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

by leave—The purpose of this statement is to announce new investments by the Commonwealth towards a more skilled and dynamic workforce.

Australia’s labour market is the strongest in generations. Unemployment is at a 30-year low. Workforce participation is at an all-time high. More than 10 million Australians are in jobs, working to build a better life for themselves and their families.

Further evidence was revealed just half an hour ago showing that another 30,000 jobs were created in the month of September, which means that more than 205,000 new jobs have been created in Australia since the introduction of the Work Choices legislation. This economic strength is the dividend of policies geared to preserving Australia’s prosperity. As the OECD has pointed out, far from relying on luck, Australia has ‘made its own luck’ in recent years by virtue of structural reforms and macroeconomic policies that have bolstered our economy’s resilience.

In this parliament alone, the coalition has set about further increasing workforce participation and productivity through reforms to workplace relations, reforms to welfare arrangements, superannuation reform and, after tax cuts in 2004, more tax cuts in 2005 and 2006. All the while we have continued to run strong budget surpluses.

We know that tomorrow’s prosperity is not assured. We know it must be earned through further reform of our economy and we know it rests crucially on harnessing the skills and talents of the Australian people.

This financial year the government is investing more than $2.5 billion in vocational and technical education, a real increase of 85 per cent on a decade ago. More than 403,000 Australian apprentices are in training this year, up from 154,800 in 1996.

With our investment in 25 Australian technical colleges the government has said quite emphatically that the days when a trade or vocational qualification was deemed ‘second class’ in our society are over.

Young Australians have more opportunities than ever before to do what they want to do and be what they want to be.

To compete and prosper in the decades to come, Australia will require a more skilled workforce whose members are adaptable throughout their careers to changing product and skills demands.

Today I announce Skills for the Future: new investments totalling $837 million over five years to help build a more highly skilled and responsive workforce to support Australia’s long-term economic growth.

The primary focus of this package is on raising the skills of Australia’s adult workforce. Skills for the Future also carries a clear message about the importance of upgrading skills over the course of an individual’s working life.

It responds to demands from employers for a higher level of skills, a broader range of skills and more frequent updating of skills. It helps more Australians wanting to take up a trade apprenticeship in mid-career, as well as assisting apprentices to acquire the necessary skills to run their own businesses. And it makes a substantial new investment in Australia’s future engineering skills.

Earlier this year, I joined state and territory leaders in launching a new national reform agenda which includes a focus on human capital. An agreed priority was to ‘increase the proportion of adults who have the skills and qualifications needed to enjoy active and productive working lives’.

Today’s investment is by far the largest contribution so far to this agenda. I therefore call on state and territory leaders to make concrete their commitment to a more skilled Australian workforce.

An educated and skilled labour force is increasingly in tight supply the world over. With Australia enjoying the longest economic expansion in her history it is not surprising that demand for skilled workers is very high especially in parts of the economy benefiting from strong commodity prices.

In conjunction with today’s announcements, I release an analysis by the Treasury and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet that puts some of the more breathless commentary about a skills ‘crisis’ into proper perspective.

The paper makes the essential point that some level of skills shortages is part of the normal functioning of a healthy and dynamic labour market. As pressures emerge, people re-skill and respond to wage signals in order to adapt to changes in labour demand.

The economy is adjusting well to the demands of the commodity boom, with a large increase in labour supply and contained wage growth. The government’s policy framework has allowed the economy to run at a high level of capacity utilisation without igniting high inflation.

The contrast with previous episodes of commodity boom-related labour market tightness is very stark. For example, in the mid-1970s demand pressures in some sectors led to a surge in wages and inflation across the whole economy.

Greater diversity in wage growth across the economy is a key difference between now and then. Higher relative wages in sectors experiencing skills shortages act as an increased incentive for individuals to develop highly demanded skills.

If all wages were to go up by similar amounts—as in the days of centralised wage fixing—this incentive would disappear.

This illustrates just one way in which the government’s reforms to workplace relations are helping to preserve our prosperity and it demonstrates further why the Leader of Opposition’s policies—which would bring back the worst excesses of industry-wide, union-dominated, pattern bargaining—are bad for Australia’s future economic growth.

Not only would Labor’s approach inflict great damage on our mining and resources industries, it would also be a hammer blow to Australian farmers and firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, which are not experiencing boom conditions.

