Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

BRIAN MITCHELL () (): I'm proud to speak today on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. Australia is facing a skills shortage across many of our critical industries. These shortages have been neglected for nine long years of failed Liberal government. For nearly a decade the Liberal National government cut TAFE and slashed apprenticeships. Today we have 85,000 fewer apprenticeships and traineeships compared to 2013 when the Liberal National government came to power. So despite nine years of largely economic growth and population growth—apart from that small blip of recession during the pandemic—we've got fewer people in apprenticeships and traineeships than nine years ago, a scandalous arrangement that this government is committed to addressing.

That neglect has come to an end with this government. Employers, frankly, have been finding it very difficult to find qualified staff in key areas, including health care, child care and aged care. Nursing and personal care professionals are amongst the hardest working people to find in this nationwide skills shortage. These are critical industries and yet we can't find the workers. Hopefully we'll address some of that with the aged-care worker wage rise that we've just passed through the budget, but time will tell.

A core business of this government is to create more opportunities for all Australians to prosper. This government will ensure more skilled and secure job opportunities for all Australians regardless of where they live. At the 2022 federal election the Prime Minister and Labor told the people of Australia that we would tackle the skills crisis in Australia head-on. We promised we would get straight to work on fixing the issue with no broken promises, no spin and no deflection from the issues at hand. Today we continue to make good on that promise to the people of Australia and we take important steps into ending the skills crisis across the country.

Jobs and Skills Australia is an independent advisory body that will provide advice on the labour market to government, ensuring the skill shortage mess we were left by the previous government does not happen again. This bill before the House gives effect to the Australian government's commitment to finalise the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body to be established and funded as announced in the 2022-23 October budget, and the amendment ensures that representation across the board is underpinned by expertise. We are serious about fixing the skills crisis, and this bill helps us achieve it. Jobs and Skills Australia will operate as a truly tripartite organisation with unions, employers and state and territory governments brought in as partners, informing and resolving the skills and labour market crisis that we are facing and the need to build the workforce we need for Australia's future.

Jobs and Skills Australia will also conduct a national study on adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy skills to provide an up-to-date evidence base on levels of these foundation skills among Australian adults. This will be the most comprehensive study ever undertaken in Australia. The results will help us successfully design future programs and policies, ensuring we have a skilled Australian workforce. We know that recent employment growth has been in areas that require a post-school higher education qualification. It's never been more critical to have post-school qualifications. It should be a right for everyone, from every background, to have the opportunity to study at a higher level, whether they're rich or poor, in the city or in the regions.

The Albanese government has taken action on these issues in the October 2022-23 budget. We budgeted $6.3 billion for vocational education training in the 2022-23 financial year. Last night we continued and added even more. We are delivering on our promise to upskill Australia and tackle the skills shortages, and we are committed to doing this right across Australia for all Australians. It's good for young people who want to get into a trade and it's good for the economy. Fee-free TAFE is focused on addressing the skills shortages that we face today. These courses are leading to jobs that are needed most by employers in Australia right now. To provide greater opportunity for Australians to have secure and rewarding employment, we must be able to skill and reskill our workforce effectively. For many people, course fees are a barrier to getting into training and work. Fee-free TAFE removes that barrier. Of the 3,800 additional fee-free TAFE places for Tasmania for 2023, we've seen now 2,200 enrolments in a very short space of time. It's a policy that's working. It's providing the skills that are needed in Tasmania for Tasmanians, providing the businesses and sectors of our economy the skills that they are crying out for. That's good for our economy, good for students and good for businesses. Reducing cost-of-living pressures and ensuring no-one is left behind is a key element of the Albanese government's plan and central to our fee-free TAFE and VET initiative.

The Australian government understands that people living in regional, rural and remote areas face unique challenges. This bill will ensure Jobs and Skills Australia produces enhanced regional-level data and analysis of skills and workforce needs, to provide a greater understanding of jurisdictional differences, such as changing economic conditions or emerging industries.

Australia has the second highest labour supply shortages across all OECD countries, with three million Australians currently lacking the fundamental skills required to participate in training and secure work. It's a shameful legacy of the former government, which we must contend with. I know this is the case in Tasmania and in my own electorate. We don't have enough skilled workers. It's affecting our productivity and the ability of our people to find secure and meaningful employment.

Tasmania's skill shortage was ignored by the previous government. Remote and rural workers nationally wanting to upskill or re-skill were ignored by them. Our youth were left high and dry with fewer prospects while the Liberals and Nationals were in government. Under the Albanese government this is about to change. Jobs and Skills Australia will help our regions to thrive and will give our workforce a much needed and long overdue skills boost. Under our government, future skill shortages will be addressed as they arise and with time to spare. This government won't be caught chasing its tail, and it will ensure that skills shortages are identified and dealt with.

I'm genuinely excited for the future of jobs and skills in Tasmania and for the people of Tasmania. As part of the October budget, Sorell, in my electorate, will receive $1.5 million to fund an upgraded jobs hub. I recently welcomed the minister for skills to my electorate to visit the site, which will soon be underway, and to speak to the team of Business and Employment Southeast Tasmania to discuss the amazing benefits this jobs hub will bring to the people of Sorell and the wider region. This jobs hub will combat the severe skills shortage we are facing in the south-east of Tasmania, a fast-growing area, and will ensure good training and secure employment for the people of Sorell and surrounds. The Sorell BEST Jobs Hub will offer practical trade skills to high school students and school leavers as well as adults, ensuring that those who are ending their school journey won't be left high and dry without the necessary skills to gain secure employment. This new jobs hub will ensure demand is met and all young people in the area get the opportunity to upskill and prepare for their future.

Young people living in rural and regional areas in Tasmania and, indeed, across Australia deserve the same opportunities as those living in our cities. They deserve access to services which will benefit their future without having to travel great distances for it. That's what the jobs hub will achieve, and that's what this government is delivering for the people of Lyons and the people of Australia. Kids in the regions need to have the opportunity to access these services in places like Sorell. The Albanese government is making that happen. With the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia, we will see patterns in skill shortages evolving, enabling us to take action and not be left in the sorry mess that we inherited.

While with the Minister for Skills and Training, I had the great pleasure of visiting the Clarence TAFE campus—which is just across the border from my electorate in the electorate of Franklin, represented by my good friend the Minister for Housing and Minister for Small Business—where we met some students studying aged care. They were in the last four weeks of their, I think, six-month course. There were about 20 of them, and nearly every one of them has got a job to go to. We've got some critical shortages in the aged-care industry, and nearly every one of them has got a job to go to. The TAFE is doing a really terrific job of skilling them up for that job, and we saw them being put through their paces. We were talking to some of those students. Most of them are doing that course because it's fee free. Of course, aged care is an area of critical skills shortage. Most of them were women, but there were a couple of fellas. There was one older woman who said that she'd never dreamed that she'd be back in the workforce and that fee-free TAFE had allowed her the opportunity to get back and get that qualification. She's really looking forward to becoming an aged-care worker and filling a very critical role. That is the difference that we can make.

In conclusion, Jobs and Skills Australia will support a strong, skilled Australian workforce and will provide the necessary prompts when existing and emerging skills are more in demand. It will provide the foundations necessary to enable federal, state and territory governments, unions and employers to make decisions to invest in education and training appropriate to our needs and to improve skill development and employment opportunities for our workforce that will, in hand, aid our economic growth. It puts a figure, a percentage or a statistic on basic as well as advanced skills traits, looking not only at how we can advance our future workforce but at how we can upskill our current one.

A higher skilled workforce is a productive one; they're better paid and they have better job security. It's part of the foundations that the Labor Party was built on, and Jobs and Skills Australia is one of the building blocks necessary to ensure that our workers have the tools they need for the future. The Albanese Labor government is striving to ensure a future Australia has a skilled, secure, well-paid and happy workforce. That's a better future for this country indeed. I commented the bill to the House.

