Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister advise the House of barriers to the provision of genuine training opportunities to young Australians in some states, particularly New South Wales and Western Sydney?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for her question. She is right in her question to raise concerns about the barriers that exist against young people receiving in this country genuine training opportunities. There are two areas of concern that the government has that are working against opportunities being available to young people. They are the continuing opposition to school based apprenticeships in both New South Wales and Western Australia. This is a matter that I raised at the COAG meeting in February this year. At that meeting I received an undertaking from all of the premiers. Let me say that in some states of Australia—and Queensland is a state that comes to mind—there are no barriers to school based apprenticeships. But in New South Wales the union dominated award system results in there being barriers to school based apprenticeships. The existence of these provisions still in both New South Wales and Western Australia is holding up the formation of four of the Australian technical colleges in those two states.

Why is it that technical colleges are open for business and going ahead in Queensland but they are not in some other states? I notice my colleagues representing the aspirations of young people in these parts of Australia nodding in agreement because they know that the opposition to school based apprenticeships, which we all know is nurtured by the union movement, which has a stranglehold on the apprenticeship system in New South Wales and Western Australia—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I do. In relation to this, I certainly do give credit where it is due and deliver criticism where it is deserved. On this issue the union movement is holding back training opportunities for young Australians. As a result of that I have written to both the Premier of New South Wales and the Premier of Western Australia urging them to use the authority of their office to make sure that these barriers against school based apprenticeships are removed.

If anybody imagines that the imperfections between the various states of Australia do not produce absurdities, let me remind the House of some of the absurdities that exist in the very disuniform, dysfunctional training system between the various states. For example, a qualified carpenter cannot move from the ACT to New South Wales—and that is not very far—without having to get a licence from—

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms King interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Ballarat is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading, which may require a further formal assessment and additional costs. Trade Recognition Australia can consider an electrician from the United Kingdom to be competent but, when he or she arrives here, they have to resit a trade test which can take up to eight months and they cannot work in the meantime. A hairdresser who has gained a hairdressing qualification from a private college in Victoria can get a job in London but not in Western Australia. These are some of the barriers to training opportunities. But the worst barrier of all is the opposition in New South Wales and Western Australia. They are states with which my opposite number is very familiar. The existence of school based apprenticeships in those two states is standing in the way of training opportunities for young Australians. They ought to be swept away, and I hope the Leader of the Opposition joins me in urging the Premier of New South Wales and the Premier of Western Australia to improve the training opportunities for young Australians in those two states.