A time of high prices for minerals and resources is precisely the worst time to be contemplating a lurch back to failed policies of the past.

A dynamic, flexible labour market is one of Australia’s greatest economic assets. Jeopardise that and you jeopardise the very foundations of future prosperity.

While it is clear that claims about a skills crisis are exaggerated, Australia does face real skills challenges arising from an ageing population, rapid technological change and an increasingly competitive global economy.

The retirement of the baby boomers will continue to put downward pressure on the number of participants in our labour market. Demand for a more skilled workforce is being driven by globalisation and technological change. These twin forces pose a particular challenge to many lower skilled Australians.

Building a more skilled Australia requires a flexible partnership across the community involving all levels of government, business, education and training providers and individuals.

Information is necessarily dispersed. And a range of variables can change the mix of jobs in an economy over time.

Skilling Australia must be a shared responsibility.

State and territory governments have particular responsibilities in the area of vocational and technical education. As the owners and operators of TAFE, they must ensure that Australia’s public sector training providers become more flexible and responsive to the needs of employers and individuals.

State Labor governments must stop jacking up TAFE fees.

Business too has to bear its share of the responsibility for improving the skills of Australia’s workforce. The oft-heard claim that people are the greatest asset of a company should be more than an employer slogan. Training and skills development must be a part of core business.

The government also recognises the importance of both individual choice and individual responsibility when it comes to skilling decisions. Increasingly, workers want to be able to respond to change and access training opportunities throughout their working lives.

An education and training system predicated on a world where someone was educated until young adulthood and then entered a job lasting roughly 40 years has become basically obsolete in the 21st century.

Recognising the need for our education and training institutions to become more flexible and responsive to individual needs, today’s announcement includes a large investment in individuals.

Work skills vouchers

One of the biggest skills challenges we face as a nation is to improve the basic skills of our workforce. Almost a third of Australians aged between 25 and 64 are without year 12 or equivalent qualifications.

Many adults fall short of functional levels of literacy and numeracy which are now essential for just about all jobs, and certainly all jobs that involve the operation of computers and digital technology.

This problem largely reflects lower education participation by young Australians two and three decades ago and previous migration programs which placed much less emphasis on skills.

Because many Australians left school or arrived in this country without the levels of English literacy and numeracy necessary to gain qualifications, they miss out on the opportunity to move into more skilled jobs. This leaves them vulnerable to economic change and Australia misses out on their full potential.

Today’s announcement gives many Australians an opportunity for a new start at obtaining skills. In some cases, a second chance.

Improvements in basic skills will assist people already in employment to move into higher positions and help those who are looking for work to find jobs.

From 1 January 2007, the government will invest $408 million over five years to support people aged 25 years and over who do not have year 12 or equivalent qualifications.

Each year, up to 30,000 vouchers valued at up to $3,000 will be made available to individuals in this group. In priority order, vouchers will be allocated to:

• Unskilled workers wishing to acquire qualifications;
• Income support recipients, such as parents and carers returning to the workforce, who will face active job search requirements in the next two years;
• Unemployed job seekers in receipt of income support and participating in the Job Network who are undertaking active job search; and
• People not in the labour force, either voluntarily or because of carer responsibilities, who intend to seek work after achieving their qualification.

Courses for which the vouchers can be used in TAFEs and private or community colleges will be all accredited literacy/numeracy and basic education courses and all vocational certificate II courses.

These work skills vouchers represent a major investment in closing the gap between the skills-rich and the skills-poor in our community.

A symbol of the government’s commitment to individual advancement and economic opportunity, they are as much a symbol of our commitment to social cohesion and national unity.

As well as offering Australians new opportunities, these vouchers will deliver more resources into Australia’s education and training institutions, while presenting them with new challenges.

A particular challenge is to cater to the needs of people without fond memories of school. To make the idea of accredited training more attractive to individuals with high needs, education and training providers will need to find ways to make adult learning more individualised and rewarding.

The government’s policy objectives are very clear. We want the users of our education and training system to be the drivers of the system. And we want greater competition in the training market.

Business too has a responsibility to develop strategies to accommodate workers looking to take up these vouchers. Small businesses in particular may face challenges in restructuring work arrangements and employer groups will need to provide their members with advice and examples of best practice.

More support for apprentices

This government continues to make a major investment in Australia’s apprenticeship system—a system which languished under a Labor government obsessed with the singular virtues of a university education.

