Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Skills Australia Bill 2008 is one of the first pieces of legislation to be tabled in the new parliament by Labor under Kevin Rudd. It is being marked as a priority for the parliament as the Rudd government recognises the degree of neglect by the Howard and Costello regime. That neglect and lack of funding has led to the situation in which Australia is now in—with a chronic shortage of skilled workers, for which industry is crying out to employ. This lack of skilled and trained workers is one of the major causes of the current inflationary pressures now evident in the Australian economy. The Rudd Labor government was elected to address this situation, and quite rightly it is a priority.

In the Senate last year I outlined the skills shortage problem and the duplication in systems that the former government’s bill introduced with the Australian technical colleges. The Commonwealth funded technical colleges run in duplication alongside the respective state based TAFE systems. Commonwealth funded colleges that were ‘unsurprisingly, located in marginal electorates such as Bass and Braddon in Tasmania’ have generally turned out to be expensive failures, with over half a billion dollars being spent on unnecessarily duplicated campuses and other facilities, which in late 2007 had resulted in: not a single graduate; 1,800 enrolments across all colleges; just two out of the 21 colleges having met their 2007 enrolment targets; an average cost per student of $175,000; only one-third of the colleges legally registered to provide training; the bulk of training outsourced to state TAFEs or registered training organisations.

With Skills Australia and the rest of the Rudd government’s five-point plan, we are planning to actually meet future challenges well before they arise—unlike the former government. It was not like they were not aware of the deepening skills shortage situation. They were given warning after warning. They were warned of the deepening skills crisis on more than 20 occasions by the Reserve Bank. The shadow minister, Mr Turnbull, is still pushing the former government’s line that Australia does not have a ‘chronic skills crisis’. However, his view is not echoed in a survey of 250 medium to large Australian companies recently released by the global business consultant Grant Thornton. The survey found that ‘shortages of skilled workers remained the biggest problem affecting expansion of Australian businesses’.

In addition to the constant warnings from the Reserve Bank, a survey and report of 760 producers conducted by the Australian Industry Group during the final term of the previous government—Australia’s skills gap: costly, wasteful and widespreadrevealed that one in two firms were experiencing difficulties obtaining skilled labour. Yet, according to It’s crunch time, another AiG report, one in five young adults have not completed year 12 or a certificate III vocational qualification. It is patently obvious from the former government’s lack of response to these reports and warnings that they were intent on looking after themselves electorally, with short-term excuses not long-term solutions. Skills Australia will be a statutory body headed by a panel of seven experts drawn from the worlds of industry, economics, training and academia. This management panel and Skills Australia will assist government in targeting investment in training exactly where it is needed.

As early as 1997, a year after their election, the former Howard-Costello administration ignored warnings by the Reserve Bank that skill shortages would adversely affect growth and were a prime contribution to rising inflation. The previous government masked these problems by using phrases such as ‘skill needs’ or ‘skill gaps’ and further compounded issues by reducing the Commonwealth’s funding of TAFE systems by 6.6 per cent between 1997 and 2000. These cuts have had an obvious flow-on effect that meant over the last decade TAFE has not been able to meet the demand for training places. The establishment of Skills Australia by way of this bill aims to reverse the situation and ensure that there are adequate places for workers to train in TAFEs countrywide. This is all part of the Rudd government’s five-point plan to fight inflation and lift the productive capacity of the Australian economy after the damage wreaked by over a decade of the Howard-Costello government’s neglect and decay.

In terms of skilled worker shortages, by the former Howard government’s own estimates Australia faces a shortage in excess of 200,000 skilled workers over the next five years. In fact, by 2016 that shortage will be closer to 240,000 workers that are not in place. That is 240,000 carpenters, electricians, nurses and plumbers that, had the previous government bothered to address the situation, would already be either advanced in their training or well and truly making a contribution to the economy. Instead, inflation is at a 16-year high, the building industry is overwhelmed and the waiting list for new houses grows day by day.

The Rudd Labor government has well and truly taken the horse by the reins and is confident that with the establishment of Skills Australia, combined with the rest of its five-point plan, the skills shortage will be addressed appropriately. Addressing and allocating resources to major areas of skill shortage and training needs—as identified by Skills Australia in consultation with industry—is the central tenet of the Rudd Labor government’s Skilling Australia for the Future policy. Skills Australia will be the provider of high-quality advice to government which will, in turn, support individual workers in obtaining higher skill levels and qualifications thus deepening the national skills base. In Tasmania, for instance, two of the state’s largest employers, the fast catamaran builders Incat and Austral Ships, are in need of trained metal fabricators and welders. Skills Australia will be able to identify this area of skills shortage and, in turn, recommend allocation of funding to requisite training courses in Tasmania and nationwide.