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I held a forum recently with various stakeholders in my Fowler electorate, from childcare providers and workers to vocational education and training providers, teachers and social workers—just to name a few—to gauge and to understand what challenges they were facing. One of the key issues they raised was skills and workforce shortages and the fact that our system actually impedes rather than assists them in unblocking the skills and workforce pipeline. I want to provide some insights from my community of Fowler so that we can hear how the Jobs and Skills Australia board, a system that the government is setting up, need to make sure they're not another layer of bureaucracy that would really create another blockage in this pipeline.

One of our local school principals, Lachlan Erskine from Cabramatta High School, shared with me some of the demand for VET courses, vocational education and training courses, at the school. Unlike many other high schools in Fowler, Cabramatta High offers six VET courses. This VET opportunity is a fantastic pathway for many of our students, the majority from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Yet teachers in schools are constantly asked to upskill and attend training for up to five to 15 days, which is a very long time for a teacher to be away from school. Teachers who, for example, are teaching hospitality and have taught hospitality for over 20 years still need to attend yearly training. What has really changed in hospitality so much that there is a constant need to send VET teachers to training annually? There is a need to streamline compliance for VET teachers, and this is an issue that needs to be addressed straightaway by the JSA board in setting up their scope on how they can be a vehicle to unblock this skills shortage and workforce shortage pipeline.

We have seen governing bodies like ASQA, who assess regulations for RTO and VET courses, and SkillsIQ, for child care, constantly changing the course and skill set requirements in these sectors. I have no doubt there are good intentions of ensuring we have exceptional quality and performance when delivering in these sectors, but surely there are opportunities to refine the system so that it doesn't put immense pressure on trainers and assessors and people working in the sector to be constantly retrained, causing the sector so much administrative burden, cost and loss of time.

Recognition of prior learning is also important. Some VET teachers are asked to undergo training on things which, as teachers, they are already required to know—for example, administration skills and digital literacy skills. This puts a huge administrative burden on VET teachers in schools, who have to upload evidence for each student so they can be assessed. They are already teachers, and they have the skills to do this. Surely this must be eliminated so that teachers can teach VET courses in the school environment to enable and nurture those students to get the skills required so that they can enter the workforce to help plug the skills gap.

I have no doubt that what I have just painted is just a small picture of how our system and bureaucracy can cause such a bottleneck in our ability to release the skills and workforce shortages in our economy. My community of Fowler—and, I have no doubt, communities across the country—are currently facing and feeling the pain of the cost of living, from the skill shortages, rising rents, rising interest rates, costs of food and fuel and costs of forcing businesses and community to transition to zero emissions to the impact of migration on housing, the environment, jobs and small business. I can't help but feel somewhat cynical when organisations rebrand, as that would only add to the cost of delivering outcomes. That said, I would urge the newly rebranded Jobs and Skills Australia board to really ensure that they will not be another governing body that will add layers of bureaucracy stifling the ability to kickstart our economic engine.

In Fowler, manufacturing is our largest employer. Almost 40 per cent of our population is employed in the manufacturing sector, compared to 5.9 per cent of Australia's workforce. I would like to remind the House that we have seen the grit and resilience of my community in Fowler and their potential and capabilities in powering this state and this country through the COVID lockdown. They were the construction workers, they were the factory workers packaging goods and foods, they were the truck drivers and deliverers, and they were the nurses, the childcare workers and the aged-care workers, just to name a few. Our community is unlike any other that you'll find in Australia, with more than 170,000 people from over 70 different ethnicities. We most certainly have the human capacity here in Fowler. We in Fowler and south-west Sydney are the economic engine of Australia.

If we want to grow manufacturing in this country, for instance, we need to invest in local manufacturing and encourage our local manufacturers to take risks, to build their businesses here, especially in areas like Fowler, where there's a large manufacturing region. To ensure we have a thriving and productive manufacturing sector to support workers, we must have the manufacturing skills required to do this. That means investing in young people, those who don't see a future in tertiary education but need a pathway to tap into their skills to contribute back to building our society. It is therefore critical that Jobs and Skills Australia's board work with TAFE and other local educational institutions to empower young people to learn the skills to produce and make products.

I have spoken with local representatives from TAFE in my area as well, and they have told me that they are plagued constantly with enrolment issues—processes and procedures at the administrative level that are failing and causing problems for students, especially in areas with high migrant and English-as-a-second-language populations. There's no point in creating boards if we aren't addressing the problems at a grassroots level. Our kids need a pathway to be able to enrol into TAFE courses.

And it's not just for our youth but also for those adults who want to upskill or those migrants whose overseas qualifications do not get the recognition they deserve in Australia. These highly skilled individuals can surely be tapped into, enabling their skills to be transferred, so that they can have dignity in building their lives here in this new country. If these people can't enrol in TAFE and we are providing hundreds and hundreds of free TAFE courses, then how are they going to access these courses? How will the Jobs and Skills Australia board help them? We have to also consider the vocational training sector, which has been outsourced to RTOs and which are needed to lodge an apprenticeship. Nothing happens from there. If RTOs are needed to lodge and organise an apprenticeship or placement, this service should see the process from start to finish, not part of the way. What are we paying an RTO for if they cannot even enrol the student in TAFE to complete the process of becoming an apprentice? It seems that the system lacks the staff motivation to get things going. I don't see this behaviour in the private sector, and, frankly, it should not be tolerated.

As we talk about the increasing number of free TAFE courses, which both the state government and the federal government have announced in the budget—which is great—I really urge our government to look at how these free courses can be accessed so that people in an electorate like Fowler, where English is a second language, can actually access them, not to just promote free courses that we can't access. We need to make training resources easier for students and employers and those needing them and not introduce complex processes that are just time wasting. Jobs and Skills Australia must respond to the current jobs and skills crisis. It must have a plan to get Australians working, to get them skilled, trained and empowered to build a society that is connected, knowledgeable and ready to seize opportunities and face challenges. The plan must have measures and take the community along. While we are below average in adult literacy in my electorate of Fowler, I'm encouraged that many of our young students, with the dedication and commitment from our local teachers, are building on their digital literacy skills as well as their knowledge of STEM. It goes without saying, for a diverse community like Fowler, that we need the right support and advice that speak to people from multicultural, diverse and migrant communities.

I imagine a future Australia where my community in Fowler is the global leader in many areas—manufacturing, digital literacy, technology—a proud producer of Australian-made goods and a changemaker in the digital and STEM space. So I think it's important that the Jobs and Skills Australia board represents the diversity of my community while representing the challenges and opportunities we face every single day. I would ask the Jobs and Skills Australia board, once it has been formed and established, to visit me in Fowler and see how unique our community is, see that there are skills there, and, with a high unemployment rate of 10 per cent, which is three times the national average, see if there is something that we can do to address the unemployment rate and bring it down. I will welcome the opportunity to have the Jobs and Skills Australia board members and, of course, the minister come out and look at our area so that we can actually get solutions from the community. From my experience, speaking to our local community at the grassroots level is a key important thing that we need to do to get the solutions to address the jobs and skills shortages here in our country.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. AEMO predicts that Australia will need an additional 12,000 workers in the energy sector by 2025 if we are to realise our ambition to become a renewable energy superpower. We clearly have a task ahead of us, but we are up for it. The race to net zero carries a moral as well as an economic imperative. But it won't be delivered with slogans. It demands a pool of human capital that is as vast as it is deep. Previous Liberal governments made that pool as shallow as a car park puddle. A lack of investment and a failure to plan have meant that Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortages in the OECD, according to their 2022 update, only ahead of Canada, which is in worse shape. The most recent labour market update from the quarter ending in December of last year shows that skill shortages persist in critical areas like nursing, aged care, early childhood education, IT and construction. The most in-demand occupations are registered nurses, software programmers, age-care and disabled carers, mechanics, GPs, engineers and early childhood educators. These are not skills that we can afford to have in short supply, and the numbers are staggering. For the three-month period to December there were over 8,300 vacancies for nurses; 6,300 for IT professionals; nearly 5,000 for aged-care and disability workers; 4,300 for educators; and 4,200 for construction managers.