The government believes more Australians should be given the opportunity to upgrade their skills through a traditional trade apprenticeship, especially workers in mid-career.

For many people, making the switch to a trade carries a real financial penalty. It can be especially hard for men and women in the workforce with family responsibilities.

The government will therefore invest an additional $307 million over five years in new financial incentives to support mid-career workers undertaking a traditional trade apprenticeship.

From 1 July 2007, these incentives will be available each year for up to 10,000 people aged 30 and over who are starting an apprenticeship at the certificate III or certificate IV level in an occupation in high demand. Those 30 and over already undertaking an apprenticeship in these occupations in July 2007 will also be eligible.

The amount payable by the government will be $150 a week (or $7,800 a year) in the first year and $100 a week (or $5,200 a year) in the second year. As an apprentice becomes more skilled in the second year their award wage will rise. Therefore, the wage subsidy can be reduced.

This initiative will more than double the number of people undertaking apprenticeships midway through their career.

The incentive will take one of two forms—either paid to an employer or paid direct to the apprentice.

Currently, under some industrial arrangements, if an existing worker becomes an apprentice their employer is required to maintain their existing wage. In other circumstances, employers may have to pay an adult apprenticeship rate where the worker is 21 or more.

Such arrangements create a disincentive for employers to allow their workers to take up an apprenticeship or to engage older apprentices. And in these cases, the new mid-career incentive will be paid to employers to subsidise wage costs.

In other cases, when a worker becomes an apprentice their income can drop to the junior apprenticeship rate. In this situation, the new incentive will be paid directly to the apprentice to boost his or her income.

With the emergence of a more self-reliant and entrepreneurial culture over the last decade, more Australians are keen to start their own business off the back of a traditional trade apprenticeship. For example, more than 50 per cent of all construction tradespeople are self-employed. Employers are also seeking a broader skills base among qualified tradespeople.

To assist Australia’s new breed of worker-entrepreneur, I announce today a new Business Skills Voucher for Apprentices to be available from 1 January 2007.

About 6,300 apprentices each year will receive vouchers of up to $500 to contribute towards the costs of accredited business skills training, at a total cost of $12.3 million over five years.

Apprentices who are undertaking an apprenticeship in a traditional trade will be eligible to apply for the voucher any time from the end of their second year until two years after completion.

The vouchers can be used in TAFEs and private or community colleges and will be separate to any business skills training provided as part of an apprenticeship. This is an important new investment in the enterprise workers of tomorrow.

Engineering places and higher technical skills

A strong skills base in science, engineering and technology is crucial to the foundations of national competitiveness. Qualified scientists and engineers are essential to research and development, innovation and productivity growth.

The increased globalisation of science and technology (not least with the rise of China and India as economic and technology powers) presents both challenges and opportunities for Australia. This has been a particular theme of my discussions with scientists and academics under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in the last 12 months.

In July, the government released the first ever audit of science, engineering and technology skills in Australia. It found that our skills base in this area is substantial relative to overall employment, with about 13.5 per cent of employed Australians holding relevant qualifications. While this compares reasonably well with many OECD countries, there is no room for any complacency.

Increasingly, Australia faces a global market for talent. We need to work hard to train and retain our science, engineering and technology workers.

The skills audit found that Australia potentially faces a declining number of engineers available to meet industry needs due to demographic trends. Engineers Australia has also highlighted that a large proportion of current engineers who graduated in the 1960s and 1970s will retire over the next 10 years.

Against this backdrop, the government believes there is a strong need to increase Australia’s investment in engineering skills.

Today I announce that the government will invest $56 million over four years to fund an extra 500 Commonwealth-supported engineering places at university from 2008. These places are in addition to the 510 new engineering places commencing from 2007 which were announced by the Minister for Education, Science and Training on 24 July this year.

The minister will work with universities on how the places will be allocated between universities. Universities will be free to utilise the places in particular areas of engineering which are in demand.

This is consistent with a broad approach to skills development given the degree to which Australians with professional, associate professional and trade-level engineering qualifications are widely employed across the economy.

More generally, Australia needs to increase the opportunities for people to obtain higher level skills through vocational and technical education.

Today I announce additional employer incentives worth $54.4 million over five years so that more Australians will be supported in their workplaces to undertake diploma and advanced diploma level qualifications.

The Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program will be extended from January 2007 in three ways to support training at the diploma and advanced diploma level.