To cite a further example of the derision with which the former government treated the TAFE and vocational training sectors, some 325,000 potential trainees were turned away from TAFE colleges nationwide under their watch. This truly shows the abject contempt our predecessors held for getting on with the job at hand and addressing what has turned out to be a genuine limiting factor on our national economy. This new authority, Skills Australia, will work in close consultation with industry to ensure training facilities and necessary funding are pinpointed exactly where they are needed and in a timely manner to ensure that the current situation of a dearth of available and highly skilled workers is a relic of times gone by. The Rudd Labor government is, front and centre, committed to helping Australia’s industrial sector to prosper and grow—not just stagnate and wither as seemed to be the main tenet of the decade of inaction watched over by Mr Howard and his electorally-driven former coalition government.

Upon its establishment, Skills Australia will analyse and report on current and emerging skill shortages and requirements in the national economy, both in macro and sector based spheres. It will widely disseminate information from research and meetings with stakeholders that will enable businesses and workers to assess and inform their training and employment options. It will also provide government with key recommendations on potential and existing areas of skill needs to encourage an idea of where, when, how and what amount of public funds will need to be invested to strengthen relevant skill bases. Skills Australia will give advice on the allocation of 450,000 training places between establishment and 2011, ensuring government is able to rapidly convey to training providers specifically where trainees and workers with requisite skills are in demand by industry.

Existing industry skills councils will be strengthened and will advise and connect employers from industry with nationally accredited providers who will train both existing employees and those new to the workplace. The Rudd Labor government, in a departure from the previous occupants of the government benches, has already and will in future heed the advice and any warnings issued by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

An initial and urgent response to the current skills shortage has seen the Rudd Labor government acting with the utmost urgency to ensure 20,000 new training places will be available from April 2008 to 30 June 2008. The government has already called for expressions of interest for the provision of these places, which will be directed specifically at those looking to enter the labour market, thus stimulating workforce participation and lifting the productive capacity of Australia. In addition to this, the Skilling Australia for the Future policy will support up to 65,000 apprenticeships over the next four years.

The Rudd Labor government is also committed to moving forward the national skills agenda through the Council of Australian Governments. Through COAG, all Australian state and territory governments have agreed to work together to increase the productive capacity of the economy, address inflationary pressures and deliver higher quality services to the community. Building on the work of COAG, the Rudd Labor government has begun discussions with the state and territory systems to ensure close coordination between governments in planning for and funding growth in training and skills development. It is only with a long-term productivity agenda that we can hope to achieve simultaneously high economic growth, low unemployment and low inflation.

There are many benefits to be achieved by working together. A better return on publicly funded training investment can be expected. We can increase the capacity of enterprises to adopt high-performance work practices that increase productivity through supporting workers to realise their potential. The Skills Australia Bill is the first part of the Rudd Labor government’s policy package to address skills shortages and thus fight inflation. The Rudd Labor government is ‘skilling Australia for the future’. It is a challenging and vital plan and it requires an active contribution from all parties.

There has been support for the Rudd Labor government’s Skills Australia Bill from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which, in a press release dated 13 February 2008 and headed ‘Great potential in Skills Australia’, welcomed the introduction of this legislation and stated:

We are pleased that Skills Australia will bring together data about Australia’s skills needs from existing sources. The absence of a consistent definition for ‘skills shortages’ across Australia makes this function particularly valuable to industry.

It is only with all stakeholders actively engaged in this skills agenda that focus can be put on the end result—to increase the productive capacity of Australia’s economy via a more highly skilled and thoroughly trained workforce. The ultimate result of the creation of Skills Australia will be an industrial arena where the career aspirations and desires of workers are recognised, developed and justly rewarded. Establishing Skills Australia is the first of many steps the Rudd Labor government is taking as part of a comprehensive approach to overcoming the challenges and issues that Australia faces in securing a productive and prosperous future. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate the remainder of my speech on the Skills Australia Bill 2008 which I began earlier today.

Leave granted.

The remainder of the speech read as follows—

Part of the problem we face in addressing Australia’s skills shortage has been that training has not sufficiently matched industry’s needs.

Business and Industry have not been adequately consulted regarding their requirements for skilled workers. Through Skills Australia industry groups can predict and tailor training to the needs of their future workforce.

The Government is bringing everyone in on this one. We are including industry, businesses, academics and unions, as well as every single Australian State and territory for this first time to address this problem together.

Based on feedback from this group we will be able to allocate training places according to industry demand.

