Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Senator Vanstone) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

We heard it all today. We are experiencing the worst skills shortage in Australia since just after the Second World War in the context of a minerals boom and a demand for our goods in South-East Asia, in particular. We are seeing problems with the traditional skills. We are seeing problems with transport skills. We are seeing problems in the road construction area. We are seeing problems in manufacturing, even though it is not going all that well, because of the draw of skills away from manufacturing by some of the resource industries. And this government is still living under the delusion that somehow its last 10 years of government have had no impact on that catastrophe of skills shortage in Australia.

I remind the government, including Minister Vanstone, that in 1996 and 1997 I and other Labor senators were asking questions of the government about what they were doing to improve the engagement of apprentices in traditional trades. Do you know what the government’s response was? In a move which was designed for propaganda rather than nation building purposes, they established a program called the New Apprenticeships program, so that when young people were engaged in traineeship programs in hospitality, in retail or in clerical occupations, they would be able to say that these were new apprenticeships—so they would be able to pretend to the public that they were actually putting people into new apprenticeships in those traditional trades areas.

We are seeing the fruits of that deception now. We are seeing, across this country, massive complaints about the problems that we are experiencing with a lack of skilled trades. We have had the South Australian Freight Council, for example, saying:

A critical shortage of skilled workers over the next decade in Australia’s $60 billion a year transport and logistics industry could threaten the nation’s future economic growth.

That is an industry that is responsible for 3.4 per cent of our gross domestic product. We should also be aware that Australian road freight is predicted to double between now and 2020. Yet that industry now is facing dramatic skills shortages.

What we have heard today on top of all that is that the government has decided not to do something practical to get beyond the problem that we are in but to rebadge the New Apprenticeships scheme as the Australian apprenticeships scheme and at the same time cut funding of the incentives program from that New Apprenticeships scheme by $41½ million in net terms. The minister was not prepared to address that in her answer to the Senate in question time today because it is scandalous that, at this time of crisis when we are facing skills shortages that we have not seen since the end of the Second World War, all this government can think of is playing politics: changing the name of the scheme, trimming some money from employer incentives, perhaps so that they can put them in just before the next election and then pretend what a good job they are doing, and at the same time suggesting that whatever problems we have are due to a government that was in power over a decade ago and that they are not due to anything this government has done or to the fact that the funding for trade training and skills training was cut by this government in 1997 and 1998.

Trying to pretend that that did not happen and saying that this is a problem presented to the Australian economy by the previous Labor government is just a fabrication. This government is the author of this problem. It has been in power for near on a decade. It has done nothing substantial to address this problem, and the Australian economy is now going to pay the price. What is its solution? ‘We will bring in workers from China or the Philippines or South-East Asia generally—anywhere we can get them. But train Australians? No, thanks. That would cost us money and we can better things like fund our political advertising program to try to get across the line at the next election.’ I can tell you: that is going to be a pretty difficult ask for this government, and we will be doing all in our power to make sure the Australian people know that this is the government that is responsible for the crisis that is dragging the Australian economy down.

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is true that Australia faces almost the worst skills shortage that we have faced in our history. But that of course is because the Australian economy is going through a period of unprecedented growth and boom. That has all occurred not under the administration of the Hawke and Keating government but under the administration of the Howard-Costello government. It is a tribute, as perhaps nothing else could be, to the great success in terms of economic management, promotion of business and development of industry and trade which has occurred under the Howard government that we face this skills shortage.

The point Senator O’Brien has sought to make—that this government has somehow been slow in addressing this skills shortage—is quite nonsensical when one looks at some of the statistics involved. The cumulative expenditure for vocational and technical education since the Howard government came into office, up to the last year, is $18.1 billion. The Australian government funding in the years from 2004 to the present time has gone up by a factor of 34 per cent. Over the whole period since the Howard government has been in office, there has been an 88.3 per cent real increase in funding for vocational and technical education. That is hardly a government neglecting this area.

It is very interesting, too, to look at some of the figures of student numbers. Today we have 1,641,300 students, to be fairly exact about it, in new apprenticeships. That is a 220 per cent increase since 1996. Senator Carr might recall that 1996 was a very important year because that was the year that the Howard government came into office. So, far from neglecting apprenticeships and far from neglecting technical training, this government has in fact put an enormous effort into both, spent record amounts of money and greatly increased the number of students undergoing apprenticeships and technical training.

Furthermore, in the last federal election, if you recall, the Howard government announced that there would be 29 new technical colleges placed around Australia to enable more young people to be trained in trades and other technical areas to address the skills shortage which our country is facing. Most recently—only two weeks ago—when we were sitting at the Minerals Council of Australia dinner, the Prime Minister announced that the latest of these technical colleges would be located in the Pilbara in Western Australia and would become the Pilbara technical college, taking under its wing the Karratha and Hedland TAFE colleges, as they are now. That is going to be a very important boost to technical and trade training in the Pilbara, which is where the skills shortage is perhaps more obvious than in many other parts of Australia.