First, we will remove the rule which prevents workers with prior qualifications at a certificate III and IV level from receiving benefits. Second, we will open the program to an employer’s existing workforce, not just new employees. And third, in consultation with industry, we will increase the range of eligible higher level qualifications in engineering, complementing the provision of more engineering places at university.

Up to 24,800 people will benefit from the new incentives over the next five years. Employers will receive incentive payments of $1,500 for each employee commencing a diploma or advanced diploma program and $2,500 when they complete.

Employer incentives could be paid for employment based training or, where this is not available, for institution based training.

The Australian government has now committed more than $2.5 billion to employer incentives for vocational and technical education over the next four years. Equally, we expect industry to live up to its responsibility to invest in the technical skills our economy will need in the future.

Conclusion

I do not in any way underestimate the challenges many businesses have in obtaining suitable staff today. We live in a workers’ market in Australia to a degree unmatched in my 32 years in politics.

One has to go back to before the doubling of unemployment in the Whitlam years to find anything comparable. With Australia having largely dismantled the protective wall that once surrounded it, what emerges is a picture of unparalleled economic strength.

Now the challenge is to build on that strength by maintaining our economic flexibility while investing in a more skilled and motivated workforce. Today’s announcement demonstrates this government’s commitment to a national reform agenda that will further increase workforce participation and productivity.

I thank my colleagues the Minister for Education, Science and Training and the Minister for Technical and Vocational Education for their contributions to the preparation of these policies.

As a matter of courtesy to the Leader of the Opposition, can I inform him that I will not be able to hear his reply, as I normally do in these matters, because of a luncheon engagement with the visiting Prime Minister of East Timor. In that vein I commend this statement to the House. I present the following document:

Skills for the Future—Ministerial Statement, 12 October 2006.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the document.

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the debate.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Beazley (Leader of the Opposition) speaking for a period not exceeding 28 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the House for that extended opportunity. This is a response to a skills crisis of the Prime Minister’s own creation—that is all there is to it—and it is a product not of any sincere convictions on his part but of his political fears, a product of the political fears he has that the consequences of the skills crisis he has induced may well bring about the undoing of his government. This is a document, a statement and a program about the Prime Minister’s future and the future of his government; it is not a program or plan for the future of this nation, the future of the people of this nation and, in particular, the future of the young people in this nation who crave opportunities for education and opportunities for skilling.

And this Prime Minister, I have to say, is still in denial on this skills crisis. Only this Prime Minister would have the effrontery to say that there is no skills crisis and then announce an $800 million program to deal with one. Only this Prime Minister would have the brazen effrontery to make that sort of claim.

But it is entirely a product of his doing. It is entirely a product of his neglect and, I suspect, of his hostility over the years to those particularly in the traditional trades, which often tend to coincide with the heavily unionised. Certainly the skills and qualifications they have are influenced by the heavily unionised. The result of that is the appalling situation now confronting industry and the workforce of Australia. This government has had for over 10 years no real plans for their future and, in having no real plans for their future, has had no real plans for the future of this nation.

If you want evidence of this, Mr Speaker, and I think the Australian people are entitled to it, I go simply to one statistic. Remember, you have just heard the Prime Minister talk about apprenticeships, talk about post-school education and talk about engineers and the people we need. Here is the OECD’s statistic for this government on this area of public investment by our nation, indicating the priority this government has given this essential element of public investment for our future. The OECD’s Education at a glance report showed, just a few weeks ago, Australia is the only advanced economy in the world that has reduced its public sector investment in education since 1995. It is the only one in the world. On average, other nations have increased their investment by 48 per cent; Australia’s has been cut by seven per cent. For 10 long years the Howard government has got its priorities wrong and failed to prepare us for the future.

The Prime Minister has boasted over the last few years about rises in real wages. He has boasted about it, but he has absolutely hated it. His industrial relations changes, which he sought to defend here again today, have got nothing to do with rising wages, nothing to do with encouraging skills and everything to do with competing in the world that we confront now, not on the basis of the skills and brains of the Australian community but on the basis of lowering the wages of the Australian community. His attitude to the higher education system and the TAFE system in this nation—and you can describe his attitude to them in the last 10 years as nothing less than an attack—is of a piece with his attitude to industrial relations. It is about creating the set of circumstances where Australia’s international competitiveness is determined not by the brains and skills of our people but by the lowness of our wages. That is simply a fact, and you can go through all the statistics which demonstrate it.