By planning and co-ordinating a united approach we will be able to ensure that the skills crisis that the Howard Government created and perpetuated can not and will not happen again.

These reforms will help with a better assessment of Australia’s skills needs and ensure new training places are delivered in a way that meets the needs of industry and our economy.

Industry skills councils will work with employers to identify their skills needs and match those needs with nationally accredited training by drawing on the advice of Skills Australia, its collective knowledge and skills base.

Australia’s training system must shift to a system that is driven by, and which responds to, the needs of business, industry and the economy. In this way, we can meet current demands and also ensure that we are looking ahead to future needs.

As already mentioned, this approach to addressing the skills shortage in Australia has the support and will have the involvement of every State and Territory through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

Already, a level of co-operation has been achieved by the Rudd Labor Government, which could never have been achieved by our predecessors.

The Department for Education, Employment & Workplace Relations has begun discussions with state and territory education authorities to ensure close co-ordination between governments in planning and funding training and skills development. Over coming months we will see the benefits that Skills Australia will deliver.

A significant reason for its success is that it will be working with industry and governments in Australia, rather than against them.

There are many shared and real benefits to be achieved by working together. We can expect a better return on publicly funded training investment and we will see a co-operative approach to the way that investment is applied.

It is only with all stakeholders actively engaged in the skills agenda that we can focus on our outcomes—to increase the productive capacity of the economy through a more highly-skilled workforce.

Mr President, it is important to keep in mind that for almost 12 long years’ vocational education and training was relegated to the bottom of the government’s priorities.

Under the previous government the number of apprenticeships and traineeships commenced as a result of a Job Network placement fell by more than half.

Between 1998 and 1999 there were 32,807 places compared with only 14,925 in the financial year 2006-07.

I bring to Honourable Senator’s attention, an article by Sid Marris in the Australian on 14th February 2008, in which the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI) called on the Rudd Government:

“…to appoint a business person with industry experience as the chair of the new body… (as)…an approach which brings together important intelligence across portfolios will contribute to Australia’s skills planning processes.”

Isn’t it ironic. Here is the so called peak representative body of industry, who have had their feet firmly planted under the desk of Howard ministers – through the connection of Peter Hendy, former Chief Executive of ACCI, who we all now came out of the office of the former Minister for Industrial Relations in the Howard Government, Peter Reith – talking about the inclusion of different groups within training bodies.

And we all know the ACCI’s background, who spent 11 years doing all that they could denying union involvement in training bodies.

Now that their mates have been turfed out, they demand that they should have a place at the table.

The ACCI is just as guilty as the former Howard Government in overseeing the greatest demise of skills training in this nation.

Unlike these narrow interested groups, we on the Labor side of politics, support inclusion. Be it in the workplace, enterprise bargaining or in the development and implementation of skills training.

I also bring Honourable Senator’s attention to an article in the Age on 5th February 2008 by Tim Colebatch in which he states:

“The Howard Government dropped the ball on skills training, and chose infrastructure projects for political ends, not economic value.”

This damning statement of the Howard Government provide proof to the Australian people and to this Parliament that the former Howard Government was utterly negligent - failing to prepare Australia for the resources boom and a burgeoning economy.

Because Australia was simply not ready to respond, many opportunities have been lost.

A skilled country is essential for economic reform and a strong stable economy.

Addressing the skills shortage is part of the Rudd Government’s Five Point plan to address inflation and maintain this country’s economic strength.

We were once a nation of innovation. Now that the 12-year lapse in leadership is well and truly behind us, let’s roll our sleeves up and get on with the real task of not only addressing the skills crisis but ensuring we never find ourselves in this situation again.

If we don’t invest as a nation, we don’t get a return, it’s as simple as that.

The Labor Party saw it coming. Together with the states and territories we will, through new leadership, provide a fresh start on skills and training.

The only answer that the lame Howard Government had was to try and flood the country with foreign workers. And what a wonderful solution that was…

In summary, Mr President, I commend this Bill to the Senate and if any Senator opposite has an ounce of decency in their bones, they will support this Bill through the Senate.

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

I wish to speak for only about a minute. I particularly want to mention that Senator Carol Brown in her address indicated that there had been no students graduating from the northern technical college in Tasmania. This is in fact incorrect. The graduation ceremony was held two weeks ago at the Burnie Civic Centre and students graduated. I just wish to place on record that students have graduated from the northern technical college in Tasmania.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like my colleague, I have been prompted to rise to speak because I have been listening to the addresses by members of the new Labor Party government on the other side. They have flushed me out of my office because what we have heard is all the old hacks get up and deliver nothing but a litany of misrepresentations on this important issue, on this economic squeeze that we know exists. Senator Carol Brown looks all quizzical and surprised, but she delivered the most set piece of all the speeches from the government side, putting in every second line ‘the former government’s legacy and the problem they have created’. She read it with disinterest, just delivering her lines as if being told to.