The report showed that over the past year around a third of new jobs needed a university pathway and that nearly two-thirds of jobs required VET qualifications. It's the reason we are so heavily backing our TAFE sector, with 180,000 fee-free TAFE spots already announced and with an additional 300,000 places available to the states, subject to an agreement. This is not a crisis which simply emerged out of the blue and it's not merely a consequence of international conflict or economic turmoil. No, this crisis is the product of a decade without a national coordinated skills plan.

The Albanese government is wholeheartedly committed to tackling this crisis. Last year we delivered our promise to make Jobs and Skills Australia an independent statutory body. Now we have introduced legislation to make it permanent. The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023 is a product of extensive stakeholder consultation with industry, employer bodies, unions, education and training providers and state and territory governments. It's the work of a government that is truly committed to listening, understanding and taking action. It is no accident that our first major stakeholder event was the Jobs and Skills Summit in September of last year. It signified our determination for a tripartite engagement with unions, business and the states to turn this crisis around. A permanent Jobs and Skills Australia will develop a work plan to support the government in tackling skills development. The bill establishes a commissioner and deputy commissioners, with merit based appointments, and a tripartite ministerial advisory board that is representative of their respective sectors, industries and stakeholders, including universities, the states and employer groups. Key functions will include research intelligence, developing partnerships with stakeholders and providing advice to government.

Under this bill, Jobs and Skills Australia will inform government decision-making about migration. Evidence based skills advice should guide our migration policy, which for too long has been skewed towards low-skills insecure low-paid workers. We need to turn this around. The bill will ensure that all government policies are informed by evidence. Research will be conducted around workforce participation, with a particular focus on improving outcomes for women, First Nations Australians, older workers—over 55 years—and workers with disabilities, as well as those from culturally diverse communities. The sense of inclusion and workforce participation that many of us take for granted is denied to too many Australians. It needs to be seeded with good policies and grounded in data and the lived experience of the people who have faced these barriers. JSA will probe the experiences of insecure workers and the impact of those on social and economic outcomes.

This work is complimentary to the 'secure work, better pay' bill we passed in December last year. The bill will allow for strategic planning and investment in education and training. This is critical to delivering the Albanese government's key priority areas, including energy transformation, rebuilding Australia manufacturing, keeping up with digital technologies, supporting the health and care economy and upskilling our defence industry. We aren't going to get to net zero without the right training pathways, like $100 million for New Energy Apprenticeships.

Many of our skills shortages are driven by a lack of skilled workers, and the solution lies in education. The Albanese government has already begun to address this by expanding the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List and by providing more university and fee-free TAFE and vocational education places. When our workers have the right skills they will have more choice and more security. When our workforce has the right skills our economy will thrive. This bill will create a bigger and better trained Australian workforce. Every Australian deserves secure and meaningful work, and under this bill we are closer to making that a reality. I commend the bill to the House.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, surprise! There you go. These things happen. There's no doubt about it. There's no point beating around the bush. Our country has a major skills crisis. The context for that—uncomfortable truths for those opposite—is that it comes after a decade of Liberal decay, division and dysfunction. Three billion dollars of cuts to TAFE on their watch. Who knew? When you cut TAFE for years—and they cut courses and closed campuses—then you don't train students and you don't have skilled workers. Trashing the apprenticeship system—who knew? When you do that for years and then in your last year of government you try throwing some money in when the damage is done, then you don't have skilled apprentices, tradies, in the economy.

The skills crisis, of course, is a supply-side constraint to the economy. It's driving inflation. It's driving businesses mad because they can't find suitable trained workers. It's driving unemployed people to despair as they're forced to apply for jobs week after week, month after month and year after year which they're simply not trained to do. The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023 sets up Jobs and Skills Australia, which is critical to resolving the skills and labour market crisis across the country.

What's the opposition position? We heard it today with a little amendment. After making the mess in their decade in government, they're refusing to work with the government to clean it up. They're moving a silly little amendment so they can vote against the bill. We're not allowed to call them the 'no-alition'. We've been over that, so we won't—but we make the point.

The fact is Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortage across all OECD countries. It's also a fact that three million Australians lack the fundamental skills required to participate in secure training and work. It's also a fact that as of December last year, just a few months ago, the recruitment difficulty rate for occupations was 65 per cent, which meant 65 per cent of recruiting employers had difficulty recruiting staff. It was even worse in the construction industry where 80 per cent of employers had difficulty recruiting staff. Of the top 20 occupations in demand in Australia, seven have a shortage, primarily driven by a lack of people with the required skills. Yet unemployment is at 3.5 per cent, and job advertisements over the 12 months prior to January 2023 increased by 4.5 per cent. We've got a red-hot labour market across most of the country, and yet we have a fundamental and giant mismatch with the skills that the unemployed population, the underemployed population and those looking for a leg-up for a more secure job, for a better paid job, actually have.

It is because, as I said, of a decade of dysfunctional Liberal government that there is this giant mismatch between what skills workers have or don't have and what business needs. An estimated nine out of 10 new jobs will require post-secondary school education, with four of those requiring VET qualifications. Many of the vital industries that rely on VET graduates are facing workforce shortages. But this giant skills mismatch is the key point. It underpins why we need to make this reform for the medium and long term in the context of the former government's failure because the giant skills mismatch is no accident. It doesn't just happen overnight. You don't just wake up and say, 'Oh look, there are millions of people with no skills.' It takes years to degrade our skills training base because of this decade of neglect. As I said, we had $3 billion of cuts to TAFE, courses being slashed and a total lack of care and planning for the TAFE sector and all the talk we had to put up with: the talking points, the press conferences from the former government, the funny little program names. We had JobKeeper, JobSeeker, JobTrainer, JobMaker—JobFaker as it turned out to be—but not actually putting anything in place underneath those announcements so people got the skills that they need.

While they were announcing more programs, they were cutting TAFE and cutting apprenticeships. But it was hardly a surprise. It was the now the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—the genius over there—who referred to fee-free TAFE as, 'wasteful spending'. I hope she's learning something on her national listening tour. She popped up last week in my electorate. I think about 25 people from the Afghan community turned up. She didn't like the questions she got. She was asked whether she'd apologise for refusing to give permanent residence. She was asked if she would apologise, and they complained about the questions because they weren't 'nice'. But thankfully the federal Liberals' colleagues in Tasmania are far more sensible. The state Minister for Skills, Training and Workforce Growth there expressed his excitement to work with the Commonwealth, 'to continue building Tasmania's skilled workforce'. So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition over there says that fee-free TAFE is 'wasteful spending', yet the one Liberal government left in the country says: 'Actually, this is a pretty good idea. Imagine working with the Commonwealth to skill our citizens!' Then there were their years of trashing apprenticeships and years of cuts, and then, in their last year, they threw a bit of money at apprenticeships and made some announcements, but it was too little, too late. The damage had been done after the decade of neglect.

Now, the government is actually taking urgent action to address the skills shortages and to try and match the training participation with the types of skills in demand. We don't need, with respect to the many high school students we ask what they would like to do—'I'd like to be a YouTube blogger.' That's not the kind of training we need to be subsidising. We need to be subsidising the training that local and regional labour markets need.

