. The Liberal-National government has created this tradie crisis by presiding over cuts to TAFE, including $1 billion of underspending. Suffering TAFES in regional Queensland deserve better.

The government has had seven years to work with the states and territories to improve the vocational education and training system and associated outcomes, but it's failed to do so. This skills crisis is happening at the same time as youth unemployment is going up. Figures released by the ABS reveal that 14.7 per cent of young regional Queenslanders are now without work.

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

I'll take that interjection. You may not want to hear statistics, but this is a particularly important one, Minister Colbeck, because it is 13.8 per cent of young people in Australia that are unemployed. I do believe that it's your responsibility to deal with that, but so far I haven't heard a contribution from you in this place that has talked about how you're going to assist young people. All we've heard from the minister for youth is a declaration that he was going to 'cut red tape' to help young people.

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

I listen to everything you say, and I know that young people are not being listened to by this government. Youth unemployment in Cairns has jumped 2.5 per cent since last year. It's now 12.1 per cent, and in Townsville it has reached a shocking 16.4 per cent. That's not just a statistic. Those are young people without work, looking for jobs.

So how do the LNP fix a skills crisis in regional Queensland? When they're faced with an issue like youth unemployment, what do they do? How do they go about fixing a crisis? Before the last election, this skills crisis was evident in regional Queensland, so the federal government sought to fix it in Far North Queensland not by creating more apprenticeships, supporting trainees or putting together a plan to make sure that people were employed in good jobs but by entering into a Designated Area Migration Agreement with the Cairns Chamber of Commerce. My criticism of this agreement is not a criticism of the chamber; they are working with what they have been given. It's a criticism that asks why we needed a DAMA to fix a skills gap in regional Queensland if the government had planned ahead and invested in the skills we need and if the government was doing something to fix youth unemployment.

Although an announcement was made in the days before the last election, the details of the scheme were not released by the local member, Warren Entsch. All we had before the election was a press release. We didn't actually have the details of the DAMA, so people in Far North Queensland did not get to see the agreement before the election; they didn't get to understand exactly how extensive this agreement was. We've got the details of the agreement now, and the DAMA provides for 200 migrant worker visas per year.

We have significant industries in Far North Queensland that are suffering from a skills crisis under this government. So it is understandable that some occupations might need to access a scheme like this. We concede that. But there is a list of occupations that are covered by the DAMA in Far North Queensland. It is a list of 70 occupations under this agreement. Again, I'm not criticising the chamber, but this is a list that shows the extent of our skills crisis. If I go through some of these occupations, they are aged care or disability worker, aircraft maintenance engineer, building associate—there are 70 here, so there are a lot to go through. We've also got an electronic instrument trades worker. That's the extent of the skills crisis in Far North Queensland. We've got to put that occupation on a DAMA. There are also metal fitters and machinists, motor mechanics, small engine mechanics.

Sometimes people will say, 'Well, of course we need skilled migration in places like Far North Queensland,' because we do have a tourism industry that needs specialist people working as dive operators or as chefs or working in restaurants, but this is an extensive list. It did surprise me to see one of the other skills that is on this list is vocational education teacher. We don't even have vocational education teachers in Far North Queensland under this government. They've had to put it on the DAMA.

Some of those occupations also have concessions for skills and languages. They've had concessions attached to those occupations, so they don't have to meet those requirements. That's understandable in some circumstances, but there is also a concession in place called the TSMIT. When I saw this abbreviation, I wasn't quite sure what it meant, but it's the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold. It's a salary that's set at $53,900, above which temporary skilled migrants must be paid. As the ABC explained, occupation lists, labour market testing and equivalent salaries for migrants in local jobs all help support the integrity of visas. But the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is the core mechanism preventing the importation of migrant workers on lower wages. It is the core mechanism that stops migrant workers being imported into Far North Queensland on lower wages than what local workers would be being paid. And it is the core mechanism that is meant to stop jobs going to people other than local workers or young people.

The threshold has been held at the same level since 2003, meaning it hasn't risen with living costs, but the concession is a discount. Under the DAMA, they essentially can pay people less. Again, you would think that there are some occupations that this government thinks are worth being less than what the threshold is. It's okay getting a concession. I guess you would think that maybe one or two of the list of 70 should apply for this threshold, but 62 of the 70 occupations are eligible for this concession, meaning they do not have to pay an income equivalent to other visa requirements. Sixty-two occupations are able to get away with not paying the migrant threshold income.

In year 2 of the scheme, variations have been sought from the Department of Home Affairs to include additional occupations and more concessions as DAMA is in place in Far North Queensland. It's shocking that this government thinks that this is the solution to our skills crisis in Far North Queensland—to put together an agreement and allow extensive occupations to be added to that agreement, to allow concessions and to allow people to be paid less than what local workers would be paid.

They're not going to go out there and fund TAFE the way they should be. They're not going to go out there and give money to the Great Barrier Reef International Marine College, a fantastic TAFE facility in Cairns, where we train people like dive operators, who are listed on the DAMA. Instead they are going to use this DAMA to fill the gaps that they have created by failing the system. There is a place for skilled migration in our country, but this government cannot use the system alone to fix our skills crisis.

Debate interrupted.