Let me say this to you, Senator Brown, for as long as you can possibly stay in the chamber: it is quite well recognised and denied by no-one that there is a skills shortage. There are different reasons for that. But let me also assure you, Senator Brown, and the previous speakers from the government, that the establishment of Skills Australia is not the panacea. It is not the solution. It is just another advisory body. It can join the other 43 committees, inquiries, commissions and conferences. You may as well just add: Skills Australia—an advisory body to the government. That is all it is. It is not a step forward at all. It is a statutory body to advise the government on an issue they ought to already know about. And by the way Senator George Campbell delivered his speech today he is very keen to get onto that statutory body to advise the government. He was oozing to get onto the body with his praise for Skills Australia. But, rest assured, your deliveries today would convince no-one in the industry, no-one with any understanding, that Skills Australia is a step forward in solving the greater problems we have before us. You showed little knowledge of and little interest in the bill. You just rushed in here simply to deliver a litany of falsehoods against the former government.

I should also add that I want to go back to the Hansard and look at one of Minister Carr’s—I find ‘Minister Carr’ hard to say—answers in question time today in regard to what I believe were false figures which he gave on the government’s new apprenticeships scheme. He will have to come in here and correct that particular error.

As I said, there is no denying that we have a shortage of skills in this country. It is well known. There are many different reasons for that. Some of them go as far back as the eighties and the poor decisions made then in regard to the abolition of the tech colleges. We know that the tech colleges were a success in delivering the supply of tradespeople to meet the demand. But they were abolished by the Labor government on the grounds of some sort of false snobbery, that everyone ought to be doing arts or something at university. They abolished the tech colleges. The eighties may seem a long time ago for a lot of people but that had a cascading effect throughout the nineties and right through to today. The abolition of the tech colleges without doubt pulled the rug out from under the training of future tradespeople. And to think a Labor government did it.

The second reason that we have this squeeze on skills is the economy—the two economies, I should say. When the Labor Party were last in government under the Hawke-Keating government, in particular during the period when Paul Keating was Prime Minister, there was a severe recession which cut into businesses. Businesses simply stopped taking on apprentices. I have the figures for that. Apprenticeships dropped right down in 1994 to 107,000—a record low. The obvious effect, if the economy is driven into the ground, as it was by the previous Labor government, is that naturally the number of apprenticeships will drop off. Again, that has an effect for years to come because it takes some four years, plus probably a year or two extra in experience and training, for a properly skilled apprentice to get up and running, to meet their productive potential. So the recession during the previous Labor government had a severe effect on the skills pool in this country.

When we came into government, we immediately introduced the New Apprenticeships program in acknowledgement of the pending skills shortage. When the coalition were in government, we had 12 years of economic growth. That is another factor that squeezes the skills pool. Of course it does. These are the reasons. There is a heavy demand for skilled workers in a growing economy. That seems to have escaped those on the other side. They simply want to make cheap political points. These are the economic facts. The previous government’s record in regard to apprenticeships ought to be held up. I will not hear from the other side that it was not a very proud record. When we came in, as I said, apprenticeships were down to 107,000. In leaving government, there were somewhere near 450,000 to 500,000 apprentices in training. That is an enormous leap—from 107,000 to 400,000-plus. That was the success of the New Apprenticeships scheme. That was based on increased payments to employers and increased incentives for young people to take up an apprenticeship.

Moreover, we introduced the tech colleges. I should say that this government will abolish the previous government’s technical colleges program. Again, that is going to have a serious long-term effect. Just as we are talking now about the effect of the abolition of the technical colleges in the eighties upon the skills shortage and all those wasted young people who could have had more productive lives by taking up an apprenticeship but were forced into some other educational stream which did not suit them, we will be talking in the future, in probably the next 10 or 15 years, about the abolition of the technical colleges that this government is going to undertake.

Labor have learnt nothing. They are going to commit the same serious error twice. So do not anybody say that this is a new Labor government. This is the same old Labor government, and the same old unionists are on the speakers list—Senator George Campbell, Senator Sterle and the like. They should know better and should be standing up for future workers, the tradespeople. They were probably the beneficiaries themselves of an apprenticeship or perhaps even a tech school of some sort. The point is that Labor have learnt nothing and they are about to make the same mistake. What is their answer today? It is Skills Australia—an advisory body.