Skilled migration certainly has a role to play in boosting our national wealth in certain areas, but our priority has to always be on skilling Australians for the jobs that are available now and the jobs in the future. We can't continue to force employers to look overseas for workers because of the Liberal's failure to invest in skills. That's why, as of yesterday with the budget, the Labor government is creating 300,000 fee-free TAFE places to train Australians in critical and emerging sectors, like clean energy and care, sectors that need workers now with those skills. Who knew? You can train people by incentivising them to go into that training!

We're introducing a redesigned Commonwealth foundation skills program for Australians seeking to develop their language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills, and we're providing more than $54 million in targeted support to apprentice support services to increase apprenticeship completion rates and the diversity of the apprenticeship workforce, to further support particularly women in what are historically male dominated fields.

That's the context of the bill—their failure and the impacts on the real economy and the degradation of the human capital of our country because of the failure for a decade to invest in skills, to prepare people for the labour market that we have right now, which is red-hot and crying out for workers. Jobs and Skills Australia is critical to actually revolving that skills and labour market crisis and building the future workforce that we need. It will operate, as the bill says, as a genuinely tripartite organisation. Now, here's a trigger warning for those opposite: I'm going to say the word 'unions'. They get a bit upset. That's their little amendment. The only thing they want to do to this bill is get rid of the unions. 'We don't like the unions; we don't like the workers.' That's their amendment; that's the change they want to make to the bill. We say tripartite: unions, employers and state and territory governments that run the vocational training system. How's that for an idea? Bringing together people so that they can work together as partners!

The advice provided by JSA, the independent authoritative source of advice, will be independent. Whilst the minister may request advice from JSA, she or he will not give direction about the content of any advice. The government is determined to turn around the trend towards insecure, low-paid and unskilled work in Australia. The proportion of households where the main breadwinner is on casual, gig-economy, insecure work has continued to rise over the last decade. So JSA will provide the government with data and analysis to build an evidence base by analysing the experiences of affected Australians—old-fashioned, I know! Public policy should be based on evidence and facts. JSA will improve identification of labour imbalances across the economy and analyse the supply and demand of skills. The advice will consider tertiary qualifications to ensure there are flexible pathways in place to develop the skills and knowledge needed to resolve those labour imbalances.

The bill also expands JSA's function. We set it up on a very interim basis to get it up and running late last year after the election. This is the bill to put the flesh on the bones, if you like. It will expand the functions to undertake studies to improve the analysis and understanding of Australians experiencing disadvantage and exclusion in the labour market. People aged over 55, people living with disabilities, migrants, young people, First Nations people are the cohorts that show up in the data. The Labor government's core focus is to create more opportunities for Australians and to build our human capital, to build the skills in the workforce now and in the future. In order to do this—I'll say it again—you need data and evidence regarding our human capital, and that's exactly what the JSA will provide.

The final point I make is that this advice will go to government and to the training sector right across the country. They'll be able to produce regionalised data because the labour markets are entirely different in different parts of the country. I'm currently chairing a House select committee inquiring into Workforce Australia employment services; it's a first principles inquiry. There are a lot of curious and very peculiar aspects to Australia's employment services system. It's based on a flawed theory, I might observe, that we've had for a couple of decades—that unemployment is always an individual choice, an individual failing, and if we push the individual somehow they'll magically get a job. In some cases that's true but in many cases it's not, because of the structural factors, because of the labour market you live in, because of your physical disabilities, because of your health, mental health, family circumstances or caring circumstances, or because of the fact you've never been able to invest in skills or had society invest in you.

We've designed a system around the very worst people in society, the ones who cheat the system, and the very worst providers, the ones who try and rip off the government. That's how we've designed the system, and everyone else is put in that paradigm. I think we can do better. We've designed the system around an incredibly narrow set of objectives. When you look globally at all the things a publicly funded employment service system could do—labour market exchange, human capital development, addressing skills shortages, helping business and industry—we've designed it around a work test and put all our eggs in that basket. The system is strangely divorced from demand and skills.

I close on this point: Jobs and Skills Australia can become a key coordinator and collaborator, and have authoritative input into the employment services system. The authoritative input will be developed in collaboration with unions—I said it again!—state and territory governments and employers, with advice on labour markets needs and skills needs to inform the skills training system, the higher education system and our employment services system. I commend the bill to the House, and I suggest the opposition withdraw their silly amendment. We can all go out, say it together, hold hands and say, 'Unions represent workers,' and then they can vote for the bill.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bruce for his very insightful contribution.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. This bill follows through on the Albanese Labor government's commitment to the Australian people to build a national partnership to drive VET education and strengthen workforce planning by working together, as the previous speaker said, with employers, with unions and with the training and education sector. This bill amends the Jobs and Skill Australia Act 2022, providing for its permanent functions and governance arrangements. The second tranche of amendments has been informed by significant stakeholder engagement through the Jobs and Skill Summit, the Senate committee inquiry into the first bill, a discussion paper seeking public comment and bilateral and other targeted engagement. The major difference to the governance of the proposed permanent model is embedding the commitment to its tripartite governance, with the Jobs and Skills Australia commissioner supported by deputy commissioners and a tripartite ministerial advisory board.

Under proposed permanent arrangements outlined in this bill, Jobs and Skills Australia will take on a broader range of functions, including: identifying labour market imbalances and analysis of the role played by the demand and supply of skills; building an evidence base of the impact of various workplace arrangements, including insecure work on economic and social outcomes; analysing workforce needs and skills needs to support decision-making in relation to Australia's migration program and in regional, rural and remote Australia; undertaking studies, including opportunities to improve employment, VET and higher education outcomes for cohorts of individuals that have historically experienced labour market disadvantage and exclusion, such as women, people over 55, people with disability, youth, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians; and contributing to industry consultation forums. The bill will include a statutory review of Jobs and Skills Australia, to commence within 24 months of the commencement of the amendment bill, to ensure it is operating as intended.

This is a breath of fresh air for the VET and skills sector, particularly in my community, who have suffered under the mess and mismanagement of those opposite. Let it never be forgotten—the Liberals legacy of $3 billion cut from the skills portfolio, including $1 billion from apprentices, resulting in a serious skills-gap crisis, and overseeing a decline which peaked at 150,000 fewer apprentices.

How can one forget when the then Minister Pyne was running around trying to get up his plan for $100,000 university degrees and university deregulation. Those opposite took their eye off the ball and let the shonks and sharks have free reign in our VET and skills sector. It was those opposite that let the most vulnerable in our community get preyed upon by shonks and sharks signing them up to courses that were unsuitable and landing them with debts that they were never going to be able to repay. What was the result? A $3 billion blowout of the VET FEE-HELP program. So much for fiscal responsibility and restraint!

A structured, well-considered jobs and skills body with a proper governance structure may come as a bit of a surprise to those opposite. What also might be a surprise to those opposite is the collaborative tripartite approach that this bill brings to workforce planning. This bill legislates the requirement for Jobs and Skills Australia to consult with the Ministerial Advisory Board, which that will consist of state and territory representatives, industry stakeholders and unions, also education providers and other members in the development of its work plan. This approach was strongly supported by stakeholders throughout the consultation process and will ensure that the workplan directly aligns to addressing workforce shortages and building long-term capacity in priority sectors.

I note that the process of consultation has resulted in the amendment that we now see before the chamber, an amendment which seeks to expand representation of this tripartite expertise, including expertise which can be found in the small-business community and rural, regional and remote Australia. The increase of members representing employers from three to four now guarantees representation for small business. Consequently, to ensure that balance on the board continues, the number of members representing unions also increases from three to four.

