Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Of course, responsible economic commentators are all talking about the skills crisis that this nation is going through and its pressure on inflation. I refer particularly to the Australian Industry Group-Deloitte national CEO survey, which was released in April. That estimates that as many as a quarter of a million full-time employees are necessary to satisfy current skill needs. It also found that current skills shortages are severely impeding Australia’s innovation performance. The survey found that almost 70 per cent of the firms involved claimed that skills shortages had impacted on their business over the past year. This is CEOs telling us what is impacting on their business today.

Of course, we know this is a crisis that has not grown up overnight. The Reserve Bank has produced more than 20 warnings about the skills crisis and its impact on inflation. These warnings went unheeded by the former government. Indeed, the member for Goldstein, who at that stage was responsible for vocational education and training, made the stunning admission:

... we’ve got a problem with skill shortage ... I mean we knew it was coming but it has arrived with a force.

…            …            …

And you know, it’s only going to get worse.

That level of lack of understanding and concern about the skills crisis and its upwards pressure on inflation is shared by the opposition generally. They do not know anything about inflation any more, apparently. We have contradictory statements every day. On one day, the Leader of the Opposition will come out and say, ‘There’s no case for budget cuts because there’s no inflation problem. It’s a charade.’ Then the shadow Treasurer will come out and say that there is a case for budget cuts. Then the Deputy Leader of the Opposition will come out and say that she is concerned about wages inflation, but there is no analysis from the opposition, let alone solutions, about the truly inflationary impacts that their policies left on this nation. There is no greater inflationary impact than the current skills crisis.

Mr Speaker, I think we should note that, when it comes to the current skills crisis, the current Leader of the Opposition and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition bear unique personal responsibility—having been the last two ministers for education in this country—for the generation of this skills crisis because they did not invest in education and training. We have been treated today to an unusual press conference by the former Treasurer, who is floating around like Banquo’s ghost.

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