Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very important question, because it goes to the crisis that besets this nation. Of course, that is the skills crisis, a crisis that the opposition seems to ignore—indeed, to deny. The yet to be released paper from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research states: ‘Unemployed people are being recycled from welfare to work and back to welfare.’ It also refers to the courses that are undertaken by job seekers who are seeking to get back into the workforce as ‘mickey mouse courses’. I take these concerns very seriously. I look forward to the final report being released.

This report confirms what this government already knows—that is, that the former government’s short-sighted policies have contributed to one of the greatest skills shortages our nation has ever faced. The previous government, as has been said by the Deputy Prime Minister and indeed by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister, ignored 20 separate warnings from the Reserve Bank. They also ignored the views of the Business Council of Australia. They were willing to take the money of the Business Council of Australia; they should have taken their advice and ensured that the skills crisis in this country was attended to, but they failed to do that. They also failed to take account of not only that employer body but other employer bodies and other parties who time and time again reminded the previous government of the concerns that were being experienced in many industries and by many employers. Last month, the Age’s economics editor quite rightly said: ‘The Howard government dropped the ball on skills training.’

Unfortunately—and it is unfortunate—the evidence of skills shortages is everywhere. The MODL list—that is, the Migration Occupations in Demand List—indicated, in 1999, 18 occupations where there was a shortage. That has blown out, from 1999 to 2007, to 95 occupations that are now in demand. That is a 400 per cent increase in the demand for particular occupations. It underlines the point that the previous government failed to attend to this particular issue.

For almost 12 years, the opposite side squandered opportunities. Under the former government, referrals from the Job Network to apprenticeships and traineeships fell dramatically. For example, in 1998 there were 32,000 apprenticeships commenced as a result of Job Network placements. By 2005, they had dropped to 7,000—that is, apprenticeships under Job Network placements dropped from 32,000 to 7,000. Yet those opposite, including the shadow Treasurer, remain in denial that there is a problem. Indeed, recent media reports have indicated that the shadow Treasurer does not believe that there is a skills crisis in this country and does not believe there are chronic shortages in skills, and I am here to tell him that he is wrong. The shadow Treasurer is wrong and the opposition are wrong if they think that this is not a major problem for this country. It does not surprise me that the shadow Treasurer does not think that there is a skills crisis. The only skill crisis he is concerned about is with the Leader of the Opposition. The only skills crisis he is concerned about is the failure of the Leader of the Opposition to articulate a response.

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