Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've had an interjection about that. They've got it wrong, those opposite are telling us. On the same day, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said—let's see if those opposite think they've got it wrong as well:

… from the very beginning—when the Prime Minister was opposition leader he stated that he had a vision for Jobs and Skills Australia and that it would be a tripartite organisation. ACCI has always worked on that basis, that that would be the final form of the organisation, so we support that.

The only ones opposed to that are those opposite.

I want to highlight a great example of what can happen when employers and unions get together to develop, implement and evolve training opportunities by industry for industry. I recently visited the Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre campus at Glenwood in Sydney. This centre is an industry-led organisation that works in a supported partnership with government, employer and employee groups to develop and implement training that benefits the whole industry. At its opening in May 2021, the state secretary of the New South Wales Plumbers and Pipe Trades Employees Union, Theo Samartzopoulos, said:

The centre demonstrates the commitment of our industries to maintaining the highest standards and creating futureproofed jobs for the community.

This organisation, which started in Victoria in 2009, now has five facilities that effectively respond to the needs of industry while also working closely with state governments. The centre is jointly administered by the plumbers union—those opposite would be worried about that because that's people having a voice.

But how about these ones? Do you think they're in the naughty corner as well? The Master Plumbers Association—it's okay, they're employers; the National Fire Industry Association, who are employers too; and the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association, who are also employers. They are all part of a tripartite approach to make sure they can lift the standards of training and skilling within industry.

The first facility opened in Brunswick, in Victoria, with the primary purpose of providing industry with courses in green plumbing to address an identified skill shortage in sustainable plumbing within the industry. The centre has evolved and now offers courses for the entire career life cycle of plumbing, from pre-apprenticeship courses to post trade courses, including industry-specific work and health and safety for the industry. The centres have expanded across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

In addition, they raised funds from levies and enterprise agreements. Listen to this: employers, the workforce and their representatives in the union came to an agreement, through their enterprise agreements, that they would raise funds. The Queensland government has also provided support to diversify leverage partnerships to aid in developing skills and training for the hydrogen industry. So they're actually thinking about the way forward. That's what happens when you do things tripartite—everybody works together for the common good. But those on the opposite side don't like that; they want conflict constantly, because anything other than that doesn't serve their political purpose. At the heart of this purpose is to drive collaboration between employers and unions to ensure that workers, industries and communities, including in the National Net Zero Authority, which has powered Australia for generations, can seize the opportunities for Australia's net zero transformation.

I also want to congratulate Michael Wright, the national secretary, and Allen Hicks, the New South Wales secretary of the Electrical Trades Union. I know how hard they have worked to ensure that working people in the energy sector have their voices heard as the energy mix changes. It's absolutely non-negotiable that communities working in the energy sector have access to new employment opportunities and that those are secure and fairly paid jobs.

It's also pleasing that this government is reinvigorating effective industry engagement in the VET system through establishing jobs and skills councils. These jobs and skills councils are providing industry with a stronger, more strategic voice, ensuring Australia's VET sector delivers strong outcomes for both learners and employers. In doing so, we'll ensure Australians can learn new skills and innovative and creative new knowledge, which will improve productivity, increase future economic growth and meet the skill needs of today and tomorrow.

Supporting training by industry for industry, as will be the case with the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia, is in stark contrast with what we saw from those opposite during the time that they were in government. With no surprise, the former government didn't believe in broad consultation or collaboration or representative groups, like trade unions, in Australia's VET system. The former government proposed clusters model was an absolute sham. Instead of building opportunities for collaboration on Australia's skills and training system, they wanted to shut the voice of working people and industry further out. Rather than listen to workers and their representatives, the Liberal government prioritised listening to shonky private training organisations. They're not all shonky. But, I'll tell you what, the former government listened to a hell of a lot of them. That's why those opposite failed this country.

What did they do to deliver for working people? We've got to think about what they actually did and how they delivered the training system they put forward? They delivered a standing program—and everyone should really be considering this one. It's like grilled hamburger university, where so-called apprentices, trainees, were paid as little as $14.95 an hour to work in a fast-food chain with no proper training and no skilling, just cheap labour. That's the previous government's grand plan for our VET sector—cheap and nasty and without productivity. Rip them off, take advantage of them—that's the system they want to apply.

It's incredibly important that we take care of our TAFEs and our apprentices and that the disgraceful data we've had to date over the past decade is turned around. Those opposite should get out of the way and let us clean up this mess and support this bill.

Debate interrupted.