Today, for example, we have a proposition to give a benefit to some 30,000 mature age trainees. There is a resonance in that figure of 30,000, because over the last 10 years 300,000 Australians have been turned away from TAFE—some of them, of course, mature age individuals who wanted the chance to advance themselves and some of them, of course, youngsters coming out of school. All of them were people who wanted to make a significant contribution with their skills to this nation, and now, 10 years on, of that 300,000, 30,000 are going to receive a mea culpa from this government—an apology. Thirty thousand will receive this government’s apology, but the fact that 300,000 can be turned away and only 30,000 picked up is a pretty fair indication that this, in keeping with the Prime Minister’s denial of a skills shortage, falls short as a plan for our future.

I will go into a real plan for this nation’s future; a plan that respects the desire and the absolute enthusiasm that there is amongst young Australians for the skills that they need to build themselves and their country a very useful future. I will detail those plans—the real plans—for the future of this nation, and claim a bit of credit, I might say, for forcing the Prime Minister kicking and screaming to this table now. But before I do this, I want to go through one other sorry piece of evidence about how we find ourselves in this position now, with a substantial, effective deskilling of our workforce and the chronic shortages that we now confront in business in accessing skilled workers, that even the Prime Minister has had to fess up to.

Since 1997, the Reserve Bank of Australia has repeatedly said to this government that one of the capacity constraints in the economy that will ultimately affect the prosperity of our people, the growth in the economy and ultimately factors such as the interest rate regime has been a chronic shortage of skills. First there was the November 1997 Statement on monetary policy:

This judgment is consistent with persistent reports of skill shortages and pressure on wages in the construction sector.

The November 1999 Statement on monetary policy cited:

... evidence that the strength of the labour market may be generating skills shortages in some areas.

And continued:

Skilled vacancies, according to the survey conducted by the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, are at historically high levels.

The 5 April statement by the governor said:

In some areas skill shortages have emerged. Pressure for higher wage rises appears to be building, even though wages growth to date has been restrained.

The November 2004 Statement on monetary policy said:

... business surveys suggest that a broad range of firms are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable labour ... Both the NAB and ACCI-Westpac surveys suggest that the difficulty in obtaining suitable labour has moved into the upper end of the range recorded over the past two decades.

…     …         …

While economy-wide measures of wages growth have remained relatively stable, localised pressures are certainly evident in some official wage measures as well as through liaison, which points to substantial increases in wages for skilled employees in the construction and resource sectors, and in some areas of business services ... These developments are consistent with survey data showing that firms are finding it increasingly difficult to attract suitably skilled labour, pointing to the possibility of stronger wage pressures emerging in the period ahead.

The February 2005 Statement on monetary policythis is the most massive indictment of government neglect that you could conceivably imagine from the men and women who are responsible for determining monetary policy in this country—said:

The strength in the labour market is also apparent in liaison reports, which indicate strong demand for labour and shortages of skilled workers in a range of industries and sectors, from construction and engineering to accounting and information technology.

…         …         …

Higher labour costs, due to skill shortages, and higher material costs, particularly for steel products, contributed to this price movement.

And so on. In the March 2005 speech by the RBA Assistant Governor, Malcolm Edey, he stated:

The severity of the current skills shortage is captured by some of the business surveys which report the difficulty of finding suitable labour now is as high as it’s been in the last two decades ...

The May 2005 Statement on monetary policy said:

Liaison indicates that labour shortages are most pronounced among skilled workers in the non-residential construction and resources sectors, and in parts of the business services sector. However, labour shortages are becoming increasingly broadbased across industries and skill levels. Consistent with this, business surveys indicate that difficulty finding suitable labour has become a key factor constraining output.

The August 2005 Statement on monetary policy said:

Liaison reports suggest that skill shortages in specialised occupations are still acute. Shortages are becoming more widespread across industries and occupations, but remain most pronounced among skilled workers in the non-residential construction and resources sectors, and in parts of the business services sector.

The May 2006 Statement on monetary policy said:

More recently, business surveys and the Bank’s liaison with businesses point to continued tight labour market conditions and shortages of skilled labour. The NAB survey suggests that labour scarcity remains a greater constraint on activity than the more traditional concerns about lack of demand (Graph 64). Firms across a wide range of private-sector industries are using non-wage forms of remuneration that are not fully captured in the standard wage measures, such as bonus payments and more flexible working arrangements, to attract and retain employees.

