James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Education and Training Legislation Repeal Bill 2017 continues the Australian Government's effort to tidy up the Commonwealth's statute book with the repeal of four spent and redundant Commonwealth Acts within the Education and Training portfolio.

The four Acts being repealed are:

Australian Research Council (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2001

Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia's Skills Needs) Act 2005

Skilling Australia's Workforce Act 2005

Skilling Australia's Workforce (Repeal and Transitional Provisions) Act 2005

The Australian Research Council (or ARC) invests in excellent fundamental and applied research that helps improve the quality of people's lives, supports Australian industries and businesses and ensures our nation remains at the cutting edge of research, innovation and global competitiveness.

However, the Australian Research Council (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2001, which the Bill repeals, is no longer relevant to the ARC because its primary legislative purpose is obsolete and non-operational.

The Government's investment through the ARC is significant in a wide variety of fundamental and applied research projects, growing Australia's research capacity and infrastructure.

On the 5 June 2017, the Government announced 120 new research projects across Australia with $170.6 million to tackle problems from fire safety to the country's ageing population, literacy and numeracy levels in school kids and coral reef conservation.

The Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia's Skills Needs) Act 2005 established Australian Technical Colleges to enable Year 11 and 12 students to undertake a School-based New Apprenticeship and to undertake academic studies leading to successful completion of the Year 12 Certificate which would complement their trade training.

By the end of 2009, these colleges had been integrated into the broader education and training system of jurisdictions and the Act is now redundant.

The Skilling Australia's Workforce Act 2005 governed financial grants to the states and territories to support the national training system for the years from 2005 to 2008.

As a vehicle for payments it has been superseded. Since 2009, payments have been made under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 via the National Agreements for Skills and Workforce Development.

The Bill also repeals the Skilling Australia's Workforce (Repeal and Transitional Provisions) Act 2005 which effected the winding up of the Australian National Training Authority and the transfer of its functions to the then Department of Education, Science and Training more than a decade ago.

Each of the Acts being repealed has served its purpose and is now obsolete. Users of Commonwealth legislation should not have to sift through outdated, unnecessary regulations to determine whether they still apply.

Allowing spent and redundant acts or provisions to remain in force on the Commonwealth's statute book only makes it harder for businesses, community organisations, and individuals to find the regulations that are current and that matter to them.

Proper housekeeping is part of every government's responsibility to ensure that the legislation on the statute book continues to remain 'fit for purpose'.

Bills like this demonstrate this Government's continuing commitment to make steady and consistent progress to reduce red tape by repealing redundant and unnecessary legislation that has outlived its purpose.

I commend the Bill.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor supports the Education and Training Legislation Repeal Bill 2017. It tidies up legislative instruments which are currently obsolete. The Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia's Skills Needs) Act 2005 underpinned the Australian Technical Colleges program, which was wound up by the end of 2009. Any continuing functions were rolled into the broader education and training system.

Australian technical colleges, or ATCs, were to provide training pathways for year 11 and 12 students while they simultaneously completed a secondary certificate of education. The ATCs were a coalition government creation that proved to be expensive and ineffectual. They suffered from low enrolments, problems sourcing staff and contributed very little to filling the trade shortages that they were funded to reverse. The ATC program was yet another attempt by the government to undermine TAFEs and public schools. The government wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on poorly-thought-through ATCs while underfunding public provision of vocational education and training. Repealing the now obsolete ATC Act serves as a reminder of the coalition's past and current failure to develop and implement a workable means of improving the provision and uptake of trades training.

Since the Abbott-Turnbull government took office there are 148,000 fewer apprentices and trainees in training across Australia, including 46,900 fewer trade apprentices, which is a drop of 22 per cent in trades training. Upon taking office, the government cut funding to trades training centres and got rid of trade cadetships. They have continued to chop and change on vocational education and training in schools policy because they don't care about whether it succeeds or fails. The Skilling Australia's Workforce Act 2005 provided grants to states and territories to support the national training system from 2005 to 2008, after which it was superseded by payment arrangements under the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 via the National Agreement on Skills and Workforce Development.

While the government is busy repealing obsolete education and training acts, the real business of ensuring ongoing skill development in Australia is being ignored. As it stands, the government still has no agreement with the states or territories to replace the national partnership on skills reform, which expired at the end of June. Both the ATC program and the Skilling Australia's Workforce Act 2005 are reminders of the coalition government's ongoing obsession with destroying unions and compelling organisations to adopt the government's ideologically-driven employment framework. The funding to states and territories under the Skilling Australia's Workforce Act was contingent on a range of ideologically-driven reforms designed to damage TAFEs and education unions such as workplace reforms for increased employment flexibility—yet people pretend that won't be part of the agenda for higher education at the moment—and encouraging the take-up of Australian workplace agreements and performance-based pay.

The then Department of Education, Science and Training's guidelines for Australian technical colleges stated that operators at ATCs were required to offer Australian workplace agreements to all staff, as well as offering performance based pay. The government cut Labor's Trade Training Centres in Schools Program after they came into office in 2013. The government also got rid of trade cadetships, despite significant industry support. These allowed students to finish school and to start a trade.

Labor supports this bill to tidy up legislative instruments which are obsolete, but laments this government's poor record on providing, encouraging and supporting important trades training.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contribution and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.