Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. Does the minister stand by his attempt today to shift blame for the nation’s skills shortage onto the mining industry with his statement that he cannot ‘accept that mining can get away with this claim that they had no idea the minerals boom was going to come on so quick’ and that, instead, the mining industry has just gone and, according to the minister, ‘pilfered everyone from the sugar industry’? When will the minister take responsibility for our nation’s skills crisis instead of just finding someone else to blame? If the minister is so concerned about skills shortages in the Pilbara, why hasn’t he opened the Pilbara technical college promised to the region almost two years ago?

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I actually thank the member for Jagajaga for this question, because this government now has in training near record levels of people in this country—close to 400,000. When Labor were last in office they had a mere 122,000 people in training. So I think 10 years of achievement speaks for itself. In fact, I can quote the South Australian Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Paul Caica. He said in today’s Adelaide Advertiser that ‘businesses need to play their part in creating opportunities for young people’—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why are they pilfering from the sugar industry?

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

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has asked her question.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and the first step was of course to identify their needs. It is certainly not government’s fault alone that there are not enough people where businesses themselves want them. But at the end of it this government is working hard on that, with record amounts of money—far more money than Labor ever imagined they would put towards the training system. We are also very much dedicated to the task of saying to business, ‘If you plan for the sort of workforce you want, we will give a training system in a way that will make sure that your needs are met when you need them.’ We are in partnership with the eight state and territory governments, who themselves have a variety of responses that conflict with that general approach.

The mining industry certainly does train people—there is no doubt about that—but it is absolutely fundamental that major industries such as mining continue to understand that these days, unlike when Labor was in office when there was a large pool of unemployed for them to draw upon, there are far fewer unemployed in this country and so the commitment to training has to be redoubled and has to start in the boardrooms and work its way out. As Paul Caica, the South Australian minister, said, governments alone cannot do this. It is important that business plays its part.