But this tripartite approach is not new or radical. For Labor, this is how we have governed, in the best interests of Australians, for decades. The bill also embeds flexibility to ensure Jobs and Skills Australia can best respond to emerging needs and priorities in response to changing economic conditions. Experts will be engaged under a written agreement on a time limited, or study-by-study basis, ensuring sector-specific experience, influence and networks are brought to each of Jobs and Skills Australia's workforce and cohort studies, or detailed regional assessments.

Both the tripartite representatives and independent experts with skills and experience could include experts from tertiary education, employment and industrial relations, with experience in data and analysis, workforce planning, regional organisations and those representing priority cohorts and those most disadvantaged in the labour market.

As I have stated, the board will include participation from employer organisations and unions. This will be fair and equitable. This balanced, fair, considered, knowledge based approach is exactly what we need to tackle the skills and labour market challenges that Australia faces. The challenge that Jobs and Skills Australia is facing is by no means minor. Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortages across all OECD countries. Currently, three million Australians lack the fundamental skills required to participate in training and secure work. An estimated nine out of 10 new jobs will require post secondary school education, with four of these requiring VET qualifications.

Australia is currently experiencing skills shortages across many critical industries. Of the top 20 occupations in demand, seven have a shortage that is primarily driven by a lack of people with the required skills, reinforcing the importance of our skills system in addressing these shortages. This Labor government and the minister have not wasted any time in tackling these challenges, as last night's budget demonstrates. We are already delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places in 2023, along with investing in support for apprentices, particularly for those choosing to take on new energy apprenticeships.

Our 2023-24 budget builds on over $400 million provided in our October 2022 budget for a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places in high-skill needs areas from 2024 to 2026, subject to agreement with states and territories. In addition, last night's budget delivered an additional $3.7 billion upon striking a five-year national skills agreement with the states and territories to ensure more access to vocational education and training, with TAFE at the centre. We also have $436 million over four years to fundamentally reform the way the Commonwealth delivers foundation skills programs and an additional $54.3 million in critical Australian apprenticeship supports to improve completion rates, improving the quality of services and better targeted support, which will be particularly crucial to supporting women, First Nations people, CALD apprentices and people with disability to complete their apprenticeship. There is also $8.6 million to deliver the Australian Skills Guarantee and introduce national targets for apprentices, trainees and paid cadets working on Australian government funded major infrastructure and ICT projects. This includes responsible subtargets to boost women's participation in apprenticeships. There is also $42.2 million to develop a modern, fit-for-purpose IT system for the VET student loan program, a long overdue upgrade.

Locally in the Illawarra, Labor's investment will see $2.5 million for a renewable energy training facility at Wollongong TAFE, which will include upgrades to equipment and teaching aids. We're also investing $10 million to establish an energy future skills centre located at the wonderful University of Wollongong, so we have the skilled workforce to build the grid of the future. Labor is also investing more than $1 million in a University of Wollongong study finding ways to keep Australia's grid secure through the renewable energy transformation. These commitments in my community will also be supported by the new energy apprenticeships program, which will back young Australians to train in jobs of the future and help power Australia's path to net zero emissions. Apprentices training in eligible occupations in the clean energy sector can now attract up to $10,000 in direct support, helping them to manage the cost of living while they train in the sectors essential to Australia's transition to a clean energy economy. Unlike the mess and mismanagement of the former government, this side of the chamber is getting on with the job of fixing the problems, investing in skills needed for our future prosperity.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in favour of the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. Our government took office at a time of rising inflation and interest rates, falling real wages and nearly $1 trillion of coalition earned debt, which is now more expensive to service. Ten years of Liberal inaction have left our economy rudderless. There was no certainty on the future of the low-carbon economy and no signals for businesses on carbon accounting, and there were cuts to and neglect of our higher education and training sectors. The truth of the matter is that they just weren't up to the job. I would like to quote the former member for Chisholm, Julia Banks:

When I had a seat in the Liberal party room, I'd regularly feign tolerance over the ignorance of some of the so-called political leaders of Dutton and Morrison's ilk. Whether the debate was about climate change, marriage equality or business and the economy, I would often reflect that many of them wouldn't survive two weeks in a good corporation.

I have spent the majority of my working life in the private sector. I have worked with some of Western Australia's biggest companies on the ASX 200. Businesses want certainty from government to help with investment decisions. Businesses respond to the cues of government and they seek a vision that they can play a part in. This is what the Albanese Labor government has done. In our first four months in office we hosted our Jobs and Skills Consultative Forum and the Jobs and Skills Summit. Our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, wants to lead a country that brings people together and does not divide the country, like the coalition did. The Albanese Labor government brought together Australians, including unions, employers, businesses, civil society and governments, to discuss our shared economic future and talk about how we can build a better future and address the challenges. When you have diverse characters, such as Andrew Forrest and Sally McManus, in the room talking about the future of the economy, it sends a clear signal that business, governments and unions are seriously talking about moving in the same direction. We hosted the forum to listen genuinely and to act.

In my electorate of Swan I hosted a jobs and skills forum in November. My forum brought together 60 attendees from businesses, community groups and local government. One attendee, John Kennedy from JFK Custom Homes in Belmont Avenue in Rivervale, spoke about the need for a solid pipeline of trainees and apprentices. He said that he'd like to see better coordination between TAFE, government and industry to ensure that we're planning for our workforce needs. Our goal was, and still remains, to build a bigger and better trained, more productive workforce; to boost incomes and living standards; and to create more opportunities for Australians to get ahead and reach their aspirations. That kind of vision for our economy offers the stability necessary for businesses to succeed and for Australian workers to benefit.

The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill creates an economy-wide perspective on labour market matters. It considers the contribution of vocational education and training, higher education and migration to meet Australia's skills and workforce challenges. It's the kind of planning and coordination that business people like John from Belmont Avenue are asking for. It should come as no surprise that business is calling out for better coordination of labour market matters. Australia has the second-highest labour market supply shortages across all OECD countries, and this is why we've brought this matter before the parliament. I know this is something that's welcomed by the people in my electorate.

This stage is the second stage of a two-stage process, which was made clear with the introduction and the passage of the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022 in November 2022, which established Jobs and Skills Australia as an independent agency and gave it interim functions. To ensure that stakeholders' views were considered in the design of the permanent Jobs and Skills Australia agency, and to support government's commitment to tripartisanship, the legislation has been introduced in two phases. We're now introducing the amendment bill to establish the ongoing governance structure and functions of Jobs and Skills Australia. We're working with all parts of the economy because we want to get this right. This is an ongoing process too, and I want to acknowledge the importance of our proposed amendments to bring in a small business representative to Jobs and Skills Australia. In my electorate 96 per cent of businesses are small businesses, so it's crucial for my community that small business is a significant player at the table in Jobs and Skills Australia.

In December last year the recruitment difficulty rate was sitting at 65 per cent. This means that 65 per cent of recruiting employers reported experiencing difficulty hiring staff. In the most recent recruitment round the construction industry reported the highest recruitment difficulty, sitting at 80 per cent for the December 2022 quarter. I don't want to see businesses, especially small businesses, having to turn work away because finding appropriate staff is too difficult. I find it shocking that businesses are going through this level of hardship right now and that the opposition, who sat on their hands for the last 10 years, had no plan for better coordination of our labour markets and are going to vote this bill down if the government doesn't support their amendment. This amendment that the opposition is talking about is about union representation being on the board of Jobs and Skills Australia—or, as they would prefer, not to have that representation. What I'd say is that all systems need balance, and knowing what workers think up-front is critical.

I've worked in the private sector and I am proud of what the WA resources sector has contributed to the national economy. I've been a boss in a medium-size business; I'm also a unionist. One of the things that I learned when I was at Curtin University and was elected to be the Curtin Student Guild president, was the power that came when the bosses—which was Curtin University at the time—and the guild worked together to create a better future. I was very fortunate to have Lance Twomey, who was the vice-chancellor, agree on what our shared vision was and we worked together. It's amazing the synergies that can be achieved when you actually work together.

