Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under standing order 74(5)(a), I seek an explanation from the Minister for Training and Education, Senator Birmingham, as to why question Nos 912, 914, 915, 917, 923, 925, 928, 934, 937, 942, 946 and 952, which I placed on notice on 8 June 2017, remain unanswered.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, you're well aware that there are many questions on notice that I have received over the last 12 months. My portfolio has handled 1,528 questions on notice. Of those, 1,366 have related to Senate estimates questions. Of those, 1,133 have had responses tabled. I assure you that all responses to estimates questions will be tabled in relation well ahead of the next estimates hearing.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Answers to these questions are now two months overdue. I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

A government senator: I think he's moving to waste time, actually.

I'll take that interjection from Senator Brandis. He indicated that I was moving to waste time.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Senator Birmingham, these questions—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, please resume your seat. Senator Brandis, on a point of order?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I didn't say anything, Madam Deputy President. Senator Birmingham made a private remark to me. He wasn't interjecting at all.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, that's pretty pathetic from the Attorney-General. Senator Birmingham raised this point across the chamber. Answers to these questions are two months overdue. The response from the minister was pretty pathetic—he gets a lot of questions. Which minister would not get lots of questions through the estimates process? That's what the estimates process is for: to ask questions and get responses within a laid-down time frame. This minister has failed to meet that. There are not only the questions that I've put forward here today; there are 88 questions in total that remain unanswered that I asked the minister. The minister has a battalion of public servants to help him respond to these questions.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A regiment or a battalion.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A regiment of public servants; it could be a battalion. I don't want to take up too much time of the Senate today. I am seeking an explanation linked to 12 questions on notice that relate to the government's Skilling Australians Fund. The questions are seeking detail about the security of the funding under the Skilling Australians Fund: what the Skilling Australians Fund will pay for and how the Skilling Australians Fund will operate. The government put together the so-called Skilling Australians Fund prior to May this year, prior to the budget, and they can't answer simple questions about how this fund will operate. I'm not surprised, given how bizarre the funding for the Skilling Australians Fund is, that they've got some problems.

This is a fund that relies on bringing skilled visa workers into Australia to pay for the Skilling Australians Fund, which is supposed to pay to skill young Australians. How bizarre can it get? So you bring more skilled people in to try to pay for the skilling of Australian workers. That will simply result in more visas—which, according to some government documentation, are supposed to decline in number over a period. That will mean less money to skill up young Australians. We should not be relying solely on income from foreign skilled labour being brought into this country to pay for the skilling, the apprenticeships and the traineeships, of Australians. It shows you how bizarre this government have become and how out of whack they are with the needs of industry and this country.

The Skilling Australians Fund was announced as part of the government's 2017 budget. The budget paper states that it will provide $1.5 billion over four years from 2017-18 and will prioritise apprenticeships and traineeships. It will operate with matched funding from the states. The government claims that it will support up to 300,000 more apprentices, trainees and higher-level skilled Australians over the next four years. Given that the estimates of growth of jobs in the economy is 900,000 in total over the forward estimates, this will equate to one-third of all new jobs apparently being taken up by apprentices and trainees—over 33 per cent. At the moment, apprenticeships and trainees represent just over 2.5 per cent. This is bizarre. It's just not clear how this is going to operate effectively.

Eligibility for the fund will be defined by the Commonwealth. It will fund projects focused on Commonwealth priorities. States' access to the fund will be conditional on their agreement to meeting conditions, including a focus on priority areas, matching Commonwealth funding, achieving outcomes and providing up-to-date data on performance and spending. The measure includes $261.2 million in 2017-18, which is in addition to the revenue generated from the visa levy. From 2018-19, funding for the measure will be determined by the training fund contribution levy.

The effect of skills formation in this country is a national and economic priority. It will be the difference between whether this country prospers or declines in the future. We are two months into the financial year in which the Skilling Australians Fund should be operating, and we've been told next to nothing about it by the government beyond the sparse detail in the budget papers and other very general statements made by the Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, Karen Andrews. The states don't know how this is going to operate. The opposition is unaware how this will operate. The government seems totally confused about how this will operate. It can't implement its own budget measures in time. It's another example of what a rabble this government is and how absolutely incompetent this government is.

This should be about providing opportunities for young Australians to get the apprenticeships and traineeships that will be so important to the future of this country. Skills development should be a national priority, yet all we have from this government are some budget measures that seem to be an absolute fairytale. They don't understand how it's going to work. They don't know how much income is going to be achieved. They can't reach any agreement with the states on how this will operate. It's just another example of incompetence and a lack of focus on the key issues by a government that is absolutely focused on its internals. Its members are focused on carving each other up. Within this government, the focus is on making sure that one side is battling the other every day.

The Australian economy is changing fast. As a result, the skills Australians need to get well-paid and secure jobs are changing as well. There are young people here listening into this debate now. Some of them, along with their teachers, must be wondering where they should apply for jobs in the future. What kinds of jobs will they have? Will there be apprenticeships and traineeships available for them? Will there be sufficient funding to train them for a lifetime of skills acquisition in this country? The problem is that neither Senator Birmingham nor Minister Andrews have any answers for the young people in this country, because they don't have a policy that is achievable, they don't have a policy that can be implemented in time, they don't have a policy that focuses on the changing needs of the economy and they don't have a focus on providing jobs for the future. All they are focused on is their internal disputes and the chaos within the Liberal-National coalition.

