Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As has been noted by previous speakers, this report from the Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation, entitled Shifting gears: employment in the automotive components manufacturing industry, was unanimous—which, I must say, has been a unique experience on that committee. The committee tends to divide very much along philosophical lines, but this was one report that we all came together on and delivered a unanimous report.

My impression of the automotive component manufacturing industry is that it is an industry under extreme threat. Every time I attended a public hearing and I heard evidence from the witnesses, I got the overwhelming impression that this is an industry that is struggling for survival. It is dependent on the car industry for its survival, and problems that are confronting that industry are impacting very much upon the components industry. I think one example of how the component industry is being affected is the new Holden. In the previous Holden, more than 70 per cent of the components were Australian made. In the new Holden, that has gone down to around 55 per cent. That shows that more and more components for our Australian cars are being manufactured overseas. This, in turn, impacts very much upon employment within those industries and the future of our component industry within Australia.

It was fairly hard to get a clear picture of the industry and the people who work in the industry. That is why I think the committee’s first recommendation—that the Australian Bureau of Statistics publish disaggregated data on the automotive industry to the level of the automotive component manufacturing sector—is a good one. I found that invariably information was not set out in a way where we could readily obtain information. DEWR did not have the information; nor did the industry bodies.

Overwhelmingly, the issue that hit me is the fact that the government has failed to invest in Australia’s future. I feel that our manufacturing industry within Australia is declining at an ever-increasing rate and that we as a nation are failing to invest in manufacturing, failing to ensure that we have an ongoing strong manufacturing industry and, as a consequence of that, we have a declining skills base for industry to draw upon. A country without a manufacturing industry is very vulnerable, a country without a car industry is very vulnerable and a country that does not have the skills and expertise to manufacture components for its car industry is a country that is very, very short-sighted.

Overwhelmingly, this report acknowledged that there are enormous skills shortages and that there are issues around training. Part 4.4 of the report says:

… there are widespread skills shortages within the automotive industry, particularly for engineering and trade skills.

It is important to note that the shortages also go to unskilled workers. Witnesses told us that, when skilled workers within the industry are made redundant, they seek to leave the industry and develop new skills rather than upgrading their skills and utilising them within the manufacturing industry. I see this as a long-term exacerbation of the skills shortage that exists.

DEWR has identified trade skills shortages for welders, metal fabricators, toolmakers, fitters, machinists, motor mechanics, electricians and vehicle body builders. The report includes a table which shows that there is an across-the-board shortage in all states in those trades, except metal fabrication, for which there is a regional skills shortage. And there is not a shortage of toolmakers in the Northern Territory, which I think says more about the composition of the manufacturing industry within the Northern Territory. I do not believe that that is a skill in such demand in the Territory.

There is fierce competition within the manufacturing industry for skilled workers. The mining industry, the resource sector, can afford to pay more for their workers. As a consequence of that, industries such as the automotive parts industry have great difficulty in attracting workers. It is a unique situation. We have an industry that has had significant redundancies over a period of time yet simultaneously has a skills shortage, which goes to reinforce the fact that it is an industry under threat. It is an industry that has suffered from government neglect and a lack of planning. It is an industry that really needs the support of government.

The committee made some substantive recommendations relating to skills shortages: recognition of on-the-job training; recognition of prior learning; looking at arrangements for displaced workers in the future; looking at current skill needs and strategies to address those and trying to predict future skills shortages; and integrating training across the supply chain to facilitate the transferability of skills across the industry sector. If the government is really serious about addressing Australia’s skills shortage, if they look at what is happening in the automobile component industry it will give them a good idea of how this skills shortage has been allowed to develop and how the government’s failure to address that skills shortage is impacting on the industry.

It is very sad that we are faced with an enormous skills shortage across Australia in all the trades. It reflects the fact that the government has failed to invest in training young Australians over a long period of time. Bringing people in from overseas is a very short-sighted, stopgap approach to addressing the skills shortage. Allowing our industries to go offshore is even more short-sighted. We should be getting in there, assessing, planning, looking to the future, working out what Australia’s skills needs will be in the future and training young Australians so they can fill the predicted shortages in the future.

I think it is time, with the tabling of this report, to note the importance of the manufacturing industry to Australia and the importance of the government getting behind the manufacturing industry, acknowledging the fact that Australia does need a manufacturing industry and then putting in place proper strategies to address the skills shortage to ensure that we have Australians with the skills needed to work in our manufacturing industry. There are a number of very good recommendations in this report, looking at redundancy, skills and training, and the future of the industry. I support the recommendations of this report and I encourage the government to adopt those recommendations.

Debate (on motion by Mr Randall) adjourned.

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