It is a great initiative too because it is going to mean that Indigenous people will be able to access that kind of training. The mining industry’s plan will be to provide trade training and education to Indigenous Australians so that they can not only take their place in the workforce but also take their place in part of the broader Australian community. Needless to say, this has all happened under the Howard government. Far from being deficient in these areas, the Howard government has had very successful policies.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If ever there was a case where the government had difficulties facing up to the fact that the chickens are now coming home to roost, it is with this issue of skills shortages. Every parrot in every pet shop, as they say, across the land is now announcing we have a skills shortage. It was Judith Sloan, the well-known expert that the Liberal Party called upon to justify their wage-cutting, deskilling policies in the run-up to their first great assault on the labour movement, on workers’ rights and living conditions of working families in this country in 1996, who was called upon to provide advice to this government—and to the cabinet, if I recall rightly from the press reports at the time. She claimed the intellectual basis for assaulting workers’ rights and conditions was the need to reduce wages and conditions in this country and to deregulate the economy, particularly the training regime.

Judith Sloan is now a Productivity Commissioner. She has been rewarded for her dedicated support for the Liberal Party over all these years. However, today she is saying that the real problem is that migration is not a skill formation policy. This is from the same Liberal Party doyen, Professor Judith Sloan. She says:

You really have to think much more broadly in terms of all the incentives for Australian employers and employees to gain skills.

The apprenticeship system we have in this country was essentially created through the work of Dr Kemp. Dr Kemp was the great initiator of the changes in policy the government now applauds. He introduced the New Apprenticeships system, the title of which the government now wants to change to the Australian apprenticeships system.

I am very familiar with these matters. I spent a great deal of time examining the work that was undertaken back in 1996. The truth of the matter is that in that period the first thing the government did was to stop collecting statistics on the traditional trades. It stopped trying to promote the skilling of the traditional trades. It saw the need for employer incentives, which, I understand, is now a program getting close to $570 million per year, to be directed at encouraging employers, particularly in the personal and other services industries—accommodation, cafes and restaurants. We had a grand new scheme costing over $570 million per year—the equivalent in today’s dollars—going to employers to train burger flippers and cappuccino makers.

What do we find? We now cannot find enough boilermakers and engineers and we cannot train enough kids in maths and science in our schools and universities to ensure that we have the underpinnings of a properly educated workforce to cope with the need for innovation in our society. This government thought that the approach to wage cutting and the reduction in working conditions was to train burger flippers and cappuccino makers, and the bulk of their incentives went into those trades.

I am not against the training of people in the hospitality industry. It is extremely important. But the government, as an act of state policy, transferred resources out of the training of workers in the traditional trades—we had to get rid of this description of apprenticeship and get rid of the division between apprenticeships and traineeships—to get this New Apprenticeships model going. As a consequence of that most of the money has gone into the training of people at AQF level III, which of course was not sufficient to provide the training base to pay people decent money to ensure they have the skills base for the opportunities at work, to control the production process, because the government’s policy was about reducing wages and conditions. The government’s whole approach is very simple. It says that, in a free-market capitalist economy when there is a shortage, you put the price up—unless you are a worker. Then only a worker has to be controlled and regulated so that they do not have the capacity to enjoy a decent standard of living. (Time expired)

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the motion to take note of the answers from Minister Vanstone. I will say at the outset that we need to clearly state on the record the real wage increase in this country. The 13 years of Labor government, prior to us taking office in 1996, produced 1.3 per cent increase in real wages. What has this government produced? This government, over 10 years, has had real wage increases of 16.7 per cent. What a comparison of figures! And Senator Carr has the cheek to stand up in the chamber and indicate that real wages do not increase under this government. Those are the facts and figures.

I am very pleased that Senator O’Brien has returned to the chamber because he indicated earlier what this government has been doing for skills in this country. This government has recognised emphatically the need to pick up where state Labor governments have not progressed as far as they should have. He should talk to his state Labor colleagues, because we have introduced Australian technical colleges—in our home state, in northern Tasmania, in the electorate that both Senator O’Brien and I come from. We have a technical college up and running. It is in its administrative stages now, working through to full completion. We have started the process. The money is there. What is more, this model is based on two campuses: one in Launceston and one in Burnie. Senator O’Brien knows that we have targeted particular areas.

In north-west Tasmania, like in Senator Eggleston’s home state of Western Australia, there is a resource boom. Tasmania and Western Australia are reaping the benefits of this resource boom, which was brought about by a brilliantly managed economy. When you have a boom, what then happens is that you have a catch-up phase. We have addressed this problem. We are addressing it constantly around the country. There will be skilled workers where needed as and when we develop the processes to get skilled workers back into the workforce. If you have to have a problem of either a shortage of workers or too many workers, I would much rather have the shortage. This economy is running so well that we have the luxury of the low unemployment rate, and we are now going to be picking up in the area of additional workers.

