Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Nurturing future jobs and skills is vital to Australia's prosperity, and we know it. This legislation establishes Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. It will provide advice and collect, analyse, share and publish data and other information on Australia's current and emerging labour market, training needs and priorities and the adequacy of the Australian system for providing vocational education and training.

In my electorate of Casey, I see thriving businesses, that collectively employ thousands of people, tradespeople, struggling to fill jobs. Whether it's Miglas glass or Mainstream Cabinets, from construction to hospitality or agriculture to electro-engineering, Casey has a wide spread of industries. I see the frustrations of businesses with skills shortages every day. In fact, I saw it when I visited a great local business, Hutch and Co., on Father's Day. The staff were working so hard, in a full restaurant, to give everyone a great experience. Half their restaurant was closed because they didn't have the staff to fill the demand.

Last week I visited Ranges TEC, a campus of Mount Evelyn Christian School, designed for hands-on study with year 10, 11 and 12 students, through VCAL, with the goal of achieving year 12 and a pathway to trade, TAFE or the workforce. I took along the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. During that visit, I ran into a young man named James. James and I played soccer together about two years ago at Lilydale Montrose United soccer club. I remember a time when I had to drive James to a game in the city and he was talking to me about starting at Ranges TEC. He was in year 10 and he was taking part in their taster program, which gives students the opportunity to try many different trades and understand what they like so they can specialise in year 11 and 12. It was extraordinary to see James two years later—how much his confidence had developed, his growth and development as a person and how he was enjoying learning to become a chef. It's a testament to the amazing work that Ranges TEC do. I know James was just one example of thousands of young people in Casey that they have helped.

There is an open enrolment at Ranges TEC. They draw students from every sector, including state, independent and Catholic schools; Steiner schools; and even homeschool. They usually have almost 100 students enrolled annually. Ranges TEC is an innovative model working to assist young people who struggle with the traditional school system. They create a pathway to employment for many young people and help them develop vital life skills.

On the same day, we visited Mainstream Cabinets, a family run business in Lilydale specialising in custom designed, high-quality kitchen, laundry, bathroom and office cabinetry. Matt showed us around and explained the challenges his business is facing at the moment. They included the increasing price of materials, but most worrying were the skills and worker shortages. He told us this was the biggest barrier to continued growth in his business.

The Labor Party inherited a booming skills and training sector from the coalition government. I passionately believe that if we invest in and support young people it is supporting not only them but also the wider community now and into the future, which is why I will always support legislation that helps our young people. We handed the Albanese government a skills and training system that was backed by record investments. There was real momentum in skills and training, thanks to the Liberals and the Nationals. We'd established a National Skills Commission to provide evidenced leadership on the skills we need for our workforce today and tomorrow. It invested a significant $13 billion in skills over the past two years alone.

While the new government's goal for better information, coordination and leadership of Australia's workforce and skills needs is important, it was already being provided by the National Skills Commission. You can see this with no funding being increased in the budget for this change. It's a name change. The NSC reformed and increased training incentives through the new Apprenticeships Incentive System, including introducing direct payments to apprentices to see them through their studies and into a job. Apprenticeship numbers were up to record levels. For the first time in our history, we hit over 220,000 Australians taking up a trade apprenticeship.

We support the jobs and skills sector fully and absolutely, but we remain sceptical of the Albanese government's plan for the new arrangements, given there is still no clarity on how the organisation will be structured or the responsibilities that Jobs and Skills Australia will hold. We did not know—and still do not know—the full scope of this agency, nor how it will operate, before Labor pressed ahead with establishing a new part of the bureaucracy, but I am sure that they had a media release they had to send out or a speech that the Prime Minister had to deliver.

The few announcements that Labor have made have been delayed to align with the much-hyped Jobs and Skills Summit, where the Prime Minister announced an additional 180,000 fee-free TAFE places for 2023. His much-vaunted training blitz is nothing more than marketing spin, with the vast majority of funded positions not new or additional at all. Reports in the Australian suggested that, of the 180,000 committed places, over 66 per cent already exist and will only be further subsidised. Just 45,000 will be new, and all of them were already announced as part of Labor's fee-free TAFE pre-election commitment. As I have begun to notice as a new MP, this government will always put politics and optics over the interests of Australians.

I must admit I'm also worried about the signals coming out of the government when it comes to the role of unions in the JSA. What is also concerning is the Prime Minister's explicit statement that funding will go to public training providers only. This is particularly worrying for the industry-led training providers. We know private RTOs currently do 70-80 per cent of training across the VET sector. This could open up the possibility of unions dominating the JSA's direction just like they did at the jobs summit and turning it into an entity that backs public providers only. We need an even-handed approach to the entire skills sector so it provides choice to our next generation.

While we accept that this bill will pass, I will be keeping my eye on the details that, hopefully, will be released soon. We know just how vital jobs policy is for the strength of our economy, and I really hope this Labor government get it right for once. However, Labor's poor record on skills is not new by any means. I am quickly realising that Labor do not have a plan to address the skills shortages in Casey outside of spin and optics. That's why I'm committed to working hard to ensure that we have short-term and long-term solutions to these skills shortages. This will include working visa extensions across all of Casey, which I will continue to advocate for, and partnering with Yarra Ranges Council to implement a designated-area migration agreement to help our businesses address their skills shortages.

We can't wait around for Labor to get their act together. That is why I invited the shadow minister for immigration and citizenship to Casey last week to meet with industry groups, including Wine Yarra Valley and Agribusiness Yarra Valley, as well as to visit businesses such as Cherry Hill, a thriving agricultural and tourism business that is facing worker shortages right now, today. As they are looking to staff up for their busy summer, they don't have staff. They would normally get over 600 applications for a role. They received 120 to fill 200 places. So we must work on both short-term and long-term solutions.

We want this agency to succeed because if it hits its mark, Jobs and Skills Australia will play an important role in the skills system. There's been a lot of talk about skills from Labor over the past week, but, as any tradie will tell you, it's getting the job done that matters. That's the important part.

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