The truth is that not voting for this bill is a slap in the face for small businesses. Indeed, the next time I speak to business owners who are struggling to find suitable staff, like John from Belmont Avenue, I will say that those opposite were not prepared to support this bill. It's also a slap in the face of workers. This bill empowers Jobs and Skills Australia to undertake studies, including opportunities to improve employment, VET and higher education outcomes for cohorts of individuals that have historically experienced labour market disadvantage and exclusion, such as women, people over the age of 55, people with a disability, youth, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians.

When we had the Jobs and Skills Summit in September one of the immediate actions of this government was to create flexible parental arrangements so that parents and carers can split leave between them. We've increased the childcare subsidy to reduce the cost for families seeking to return to work. In my electorate of Swan 6,900 families are set to benefit from this policy, meaning less pressure on the hip pocket and more people back in the workforce.

I'd also like to mention that it's typically mothers who make the decision to leave their job—forgoing income, superannuation and career experience. It is a factor that is at the core of the persistent gender pay gap in this country. By creating an agency that looks into ways to improve groups who are typically disadvantaged or excluded we are setting in motion the first steps of building practical measures to empower people, whether that is the gender pay gap, retaining over-55s in the workforce, providing meaningful and dignified work for people who experience disability, or bridging the employment and income gap between First Nations Australians and other Australians.

I was so proud last year when Dylan Alcott was named Australian of the Year. He is a fierce advocate for those with a disability and wants to see them empowered and in employment. In my home in Swan there is a business owner called Sarah Yates. She owns a cafe called Our Ruby Girl in South Perth. One thing she does is engage and retain people with a disability in the workforce. I met her at the jobs and skills forum that I had in my community and she spoke to me about how they bring in two high-school-age work experience students each semester. They tailor the working conditions to suit the needs of the person, such as shorter hours or finding tasks that best match their skills. She's actually a trained psychologist. She saw a gap in this area, so she ended up starting a cafe and making sure that these people have access to work. The thing that's fascinating about Our Ruby Girl is that 50 per cent of their employees experience disability. By having an agency that can investigate best practice and share knowledge Australia wide it is my hope that we can lift the workforce participation rate of people who experience disability. I cannot understand why the Liberals would want to stand in the way of this.

This bill also assigns to Jobs and Skills Australia the function of identifying labour market imbalances and analysis of the role played by the demand and supply of skills. In my electorate of Swan the resource sector is a massive employer. I, like many Western Australians, pursued a career in that sector. I studied at university for a minimum of five years to get my two degrees and then was lucky to find a job. Unfortunately, that's not the story for many graduates who are studying in a field relevant to the resources sector. When the times are good and the sector is booming, the resources sector looks like a very attractive place to work and there's great demand for skills. What often happens is that high school students and mature age students looking for a career change go and seek qualifications and sometimes, depending on commodity prices, there are no jobs available. The boom-bust cycle can be brutal.

When the times are good, mining companies spend lots of money on exploration, but when the commodity prices tank the geologists are often the first to lose their jobs. One of my classmates—a female chemical engineer—experienced three redundancies. After her third redundancy she said: 'Zaneta, I'm sick of working in this sector. I'm going to go work in aged care because I know that that has consistent demand.'

So the thing that I'd say is: I do want people to look at different parts of the economy and recognise that they can have careers in those, but we need to be smarter about the way that we match skills with the actual jobs. Getting the balance right and having forward planning for the skills we need will mean that workers will be better informed when they head into their studies as to what jobs lie ahead and will move quickly into the workforce after training. It's a win for workers and it's a win for business.

Yesterday's budget saw an additional $400 million allocated to deliver an additional 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, and that's building on the 180,000 places that we already have committed to creating, by increasing funding by an additional $54 million to critical Australian apprenticeship supports to improve completion rates, including 4,630 apprentices currently training in Swan. We've put in $8.6 million to deliver the Australian Skills Guarantee and introduced national targets for apprentices, trainees and paid cadets working on Australian-government-funded major infrastructure projects, making sure that we're building a pipeline of skilled tradespeople and ensuring that we maximise that. In our last budget, we announced 10,000 new energy apprenticeships to train Australians in the new energy jobs of the future and provide additional supports so they complete training that they need. This will be facilitated by programs like new energy skills programs, developing fit-for-purpose training for new energy industry jobs, in partnership with states and territories, industry and unions.

I think that one of the things that they have in scientific principles are synergies, where they talk about waves and the superpositioning of waves and you can either have constructive or destructive interference. The thing that I see with Jobs and Skills Australia is that this is an opportunity to harmonise the different parts of our economy, hear the views of unions, workers, businesses and education providers, and build on a better future for Australia. We've had 10 years of Liberal inaction, and they have left our economy rudderless. The thing that I'm looking forward to is a better future within Australia.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased today to speak in support of the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. This bill will allow the Australian government to establish Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body.

I am so lucky to live where I live, on the South Coast of New South Wales. It is an absolute joy, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else—fresh air, bushland, beaches and wonderful communities.

But there are challenges that come with living regionally. One is skill shortages. I spend a lot of time visiting businesses in Gilmore, and one of the main things that I frequently talk with business owners about is how difficult it is to find workers and appropriate skills. Whether it's a bulk-billing medical practice looking to recruit another GP, or a window manufacturer or a hair salon looking to add another apprentice to their team, people can't get the staff they need. And there isn't a simple fix. A myriad of factors influence skill shortages and the inability for businesses to find staff.

The Albanese Labor government is not wasting any time addressing skill shortages; after a wasted decade, we're not going to waste a second. We take this very seriously. That is why I'm so excited to speak on this bill, because this bill illustrates the Australian government's dedication to addressing the skills crisis and building a skilled workforce for the future. And how is it going to do this? Well, as I have said, we will finalise Jobs and Skills Australia as a statutory body—a body that will provide independent advice, in partnership with various stakeholders.

Last year in July, the government took swift action by introducing the first tranche of legislation to establish the interim Jobs and Skills Australia, and it has been very successful. The interim body began crucial work by providing independent advice on workforce, skills and training issues—advice that could then be swiftly acted on. During this interim phase, Jobs and Skills Australia initiated a foundation skills study. Furthermore, JSA conducted its first capacity study on the clean energy industry. These studies were commissioned to ensure the permanent establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia would align with what people and businesses need.

The legislation to establish Jobs and Skills Australia has been introduced in two phases. This bill will establish the ongoing governance structure and functions of Jobs and Skills Australia. This bill will support the expanded and clarified functions as well as the governance model of the organisation. The design of Jobs and Skills Australia has been shaped through extensive stakeholder engagement, including but not limited to the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Senate committee inquiry, public comment on the discussion paper and targeted engagement sessions. With the implementation of this bill, Jobs and Skills Australia will work hand-in-hand with state and territory governments, business and industry leaders, unions and education and training providers. Together, they will provide advice to effectively address the skills crisis in our country and develop the skilled workforce that Australia needs for a prosperous future.

The current state of Australia's labour market highlights the urgency of addressing the skills crisis. Among all OECD countries, Australia ranks second highest in labour supply shortages. Shockingly, three million Australians lack the essential skills necessary to participate in training and secure employment. I hear this when I visit businesses on the south coast. There are businesses that want to employ people but cannot find workers and/or people with the right skill sets. It is a terrible situation for them to be in. As we look to the future, it is projected that nine out of 10 new jobs will require post-secondary education, with four requiring vocational education and training, or VET, qualifications.

