Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment Participation. What is the government doing to attend to skills shortages in Australia, and how will this ensure that Australians can find work?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very important question, because it goes to the crisis that besets this nation. Of course, that is the skills crisis, a crisis that the opposition seems to ignore—indeed, to deny. The yet to be released paper from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research states: ‘Unemployed people are being recycled from welfare to work and back to welfare.’ It also refers to the courses that are undertaken by job seekers who are seeking to get back into the workforce as ‘mickey mouse courses’. I take these concerns very seriously. I look forward to the final report being released.

This report confirms what this government already knows—that is, that the former government’s short-sighted policies have contributed to one of the greatest skills shortages our nation has ever faced. The previous government, as has been said by the Deputy Prime Minister and indeed by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister, ignored 20 separate warnings from the Reserve Bank. They also ignored the views of the Business Council of Australia. They were willing to take the money of the Business Council of Australia; they should have taken their advice and ensured that the skills crisis in this country was attended to, but they failed to do that. They also failed to take account of not only that employer body but other employer bodies and other parties who time and time again reminded the previous government of the concerns that were being experienced in many industries and by many employers. Last month, the Age’s economics editor quite rightly said: ‘The Howard government dropped the ball on skills training.’

Unfortunately—and it is unfortunate—the evidence of skills shortages is everywhere. The MODL list—that is, the Migration Occupations in Demand List—indicated, in 1999, 18 occupations where there was a shortage. That has blown out, from 1999 to 2007, to 95 occupations that are now in demand. That is a 400 per cent increase in the demand for particular occupations. It underlines the point that the previous government failed to attend to this particular issue.

For almost 12 years, the opposite side squandered opportunities. Under the former government, referrals from the Job Network to apprenticeships and traineeships fell dramatically. For example, in 1998 there were 32,000 apprenticeships commenced as a result of Job Network placements. By 2005, they had dropped to 7,000—that is, apprenticeships under Job Network placements dropped from 32,000 to 7,000. Yet those opposite, including the shadow Treasurer, remain in denial that there is a problem. Indeed, recent media reports have indicated that the shadow Treasurer does not believe that there is a skills crisis in this country and does not believe there are chronic shortages in skills, and I am here to tell him that he is wrong. The shadow Treasurer is wrong and the opposition are wrong if they think that this is not a major problem for this country. It does not surprise me that the shadow Treasurer does not think that there is a skills crisis. The only skill crisis he is concerned about is with the Leader of the Opposition. The only skills crisis he is concerned about is the failure of the Leader of the Opposition to articulate a response.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is starting to debate and not respond to the question.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know we need to change the employment programs to provide job seekers in this country with appropriate skills. We know we have to change the programs so we can attend to those skills. We have received 250 submissions. That review is being undertaken because we need to change the way in which we seek to assist jobseekers. The problem with the current programs, without prejudicing the review, is they did not attend to the changing demographic of those people not in work. By that I mean those people who were confronting non-vocational and vocational problems were not being addressed by the programs and we will seek to fix that. We know that the previous government failed. The Rudd government will not fail in this regard. We have made a commitment to ensure that there will be 450,000 VET places over the course of the next four years—175,000 of which will be for those people who are seeking to find work or are marginally attached to the workforce, 20,000 of which will be available from April. There is no doubt in the government’s mind that this is a critical matter, a matter that was ignored by the previous government, but the Rudd government are building a modern economy that is confronting the challenges of the 21st century. The opposition on the other hand is stuck in the past, not knowing where it stands on any particular area of public policy.