The changes in the economy won't be easy for many people. Underemployment is at record highs and unemployment is far too common, particularly among younger Australians in the regions and for retrenched workers. Former Senator Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister at the moment—the same guy that has been discovered to have dual citizenship and to be actually a Kiwi—tells people that if they just go to the country they can get a cheap house and a job. If it were only that easy! We know it's not that easy, and all we have are these sound bites and grabs from some of the most senior politicians in this hopeless government who are trying to push what they say is a way forward for the country. They just don't get it.

At the same time, more than one in three employers report difficulty in filling jobs. It's clear some jobs exist; we just need to ensure Australians have the skills to fill them.

Australia needs to invest in education, skills and training more than ever. Yet, since coming to office, the government has cut money from schools and universities, and more than $2.8 billion from TAFE, skills and training. We need to know what the Turnbull government is doing to prepare Australians for a rapidly transforming labour market. The truth is the government can't answer detailed questions about the Skilling Australians Fund. If it could answer the questions, I would not have to be here drawing the attention of the Senate to the failure of Senator Birmingham to respond to legitimate questions on legitimate issues of concern, both to the opposition and to the Australian public, and he wouldn't have had to stand here and say he hasn't answered them on time.

This mob have absolutely no answers. They just develop policy on the run. Should we put the Skilling Australians Fund in the same category as the 15 per cent GST and handing taxation powers to the states? Who knows what they're about. If there is any substance then we need to know what the substance of this policy is. Question No. 912 put to the Minister for Education and Training—three months now since it was asked and two months overdue—is an entirely reasonable question: will the government top up the fund if there is a downturn in the fund due to lower than projected visa approvals? The projections for visas are that they will be in decline. That means the money will not come in as this government has implied in its budget. If the money doesn't come in, what will happen to the training funds for young Australians in this country? It's not a complicated question. The government surely knows the answer to that one.

The problem is that the design of the Skilling Australians Fund is inherently flawed. It appears that revenues for the fund, after the 2017 year, will rely entirely on foreign worker visa fees. What is the government's plan if the visa levy dries up? Does funding for skills development also drop, and will we end up further behind our international competitors when it comes to paying for the skills and bringing the skills forward in this country that will allow us to be internationally competitive? It will not allow us to have international best practice and training if the funding is not there for the training system. It's a particularly pertinent question, given expert analysis from the Australian Population Research Institute released in July, which reports that under the government's new visa rules there will be a dramatic decline in visa applications.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection, in contrast, have partially responded to questions put to them about the fund. To answer a question relating to fluctuations in revenue from visa fees, they went to the Department of Education and Training to seek advice. They got a response which states:

The Department of Education advises that from 2018-19 the Skilling Australians Fund will be equal to the revenue from the levy on employers of foreign workers.

Does this mean that the budget estimates over the forwards are completely fanciful? The government has designed a system of funding for skill formation, a matter of great importance for ensuring the prosperity of our nation, that relies entirely on uncertain revenue. This is the mob who say that they're good economic managers. This is the mob that claim they're so superior in economic management. Yet, they can't answer simple questions about their own policy. They can't answer questions on the financial implications, the training implications and the implications for the future of this country. They are not good economic managers; they are absolute amateurs. They just don't get it. They are so engaged in internal fighting and in attacking each other that the real issues for this country—that is, our future skills capacity, to allow us to be internationally competitive—fall behind their own internal squabbling. It is just not good enough.

We must ensure that there is revenue for training in this country. It can't be assured under this government. No-one, not even the minister, can answer simple questions about this so-called policy that was designed to provide 300,000 apprenticeships and traineeships. It is pie in the sky, like much of what this government does and says. The minister needs to come clean and answer questions about the security of the fund, because if we don't have security for this fund we can't provide funding throughout the economy to make sure that we've got the skills that are needed for the future.

It looks like the Department of Education and Training are willing to answer. Is it the minister who's holding up the response to the questions? We need to know whether the $1.5 billion in the budget for the Skilling Australians Fund is real. Is it a solid commitment or is it a fanciful aspiration? The Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, Karen Andrews, said to the media:

I'm very confident that the figures in the budget are going to be met. I haven't been involved in the calculations and projections of the revenue, but that's the money I'm working on for the skills fund.

Well, good luck with that! Here's a minister who hasn't been involved in actually establishing whether the announcement the government made can actually be met with the funds that she says will be delivered. This is a minister that says she hasn't been involved in the calculations or the projections, but that's the money she's going to work on. I would have thought that there would be a responsibility on any minister who's out there saying that these funds will be there to train and educate young Australians to at least have the capacity to know that the funding is guaranteed. There's no guarantee on this funding, and that's probably why it's been months since these questions were asked and why the minister can't answer the question. It was just another gimmick, another thing—that's all it was—for the budget to say that they're doing something on skills.

This is a government that has allowed our TAFE system to decline. The TAFE system is so important in metropolitan, rural and regional Australia. The TAFE system provides the tradespeople for the future, and yet it's running down under this government, under Minister Birmingham. Minister Birmingham's on the record as saying the TAFE system's not his responsibility; it's the states'. But this is the minister for education. This is a minister who should be making sure that the iconic TAFE system in this country is properly funded.

There are real problems with this government. This is a government that doesn't do anything for TAFE. This is a government that doesn't understand the skills needs for the economy. This is a government that is only interested in attacking the trade union movement and making sure that wages continue to decline while costs go up in the economy. This is a government that doesn't understand the future of this economy, how important renewables are compared to the old-fashioned coal-fired power stations that I used to work in, or how we should be advancing the economy through skills and training. It is an absolute rabble of a government, a government that doesn't understand the key issues, a government that just doesn't get it. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.