The issue of workers from other countries came up during the debate. Senator Eggleston and I happen to be on the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and our current inquiry is on skilled immigrants. We are looking at processing skilled immigrants. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs is working very well in getting immigrants to come in who have the skills we need in this country. The assessment processes will take place offshore and that is going to be a great boon for this country.

Another aspect of having a great economy is you end up with a shortage in different places at different times, but the best thing about the economy’s strength is that we have such a low unemployment rate. If we look at the record of the previous government the unemployment rate was extremely high. The Labor Party has never had a skills shortage. They have always had a skills surplus because they have had such a high unemployment rate. Under our government we do not have a skills surplus, we have a skills shortage. We acknowledge that and we are putting in colleges to combat that particular issue.

The migration committee inquiry has heard a lot of evidence about the immigration into this country of migrants who possess skills. We have a list of skills that the department modifies and updates as and when required to identify and make provision for the shortages and the gaps, so this government is very proactive in relation to skills shortages. But I emphasise again, Mr Deputy President, if you have to have a problem I would much rather the problem of having a skills shortage than having workers sitting at home twiddling their thumbs because of a high unemployment rate. Having workers in the workforce, gainfully employed and looking for further people to come into the workforce is exactly what we want.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Particularly when you haven’t trained the people for the skills.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O’Brien interjects by saying that we have not trained them. The state governments have the responsibility of training. We fund the state governments to train and they have not taken up the cudgels and run with that training. For 10 years we have been funding state governments to provide training. State governments have let this go. We have introduced additional training by having direct input into technical colleges. (Time expired)

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the motion to take note of answers given by Senator Vanstone, representing the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. I note that Senator Parry has spent five minutes trying to bury the problem of the skills shortages in Australia, a problem that has been exposed by the questions asked today by Senator O’Brien and others on this side of the chamber. It is a problem that has also been brought to our attention by many respected organisations including, as Senator O’Brien said, the South Australian Freight Council, the Reserve Bank, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and numerous economists and academics who, for many years, have been ringing the bells about the skills crisis facing the country.

Now we have a government which thinks that spending $24 million of taxpayers’ money on a new logo and a new name for the New Apprenticeship scheme is going to solve the problems we are facing. You have to ask how a $24 million name is change going to do anything except waste more money and line the pockets of the advertisers and consultants that the government likes to fritter away money on. We saw $55 million spent on advertising to try and promote the Work Choices legislation. Well, that fell flat and we can be certain that $24 million to change the name of the New Apprenticeship scheme will also fall flat.

It will fall as flat as the introduction of the Australian technical colleges that Senator Parry was banging on about just then. Let us be clear about this: so far four colleges have been set up and they have enrolments of fewer than 300 people between them. If we are lucky those colleges will deliver 100 extra qualified tradespeople by 2010, when Peter Hendy of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says that the nation will need 100,000 extra qualified tradespeople. Of the ATC budget of $185 million the government so far has spent a lousy $18 million. Do not come in here and say that it has been a success—it has not been and it will not be.

Neither will the temporary, quick-fix solution that the government is using to try and solve the skills crisis by importing more than a quarter of a million migrants, as Senator O’Brien said, mainly from Asia to do the jobs that should be being done by Australians, who should have been trained by this government to do those jobs be a success. So instead we have 270,000 migrants in this country doing work that needs to be done because the government has failed to train Australians to do that work. Every day we read in the paper about how these migrants are being put in terrible situations like the workers in New South Wales we heard about today. They are being put in terrible situations, when they come over here, they can barely speak English, they have to rely on people to interpret for them and as a result they put themselves in a situation where they cannot observe the occupational health and safety rules of the workplace that they are in. What an appalling way to treat people! I will not even go into the situation of them being underpaid, which has been raised many times before.

We could reflect on the other things that the government has not done to fix the skills crisis. We could reflect on the reduction in the number of students commencing university under this government’s watch—down from 284,416 in 2003 to 279,168 last year. We know one of the reasons that people are not going to university is because of the huge disincentive of the HECS debt that they incur when they go there. The HECS fees under this government’s watch have doubled. Medical students are now paying $30,000 more for their degrees than they were under the previous government, and engineering students—we are desperate for engineers—are paying $16,000 extra a year to get a degree. The number of Australians in new apprenticeships is declining. It has declined over the last three years from 393,500 in 2003 to 389,000 in 2005.

What the government is doing is not successful. It has taken its eye off the game. All it has done is spend 10 long years plotting, planning and scheming to implement the tired old industrial relations agenda of a tired old prime minister at the expense of Australia’s youth and Australian industry, because we do not have the people in this country trained to the jobs that need to be done. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.