The August 2006 Statement on monetary policythis is the latest statement from them on monetary policy, and they had a great deal to say—said:

Over the year to the June quarter, employment growth was strongest in the mining and electricity, gas & water industries, with the household services ...

…     …         …

Survey-based indicators and vacancy data mostly suggest that demand for labour is still strong and that the labour market will remain tight. The ABS measure of job vacancies increased in the June quarter, to show a nationwide vacancy rate of 1.5 per cent, the highest level in over thirty years (Graph 26). Private-sector measures of vacancies also show robust annual growth in job vacancies.

…         …         …

Continued strength in labour demand has led to ongoing labour shortages. Business surveys report that firms are experiencing difficulty finding suitable labour, and employers note that this remains a key factor constraining their output. Feedback from the Bank’s liaison program indicates that labour shortages are broadbased across industries and skill levels. However, shortages are most pronounced for skilled workers in the non-residential construction and resources sectors, and in much of the business services sector.

Don’t these people ever read the statements made by the people who determine the interest rate regime that applies in this country? Because I have a slightly longer period of time than is usually permitted to us, I have been able to go through the whole litany of Reserve Bank reports offering advice to the people opposite, including that exceptionally foolish and meretricious minister who has to handle these matters.

Take all of the traditional skilled trades. I am talking about all the construction workers, tilers, carpenters, plumbers, brickies and sparkies; and all the workers in the manufacturing industry, the fitters and turners, metallurgists and all those folk. The one measure which gives you an indication of how this government has dealt seriously with the trades is to ask this question: how many of those trades have turned up showing no skills shortages over the last 10 years? The best performance in any of those trades areas I have mentioned and many more has been in a trade capable of staying off the shortage list for two years. That is about the best of it. Most have been on it for 10 years, and all of them have been on it for at least eight.

It is extraordinary that we should find ourselves in this situation. The future of this nation is in this area. The traditional trades are critical to all sectors of the Australian economy, and this government has done nothing but persecute them and ignore the warnings, and hence we are now where we are. Let us make absolutely no mistake about this—this is not a plan for the future of this nation; this is a plan for the future of the Prime Minister. It is typical of his cynicism. It is typical of the sorts of things he does when he confronts a problem. It is the educational equivalent of regional rorts. You find yourself in a position where you are in serious trouble, you are 12 months out from an election, you are worried about your future—not the future of the people you have misgoverned—and what you do is fling enough money at it to give even your incompetent ministers the capacity to have the odd feather to fly with as they go out on the hustings. It does not give them much.

Let me go through the initiatives that have been announced here today, because I do recognise many of them. There is support for apprentices to undertake business training to improve their entrepreneurial skills—an idea that Labor suggested when we launched our skills account policy in January this year. There is the extension of employer incentives for diploma and advanced diploma qualifications—I proposed this in my skills blueprint in September last year. There is a wage subsidy for mature age apprentices—this goes back a fair while; it is an idea taken from Working Nation. It is an admission that perhaps those programs should not have been trashed 10 years ago. If that had not been done, perhaps the skills crisis would not be so bad.

I welcome the extra places for engineering, but it is not enough and it is far too late. Over the past 10 years there has been a decline in the number of Australian students commencing an undergraduate engineering degree. One thing they did not say today is that they are going to deal with the fact that engineering students are paying $16,000 more in HECS for their degree than they were in 1996. Our recently released higher education white paper presented an option to relieve the HECS burden on students, especially those in science and engineering. Action is needed on that front, too.

We do not mind our policies being pinched. Our policies, our plans and our blueprints for the future are out there to be stolen. That is why they are out there. They are out there to influence government as to the direction they ought to take. I am proud of the fact that the hard work done by my colleagues along the front bench here—in particular my deputy, who has carriage of this area for us—and my colleagues on the back benches, in drawing to the attention of this government and our political opponents the skills issue of this nation, is in a small way starting to pay off. I am very glad that some of that is emerging in what we have here. But this is simply nowhere near enough to address the 10 years of neglect which I have been through, which have left us in the sorry position of hearing the Reserve Bank, in report after report, trying to alarm government into doing something serious.

