Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to present a very different view and discuss the importance of Australian Apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are an incredibly important pathway for a rewarding job and career for many young Australians. They provide the job and practical skills training combined with formal study to thousands of Australians every single year. In my own electorate of Berowra, there are currently more than 1,200 apprentices in training. The apprenticeship pathway provides strong job outcomes for young Australians entering the workforce—92 per cent of trade apprentices and 84 per cent of non-trade apprentices who complete their apprenticeships go straight into employment. Anecdotally, apprentices are more likely to become small-business owners and entrepreneurs than their peers who graduate from higher education. Apprenticeships are also critical to the national economy. Industries including tourism, hospitality, health and ageing, agriculture, engineering, manufacturing, building and construction and digital technologies are currently facing potential skill shortages. Increasing the number of young Australians undertaking an apprenticeship will help ensure our growing and emerging industries do not suffer this skill shortage that would inhibit their capacity for growth.

What did the previous Labor government do to encourage apprenticeships? They slashed employer incentives for taking on apprenticeships nine times between 2011 and 2012. This totalled $1.2 billion in cuts and it included a discontinuation of the $1,500 standard employer commencement incentive for existing worker apprentices and trainees in non-National Skills Needs List occupations. They then put this money into a five-year National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform with the states and territories. This included no specific funding for TAFE despite what we always hear from those opposite about TAFE. Two-thirds of the funding provided by the Commonwealth through the national partnership agreement was to allow the states and territories to achieve structural reform in the vocational education and training sector. They effectively dragged the money out of direct on-the-job apprentice training and poured it into VET administration. What did Labor's national partnership agreement really achieve? TAFE's share of national VET enrolments fell from 60 per cent to 49 per cent and apprentice and trainee commencements halved from 126,200 in the June quarter of 2012 before the cut to 61,700 in the June quarter after the cut. Over the five years of the agreement, apprenticeship numbers have fallen by 46 per cent—down from a high of 512,000 in 2012. The biggest decline was in Labor's last year of office when the numbers collapsed by 22 per cent or more than 110,000 apprentices. The Leader of the Opposition was employment minister at the time.

The Productivity Commission and TAFE Directors Australia said that the number of apprentices in training were directly impacted by Labor's incentive cuts. The Productivity Commission report into the workplace relations framework from December 2015 said:

… changes to a number of government financial incentives between 2012 and 2013 … appear to have contributed to a marked decline in the number of commencements in non-trade occupations from mid-2012.

The chief executive officer of TAFE Directors Australia stated:

The reduction in employer incentives in July 2012 was the primary reason for a dramatic drop in apprenticeship numbers …

When you cut incentives for employers to take on apprenticeships, commencements fall. These cuts continue to affect the numbers of apprentices in training today. Instead of supporting Australian apprentices, Labor tried to plug the growing skill shortage with foreign workers. While the Leader of the Opposition was employment minister the number of 457 visas rose from 60,000 in 2010 to 110,000 in 2013.

In direct contrast to the Labor Party, the coalition is committed to supporting Australian apprentices and their employers. Unfortunately we have been locked into Labor's failed national partnership agreement for the past five years. Despite this, the coalition has been working hard to improve the situation for apprentices and their employers over the past three years, by investing up to $190 million annually in the apprenticeship network, to make it easier for employers to recruit, train and retain apprentices, and reforming training package development to place industry at the centre. Labor's national partnership agreement thankfully concludes in just a few weeks, on 30 June. Further measures announced in this budget will allow the government to hopefully have an even greater impact in restoring confidence to Australian apprentices and their employers. It is a very important move. My question to the assistant minister is: what is the government doing to invest record amounts in support of Australian apprentices?

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