Also, besides the New Apprenticeships scheme, the previous government acted to increase their skilled migration program to meet short-term shortages. It ought to be noted that this skills shortage is an international one. It is not unique to Australia. How many people know of Australian nurses who have been attracted to England by higher pay? This is an international problem. We are competing on the international stage to attract workers. Nevertheless, the previous government increased the skilled migration program to 100,000-plus, I believe, and it has been a successful program.

Further to that, the previous government introduced the skills voucher program, which was targeted towards older—if you want to call 25 and over older—unskilled workers to train themselves up. The current government are going to abolish it. The voucher scheme is probably one of the most efficient, targeted and necessary schemes for that age group of all the programs introduced, and the government are going to abolish it. What are they going to do instead? They are going to introduce an advisory body. So we have the 2020 conference, we have commissions—the health commissions are set up—we have inquiries into this and that, we have motherhood statements, spin statements and platitudes, and now we have a new statutory advisory body for an issue of concern that we all know about. It does not require another advisory body; it requires management.

Those on the other side have approached this whole debate in a sheer political manner. Those who have spoken do not even know what Skills Australia gets up to. They have been given their brief and have come in here—and their brief is not so much to talk about the bill; it is to knock the previous government. I see Senator Evans, the new Leader of the Government in the Senate, has walked in. When are they going to get down and govern? Are they just going to wait for all these reports and commissions and advisory bodies to come in one day before they actually govern? Get down and start governing, is my advice, and do more in this area than just set up an advisory body.

Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Democrats welcome this move to set up an advisory body on skills shortages. It seems to me that the last government did not have one. It was pretty clear, from the measures that they put in place to solve the skills crisis, that it was more knee-jerk and vote-catching than anything to do with establishing good public policy. However, I want to urge the government to make sure it is clear—because it is not clear in the Skills Australia Bill 2008exactly what the Skills Australia body will do. I hope it is not just about plumbers and electricians. We do need them—there is no question about that—but I have already spoken twice in this place today about skills shortages. On one occasion I spoke about the health sector, where skills shortages are so serious as to be worthy of a very high priority for Skills Australia to address. It is not just that we do not have enough doctors; there are, as I said, many ways in which we need to change our health system in order to allow other health professionals to be part of that system under existing structures.

I also spoke to the bill concerning the additional 50 teachers in the Northern Territory in Indigenous schools, where there is, again, an enormous shortage of teachers. We know that measures such as introducing 50 new teaching places will fail absolutely if we do not have sufficient teachers on the ground doing it. Or, at least, they will come from somewhere else where they are currently needed and in employment. So I urge the government to not just look at what would loosely be described as the ‘trades’ but make sure that this body also takes care of the professions, such as nurses, teachers, dentists, psychiatrists and the full range of those who are in short supply but so necessary to us in delivering health and education.

The reason I am critical of the former government in terms of skills is that, as I said, it seemed to me that decisions were knee-jerk. The former Prime Minister’s famous tech schools initiative was determined to bypass the states to put in place something which was very much a fifties view of what technical education should be about. I gather it was variously met with disdain and disapproval from the state governments because no discussion had taken place. I note that this body, Skills Australia, is charged with the business of talking with state governments, and that is a really good move. We need to get away from this whole idea that the Commonwealth will supersede and step over the service responsibilities of the states, and we need to work with them. I congratulate the government for doing this.

However, when I turn to the section about the appointment of members of Skills Australia, I fear that all of the Democrats’ work in this place putting up hundreds of amendments talking about appointment on merit and the sorts of things that ought to be in legislation in putting up boards has been ignored. There is nothing in the bill about appointment on merit, there is nothing here about probity and there is nothing here about independent scrutiny of appointments. I have to say, Minister Evans, that it is a great disappointment to the Democrats, after all of our efforts and all of the amendments that we have put up, to find that these points do not appear in this bill. Including them ought to have been an easy thing to do and is something that you should have done.

We have got a list of the sorts of experience that members of Skills Australia should have, and that is a good thing, and we have got mention of a member being able to be appointed on a part-time basis, but, at the end of the day, members, including the chair, are to be appointed by the minister by written instrument. Here we go again. I will not be putting up our standard amendment, because, as I understand it, the government is already underway with its appointment process, at least for the chair. We have acknowledged that that is the case and modified our amendment. I foreshadow that when we go into committee I will move our amendment, which is numbered QM342, and not put our standard amendment, which is based on the Nolan principles.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank all senators for their contribution to the debate. The bits I heard were lively and all contributions worthy. As I say, I thank them for their contribution to the debate on the Skills Australia Bill 2008.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.