Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am certainly very pleased to rise to speak on the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill 2006. This bill signifies the great success that the Australian technical colleges have been in Australia. This bill signifies that success because, at its core, this bill is about changing the funding distribution for Australian technical colleges because the government’s roll-out of ATCs has been more successful than we anticipated. Because there has been more demand for ATCs in the Australian community than was forecast by the Australian government, it has been necessary to alter the distribution of funding to ensure that there is more money up-front for the roll-out of highly successful colleges—like the one in my electorate of Moncrieff, which is solving, in very large part, skills needs in my electorate and in the city of the Gold Coast—and that there is capital available for the establishment of new ATCs.

From the beginning—and I was there when this announcement was made by the Prime Minister—I have been very supportive of the need for a roll-out of ATCs. I am supportive because I have seen the high price that Australia has paid as a consequence of a failing TAFE system under various state Labor governments and of the complete lack of investment in this over a very substantial period of time. That was started and contributed to most significantly by the Australian Labor Party who, despite their rhetoric, have done so very little in any meaningful way to ensure that Australians have the skills sets necessary for the future.

Under a super-strong Australian economy—a ‘miracle economy’, as the Economist magazine labelled it—some stresses have arisen. High demand for jobs, for workers and to ensure that Australians are able to maximise their dollar, in all forms of employment, has meant the creation of many jobs in this country. And the creation of those jobs under the Howard government has seen our unemployment rate fall to record lows. That stands in stark contrast to the situation under the Australian Labor Party, where one million or so Australians were unemployed.

Because of this high jobs growth, we have seen, as I just mentioned, some stresses with respect to labour force shortages. In meeting the stresses that flowed from labour force shortages, this government recognised the problem and acted swiftly to correct it. Australian technical colleges are part of how we are ensuring that future generations of Australians have access to a trade, to a vocation, to an apprenticeship, to ensure that they will be able to not only meet the skills required by employers in the future but also have a meaningful career that they can apply themselves to, take forward and take great pride in.

I went to a number of meetings several years ago on the Gold Coast, when various consortia were sitting down and talking about putting in expressions of interest in tendering for the Australian technical college that had been allocated to the Gold Coast. I took great delight in hearing some of the fantastic plans that the various consortia had for meeting the need for the skills sets required in our local community.

My approach, from the outset several years ago, was to provide advice and direction where I could as to what it was that I thought this policy that the Australian government had announced was directed towards. I did so with the full intention of being 100 per cent behind the successful tenderer for an Australian technical college. I was delighted when the member for Moreton, the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education, who is in the chamber this evening, telephoned me and advised that TAIT, The Australian Institute of Training, was the head of the successful consortium that had sought and been delivered the opportunity to roll out an Australian technical college on the Gold Coast.

It was a collaborative exercise, incorporating, as one of the key members of the consortium, AB Paterson College. The principal there, Dawn Lang, whom I know very well and who I know is passionate about training young Australians and ensuring they have opportunities, worked together with other members to ensure that their bid was successful. Their bid was successful because it directly addressed the policy focus that the minister had from the outset: to ensure that the ATC that was established was supported by local industry; incorporated local industry into developing curricula, so that students were learning skills sets that were required by employers; and encouraged young Gold Coasters to sign up to gain trade skills that would ensure they had a career they could be proud of into the future.

I had the pleasure, together with the member for Fadden, David Jull, of attending the official opening of the Australian technical college in Nerang, on the Gold Coast. It sits between the Moncrieff and Fadden electorates, and has been going from strength to strength. I have spoken to many parents whose children have gone through the ATC on the Gold Coast and have heard first-hand anecdotes from them about how their children are faring in undertaking the ATC courses. I have spoken to employers involved with the ATC on the Gold Coast and have heard their pride in contributing something back to the development of young, talented Australians who are developing a trade by undertaking their studies at the ATC.

Let us not lose sight of the fact that those students in years 11 and 12 who are enrolled in any Australian technical college—but my interest is of course in the one on the Gold Coast—are earning their senior studies certificate while they are undertaking their school based apprenticeship. So when they leave their ATC training course they are already well and truly on the path to developing a meaningful career in a trade. That is something I believe is worth more than the popular rhetoric that we hear from the Australian Labor Party.

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