Numerous critical industries in Australia are currently grappling with skill shortages. Out of the top 20 occupations in demand, seven are facing shortages, primarily due to a lack of skilled individuals. This emphasises the crucial role of our skill system in addressing these shortages. However, this tightness in the labour market poses challenges for employers, which is something that we are going to work on.

Moreover, the impact of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a reduction in migration, has worsened workforce shortages in many industries that rely on VET graduates. It is imperative that we take urgent action to address these skills gaps and align training participation with the current and future demands of the labour market. I'm excited to work on these challenges.

We have already started addressing the skills shortages in my electorate on the south coast. I visited the TAFE Nowra campus a couple of weeks ago to see and hear firsthand how our fee-free TAFE was working in Gilmore. The staff were beaming. Fee-free TAFE is making a real difference right now. First I went to a hospitality class, where I spoke with a Bawley Point local named Zoe. Zoe told me she wanted to retrain and work in kitchens, because she had seen that hospitality venues were hiring in her area and she wanted to work close to home. Zoe has taken up a fee-free TAFE spot. Luckily it was available, because she told me point-blank, 'I would not be doing this if it weren't for fee-free TAFE.' That's amazing. The south coast of New South Wales will soon have another person who is fully trained to work in commercial cookery and wanting to work where businesses are hiring. She wouldn't have done it without fee-free TAFE. These are the things that our measured approach to jobs and skills can achieve.

Similarly, I met with a carpentry class. There were similar stories to Zoe's. Many people said that they wouldn't be retraining if there wasn't a free option. Which is crazy, considering the shortage of carpenters right across Australia. Many people I spoke to told me point-blank that they would not be studying if there were not a fee-free option.

These fee-free TAFE courses help to alleviate our skills shortages, but they also provide vital cost-of-living relief for those who want to retrain. These are the types of things that a body like Jobs and Skills Australia can and will address: where people should train, fees and what should be supported. As a former TAFE teacher, I know the importance of vocational education. As someone who is married to a carpenter, I understand the value of vocational education. Jobs and Skills Australia will help us get vocational education right, because right now there are challenges we need to overcome.

Underemployment is another issue of concern, with a rate of 6.1 per cent in January 2023. Underemployment occurs when skills held by workers and jobseekers do not match the skills demanded by businesses; when business affordability or requirements limit job availability; or when caring responsibilities prevent employees from taking on additional work. In light of these challenges, Jobs and Skills Australia's advice to the government will play a vital role in informing policies and programs that ensure our training and education systems deliver the skilled workers that industries require. By addressing the skills crisis and building a robust workforce, we can pave the way for a prosperous and resilient future for Australia.

The development of this Jobs and Skills Australia model has been guided by extensive stakeholder consultation with state and territory governments, business and industry leaders, unions and education providers. It will include a Jobs and Skills Australia Commissioner supported by deputy commissioners and a ministerial advisory board. Under the proposed permanent arrangements outlined in this bill, Jobs and Skills Australia will undertake an expanded set of functions. These include identifying labour market imbalances and analysing the impact of skills supply and demand; building an evidence base on the economic and social consequences of various workplace arrangements, such as insecure work; and analysing workforce and skills needs for informed decision-making on Australia's migration program and in regional, rural and remote areas. All are very dear to employers in my area.

Identifying and addressing skills shortages is something that I've worked hard on in Gilmore. Just last week I visited the Vincentia Medical Centre to meet with GPs, nurses and health workers. The visit was actually to thank me and the government for listening to their concerns about getting more doctors into the practice. In fact, just this morning I received another call from the practice. But the visit I attended last week was to acknowledge how beneficial the government's policies have been. They have made a huge difference and they're making a huge difference on the South Coast. In the past few years some simple changes have allowed and encouraged 13 new doctors to be added to the staff across the four Shoalhaven Family Medical Centres. At one point the owner of the practice, Annette, told me that patients were having to wait six weeks to see a doctor, while some had closed their books. This wait has now dropped to a week. Annette also said that there were more overseas trained doctors and even specialists who were employed at their practice and this was thanks to the streamlining of the hiring process.

Make no mistake: there is still work to be done. But this shows how important it is to have dedicated professionals who can help communicate with the government what is going on in their sector. This is why it is so important to have a statutory body like Jobs and Skills Australia to help relay information back to government so that we are able to quickly and effectively address areas where there are skills shortages or issues arising in the labour market. Jobs and Skills Australia will conduct studies to improve employment outcomes, vocational education and training outcomes and higher education outcomes for marginalised groups, such as women, individuals over the age of 55, people with disabilities, youth, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians. This will be a practical, well-run body that will effectively address our skills shortages and address imbalances in the labour market.

To ensure the effectiveness of Jobs and Skills Australia, the bill includes a provision for a statutory review of the program that will commence two years after it's brought in. This will be a vital check and balance. This review will assess whether the organisation is operating as intended, making any necessary adjustments or improvements. By establishing a permanent Jobs and Skills Australia with an expanded scope of functions, we can effectively address the skills crisis, promote tripartite collaboration and empower individuals from diverse backgrounds to thrive in the labour market. Jobs and Skills Australia will continue to provide valuable skills and workforce data, contributing to a more detailed national evidence base. It will focus on providing critical insights into disadvantaged cohorts, conducting regional analysis and supporting workforce planning.

Workforce planning plays a crucial role in addressing the needs of industries facing skills shortages. This bill expands the workforce planning function of Jobs and Skills Australia, enabling an assessment of how skills and workforce issues can be addressed across the entire economy. For example, skilled STEM graduates from both higher education and the VET system possess adaptable skills that can be applied to emerging and critical industries like technology and clean energy. It is so important that we streamline people into the industries of the future. Being able to adapt to people's skills is so important for regional areas like the South Coast. There are many talented people who work in certain industries who would only need small changes to make them completely able to work effectively in another sector. This expanded function will complement the sector-specific workforce planning carried out by jobs and skills councils.

To ensure that the comprehensive range of ongoing functions and products delivered by Jobs and Skills Australia aligns with stakeholder input, the government has conducted those consultations. Feedback received has informed the inclusion of additional functions for Jobs and Skills Australia. These include: improved identification of skills and labour imbalances across the economy; explicit analysis of both VET and higher education with an economy-wide approach; analysis of skills and workforce needs in regional and remote Australia; studies to enhance the analysis of marginalised groups; building an evidence base on the impact of various workplace arrangements; and contributing to industry consultation forums. This collaborative approach will strengthen the national evidence base and foster effective workforce planning.

The government's commitment to investing in VET and addressing skills shortages is evident in the budget allocations. A significant investment of $6.3 billion has been allocated to VET in the 2022-23 financial year, including funding transfers to state and territory governments. Additionally, $921.7 million over five years has been allocated to strengthen the VET system, provide fee-free TAFE and vocational education places and establish a TAFE technology fund for infrastructure modernisation. Immediate actions include the delivery of fee-free TAFE places in 2023, particularly in areas of high-skills needs, as part of the $1 billion 12-month skills agreement. As I said earlier, fee-free TAFE is such an important and effective way to address skills shortages and at the same time address cost-of-living pressures. The government is committed to investing in VET and addressing skills shortages, and I am excited to see what Jobs and Skills Australia will bring to the South Coast into the future. Let me just say that, if Jobs and Skills Australia makes decisions like fee-free TAFE, well, we're onto a winner. I commend the bill to the House.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023 represents an important step towards ensuring that the Australian workforce remains competitive, adaptable and resilient in a rapidly changing economy. Aussie workers are the backbone of our economy and prosperity. Without the hard work and dedication of our labour force, we would not have the thriving economy and fair social security system we have, nor would we have the vibrant communities that we all enjoy today. Just a few years ago, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was our frontline workers, including healthcare workers, essential service providers and emergency responders, who kept our country running. They did not have the opportunity or benefits of working from home and put themselves at risk to keep us safe, healthy and resilient. We should always support those who support us. Of course, our modern, vibrant and diverse economy has also been built on the back of new migrants—those like my parents and my grandparents—who chose Australia as a place to live and raise their family, a place where their aspirations could be fulfilled. The Australian economic miracle, our modern country as we know it, was built on the hard work of new migrant workers, just like my parents. They worked so hard and strived to create a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.

