Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the:

(a) creation of 1.2 million jobs since the Coalition Government was elected, with 140,000 young Australians securing employment over that time period;

(b) strong commitment of the Government to reform the vocational education and training sector to better meet the demands of the modern Australian economy; and

(c) leadership of the Government in November 2018 to commission the Joyce Review, a comprehensive expert review of the Australian vocational education and training system which was delivered in March 2019; and

(2) welcomes the implementation of the Skills Package, a $525 million suite of measures that includes:

(a) a National Careers Institute and the appointment of a National Careers Ambassador;

(b) the Foundation Skills for Your Future program—an initiative which will support workers by improving literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy;

(c) a streamlined Incentives for Australian Apprenticeships program, which will encourage employers to take on apprentices and trainees;

(d) additional incentives to both employers and apprentices in areas affected by skills shortages under the Additional Identified Skills Shortage Payment measure;

(e) establishing ten industry training hubs in areas of high unemployment;

(f) further addressing youth unemployment in regional areas by funding 400 Commonwealth Scholarships for Young Australians;

(g) a National Skills Commission and pilot skills organisations that will promote a nation-wide approach to skills development and enhance the role of industry in designing training courses;

(h) an extension of the National Rugby League's VET Apprenticeship Awareness Program; and

(i) Energising Tasmania—a partnership between the Commonwealth and the Tasmanian Government to train a skilled workforce for jobs for the future in pumped hydro and energy infrastructure; and

(3) welcomes the prospect of creating a further 80,000 apprenticeships in occupations with skills shortages over the coming five years.

I applaud the work of the Morrison government in doing its best to reform the vocational education and training sector. The commitment will ensure that our nation's workforce is well equipped for the demands of Australia's evolving economy. In particular, I welcome the implementation of our federal government's skills package. The suite of measures contained in the package is great for Australia. In my own electorate of Braddon the implementation will help maximise the existing opportunities that are ahead of us.

If you're about to enter the workforce for the first time or you're a bit older and looking for a career change or a sea change then the choice is clear: you should be heading straight to Braddon, which covers the north-west and west coasts of Tasmania, including King Island. Braddon has what the rest of Australia and the world really need. Braddon is, indeed, the place for a lifestyle. It is the envy of all. We are blessed with an abundance of picturesque scenery, natural resources and affordable housing. We also have an abundance of renewable energy. It's one of our most exciting competitive advantages. Thanks to the visionary, collaborative Liberal governments at federal and state levels, Tasmania is well on track to be 100 per cent clean, green, renewable and self-sufficient by 2022. That's a remarkable achievement. We are streets ahead of the rest of Australia at achieving 100 per cent clean energy generation.

It's exciting for me that Braddon is the region taking the lead in the provision of the nation's future energy needs through Project Marinus, the second Bass Strait interconnector, which will connect Tasmania with the mainland, and the Battery of the Nation project, which will deliver the dispatchable energy. Both projects are expected to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase, and up to $5 billion is expected to be injected into our economy in the next decade. These jobs are going to be located predominantly across my electorate of Braddon. As well as these opportunities on the mainland of Tasmania, the government has injected $4 million of investment into wave energy technology on King Island, which is another job-creating opportunity, and the region is looking forward to that. This project harnesses the rise and fall of water levels to generate electricity. Wave generation is at its early demonstrational stages but has the potential to be used in remote coastal and island locations. Therefore, it's perfect for my electorate of Braddon.

This investment in King Island wave technology is another great example of our region leveraging its natural assets. I'm excited to see the benefits of this funding and what it will mean for King Island. To make sure that the benefits are maximised within our communities, we must prioritise the development of our workforce's skills. Energising Tasmania forms an important part of the government's Skills Package and the partnership between the Morrison government and the Tasmanian Liberal government, and the project will program and train skilled workforces to meet the needs of the jobs created in this pumped hydro and renewable energy sector. The focus is on priority occupations such as project management, civil construction, electrotechnology, resource management, building and construction, the water industry, and operations and engineering. I'm proud to be part of a government which is prioritising skills development within my region and ensuring that our workforce gains the necessary skills to keep people living in their local communities and working in interesting and successful professions, now and into the future. The federal government continues to demonstrate its commitment to the north-west of Tasmania by announcing that Burnie will be one of 10 trial sites for an industry training hub. These hubs will strengthen partnerships between local schools, employers and industry, and will ensure that vocational education and programs are tailored to meet local workforce needs. The first two hubs will be rolled out early next year. In my view, Burnie is the obvious choice for the first hub.

Tasmania's business confidence is amongst the highest in the nation. The agricultural industry is already increasingly upbeat, and we are in the midst of a renewable energy boom. The Morrison government— (Time expired)

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