David Batt (Hinkler, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

My electorate of Hinkler is hurting due to a worsening skills shortage and inaction from this Labor government. While a hand-picked few met here in Canberra with the Treasurer and Prime Minister for a three-day roundtable, the predetermined outcomes were simply more spending, more debt and the threat of more taxes.

While the Canberra meeting unfolded, I spent two days with the Hon. Scott Buchholz, the shadow minister for skills and training, to hear the real stories directly from manufacturers, business owners, chambers of commerce and training providers in the Hinkler electorate. I thank the member for Wright for the time that he took to listen to my community. Together we hosted a series of meetings and visited manufacturers. Yes, regions like Hinkler are delivering and driving the nation's productivity, but the skills shortage continues to bite badly.

David Coe recently purchased a well-known mechanics business in Bundaberg, Trulsons Mechanical. Mr Coe simply can't find enough trade qualified people to work on vehicles and teach new apprentices the trade. These teachers, the skilled workers, are understandably chasing higher wages in the minds, leaving a shortfall of experience in our regional communities.

The Brisbane Olympic Games is less than a decade away. Queensland needs a strong, skilled workforce now, more than ever, to deliver infrastructure and services. Yet, instead of tackling the skills and training crisis head on, Labor is presiding over a 60-year low in productivity. The Treasurer has simply run out of ideas.

When the coalition left office, we had more than 400,000 apprentices and trainees in the system. Today there are 100,000 fewer. This is leaving Australian businesses high and dry. Labor is failing both employers who are desperate for skilled workers and the young Australians who deserve opportunities. Under Labor, the pipeline of skilled workers just isn't there. The Hinkler region has some of the hardest working businesses in the country, just like Trulson's Mechanical. These operations must be supported to expand, to grow and to teach the next wave of tradies the art of the trade. But instead, like so many regional employers, they're struggling to find the skilled staff they need. It's holding them back, and it's holding my region of Hinkler back. Labor has no real plan on productivity or training. Australia needs more than words and a meeting behind closed doors in Canberra. That doesn't help businesses in Bundaberg and Harvey Bay. What we need is a proper plan to build a skilled workforce and back regional communities.

Monday 18 August was an important day for many locations across Australia, including my region of Hinkler. Vietnam Veterans' Day is commemorated on the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, which took place in 1966. Major services were held in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg, and I had the privilege of laying a wreath and speaking in the country town of Childers. The service was held at the site of a World War I Krupp 210-millimetre Howitzer cannon. You can't miss it; it's right in the middle of town. The Isis RSL Sub Branch invited me to pay tribute and thank those who served in Vietnam, the ones who fought for the freedoms we enjoy today. As the federal member for Hinkler, I am forever proud to represent a region with a rich history of standing up and fighting for Australia.

Childers has always had stories to tell, from all conflicts. So many men and women from the rural community have served with pride. While the trauma is very real and the pain lives on, it is in moments of commemoration we come together to pause and reflect on the lives lost and the immense life-changing sacrifices made. The Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal rolls record 255 Vietnam veterans from the Hinkler electorate. According to these accounts, 32 veterans came from Childers. That's such a high representation for a country town. There were four veterans from Howard, two from Pialba, two from Bargara and 215 from Bundaberg.

The Vietnam Veterans' Day service in Childers honoured the role that nurses played in the Vietnam War. The service of female nurses in the conflict is largely forgotten; this is despite their significant contribution. Locally in Hinkler, as a community, much has been and is being done to rectify this. We are fortunate to have the Bundaberg War Nurses Memorial near the Bundaberg Base Hospital. While it honours those who served in the first and second world wars, in July of 2022 the Bundaberg District Women Veterans group ensured the names of nurses from my region who served in the Vietnam War were added. Aussie nurses saved thousands of lives on both sides, routinely working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, despite earning only two-thirds of what equivalent male officers earned.

I'd sincerely like to thank the Isis RSL Sub Branch for hosting a memorable commemoration service and for ensuring that all who served in the Vietnam War are remembered now and forever.

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