Let me suggest some serious policy for the government to pinch. Let me suggest a plan that will work for the future of this nation, because these are our plans for the future of this nation. The first thing I would do is this: we have got to get people back into training for traditional trades effectively. We will get rid of course fees in traditional trades and, for that matter, for childcare trainees, by establishing skills accounts for individuals. These accounts will be available for courses provided by either public or private sector providers, and they will be worth up to $3,200 over a four-year course. Pinch it; get out there and take that one. That will start to put a serious incentive into the system for people to start taking up traditional trades.

Of course, they have to have somewhere to go that will get them interested in these areas. So instead of telling kids to leave school at year 10, which seems to be the strategy of the Prime Minister, provide kids in schools with alternatives to simply sticking around with the academic subjects. One thing we will do, on being elected to office, is this: we will ensure that all kids in this country have a right to choose in their school districts a specialised trades school. What is this government’s solution for those kids who find themselves with an academic education that does not suit them? By heavens, the other day we even heard the Minister for Education, Science and Training talking not about skills but about reintroducing Latin into the school system. Forget Latin—start encouraging people to become electricians; start encouraging people to become plumbers; start encouraging people to become carpenters. Latin scholars—that is what the minister for education wants. Fair dinkum, Mr Speaker!

In addition, it is the case that young people do not necessarily know what opportunities and capacities they may have to engage in trade programs. Give them a ‘trade taster’ program even earlier in school, so that they have an opportunity to look at what it is like to be a carpenter, a plumber, a chef or an electrician. Give them that opportunity.

I will also provide more opportunities to begin apprenticeship training at school. Our Trades in Schools scheme will double the number of school based apprenticeships in areas of skill shortages. If you can come out of your school with one or two years of your apprenticeship under your belt, there is that much more incentive to stay in place and complete your apprenticeship when you leave school. We will make sure that the schools have first-class facilities in those areas where we wish to establish effectively a training culture.

Then there are the apprentices themselves. Here is a further plan for you to pinch—and, in a package worth $800 million, you could have pinched this one; I am disappointed that you did not do it: give a bonus to youngsters who complete their full apprenticeship in those traditional trades. I am talking about a couple of thousand dollars; a bit of financial incentive. Pinch it; you could have easily fitted it into an $800 million program, and it would produce a serious outcome.

When I was Minister for Employment, Education and Training in this country, 80 per cent of those who started trade apprenticeships finished them. That figure is now lower than 60 per cent. That is hopeless. We want youngsters who are in apprenticeships to complete their apprenticeships. Of course, another reason why young people are often so loath to complete their apprenticeships is that they see other kids out there earning a great deal more. That goes to apprenticeship wages. It comes back full circle to the government’s industrial relations strategy. Is their strategy to increase the wages of young Australian apprentices so that they are encouraged to stay in their apprenticeships? No, that is not their strategy. Their strategy is to use the changes in the industrial relations laws to make it even harder for young apprentices, as we found when we went to a building site with electricians recently where the apprentices were taking cuts.

The second thing is that that does create a problem, and they do know that. So what has their other solution been? Their other solution has been to bring in foreign apprentices. In order to make absolutely certain that the incentive is maintained very firmly by businesses, the education system and the Australian government, we will abolish that foreign apprenticeship trainee visa. We will make absolutely certain that our young people do get the incentive that comes with them being the exclusive recipients of the apprenticeship training that they need. That is a plan for the future of this nation. That is a plan that addresses the massive skills shortages that we now confront. That is a plan that makes absolutely certain that the future prosperity of this nation is sustained.

The government’s plan is a cover for what they intend to do about industrial relations. They will not abandon their wage cutting agenda. You have no idea, Mr Speaker, how annoying it is to sit on this side of the House and watch the Prime Minister boasting about rising real wages when you know that, in his heart of hearts, he hates absolutely every word he is saying. He moves as desperately as he can to create two Australias—firstly, a wealthy, small group in a position of dominance, and a situation where his friends at the big end of town are well advantaged; and, secondly, the rest of the Australian community, struggling with job uncertainty, unable to access a decent education and training opportunity, confronting instability in the workplace and unable to be certain that they will get work hours that are family friendly for them.

Ours will be a different Australia. Ours will be a productive Australia—an Australia that takes the participation issues seriously by addressing those things that keep people out of the workforce, like an absence of child care, and addressing those things that put people into the workforce without the skills they need, by giving them those opportunities to pick up trades. That is a real plan and a real blueprint for the future of this nation.

Debate (on motion by Mr Hunt) adjourned.