My dad worked two jobs to provide for his family. He had his day job as a butcher and a salesperson, and then at night he'd go clean banks—he was cleaning local banks—all to save up money to pay his mortgage and then to start his own small business. So I'm proud to be part of a government that not only recognises the importance of workers but cares deeply about them, a government that works tirelessly to deliver robust policy for them. This government places workers at the heart of our policies. It's why we are committed to ensuring that every Australian has access to the opportunities they need to fulfil their ambition.

Post pandemic, it's well known that we're in the midst of a once-in-a-generation skills crisis. This bill is about taking urgent action to address that and to put in place long-term solutions to build the skilled workforce that Australia needs to continue to grow and to continue to be prosperous. We have the second-highest labour supply shortages across all OECD countries. This is a staggering statistic that demands our attention. In fact, a shocking three million Australians lack the fundamental skills required to participate in training and secure work. Across critical industries, our country is experiencing crippling skill shortages, driven by lack of skills training for workers. And, as we move into the future, it's estimated that nine out of every 10 new jobs will require some form of tertiary education.

As of December last year, employers reported that, on average, around 65 per cent of recruiting employers were experiencing difficulty in hiring staff. In my electorate of Bennelong I have met with many, many business owners, especially small business owners, who are being deeply affected by the difficulty they're experiencing in recruiting skilled staff. Locally, our skills shortage is not just restricted to one industry; be they hospitality workers, tradies, builders, data analysts, lab technicians, researchers, lecturers or coders, and of course teachers and nurses, all are in short supply. Small businesses in my electorate have had to close temporarily due to a lack of staff, and we know that many businesses who want to grow simply cannot attract enough staff to address that aspiration. During the pandemic a large proportion of temporary migrant workers returned to their countries of origin, leaving huge gaps in skilled workers in their industries. And the skills that our workers and jobseekers currently hold do not line up with the skills we need to fill this gap in our workforce.

While this skills crisis has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the resulting reduction in migration of workers into Australia, it's a crisis that has been made considerably worse due to the 10 years of negligence and noninterest of the previous government. This is why we need a government now that will take decisive action to address the skills crisis in Australia, and it's why this government acted quickly to introduce and implement Jobs and Skills Australia. Last year, of course, Jobs and Skills Australia was established as an interim body with a statutory office holder and core functions that enabled them to begin their essential work immediately. Since November they've been providing independent advice on a range of current, emerging and future workforce skills and training issues. Through its partnership with key stakeholders, Jobs and Skills Australia has initiated a foundation skills study and embarked on its first capacity study, focused on the clean energy industry—one that we know is ripe with jobs.

While the interim body got on with their work, this government got to work engaging with organisations, such as state and territory governments; of course, business and industry leaders; unions; and education and training providers to develop the next step for this bill. Through the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Senate committee inquiry and discussion papers seeking public comment and bilateral targeted engagement, the government has developed the amendment bill which we're debating today to establish the ongoing governance, structure and critical functions of Jobs and Skills Australia and to ensure that it will truly meet the needs of Australia's workforce in the future. These actions underscore our dedication to tackling the skills crisis in this country and to cultivating a proficient workforce for the future. That's why we're now taking steps to secure and embed the future of Jobs and Skills Australia as an organisation that will provide security and opportunity to our workforce.

This amendment bill will establish Jobs and Skills Australia, not as an interim body but as a permanent body, and ensure its full range of functions and governance arrangements are in place. This bill will make a real difference in the lives of many Australians. And it's not just about creating jobs: it's also about identifying labour market imbalances, creating a base of evidence and analysing the needs and abilities of our workforce. It's about supporting decision-making regarding our regional areas and our migration program. And it's about ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities for employment and higher education.

This amendment will provide support not only to the whole workforce but especially to those that have faced continued disadvantage within the labour market: women, people aged over 55, those with a disability, the young, unpaid carers and First Nations Australians will all benefit directly from a permanent and established Jobs and Skills Australia. They will receive the support they need to improve their employment prospects and pursue higher education, helping to level the playing field and ensure that everyone has a fair go.

In establishing Jobs and Skills Australia we are committed to providing a national study on adult literacy, numeracy and digital skills in order to shape this future education program. The study will provide up-to-date evidence of the skills and will be the most comprehensive study undertaken by the government. We've already committed to providing 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023 for the areas with the highest skills need. These costs will be shared amongst all states and territories. We're also actively working to create a new five-year National Skills Agreement with the states and territories as well, one that will align with the ideals of skills ministers and those endorsed by National Cabinet in 2022. Lastly, we'll be undertaking a clean energy capacity study to gather information to benefit the clean energy sector and to develop the government's Powering Australia plan.

This amendment bill is important and it's robust because we have consulted broadly in creating the amendments in this bill. We've collaborated with other state and territory governments, business, unions and education providers to get this right. We know their knowledge of the labour market and their skills shortages, and we've ensured the bill will be able to address many of these issues after 10 years of neglect.

Last year, I held a local jobs and skills round table in Bennelong, gathering local business leaders together to discuss their concerns, hopes and goals for what a new government could achieve. The feedback received through that, broadly at our national Jobs and Skills Summit but also at local events like ours, has been invaluable. It not only has informed the development of this legislation but also has informed and will continue to inform the engagement and operational elements of Jobs and Skills Australia.

After discussing all this, all the benefits of this important plan to address our skills shortage, I just find it extraordinary that those opposite—I've been listening to it throughout the day in dribs and drabs—continue to oppose this government's efforts to solve our skills shortage crisis. Jobs and Skills Australia will be good for workers, it'll be good for manufacturers and it'll be good for our service economy. It'll be good for the high streets, the town centres and the economic powerhouses, like Macquarie Park in my electorate of Bennelong. It will help businesses big and small, new and old, and it'll provide leadership and solutions that businesses have been crying out for. Yet those opposite, the so-called party of business, the corporate charlatans over there, are—yet again—opposing another bill to address a skills crisis. They're opposing the Voice when more and more businesses are supporting it. They're opposing action on climate change when more and more businesses are supporting it. They're waging culture wars when businesses are working with their employees to be more inclusive and caring, and now they're again opposing this. At least they're consistent! But please never say again that they're the party for business.

The bill requires Jobs and Skills Australia to consult with the ministerial advisory board in order to ensure the bill addresses workforce shortages and builds long-term capacity in priority sectors. Moreover, we will equally seek to ensure that industry and education providers and union voices are a feature of Jobs and Skills Australia's governance. They'll bring deep insights and observations which will ensure Jobs and Skills Australia's work is fit for purpose, is relevant and has an economy-wide focus.

With 63 per cent of all people in Bennelong in the workforce, 58 per cent of those working full time, I know that this bill, if passed, will be greatly beneficial to workers in Bennelong. It will provide much-needed support to those working or looking for work by allowing better access to education and upskilling and will contribute to a stronger evidence base and more effective decision-making on workforce issues. This bill is about building a better future for all of us. It's about creating opportunities and ensuring that everyone has a fair go. I commend the bill to the House.

Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of this bill, the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. This bill, of course, relates to the labour market—to one of the most important areas of social and economic policy. In fact, there's no area of social and economic policy more important than ensuring that our labour market functions well and that it gives opportunities in our society to all.

Where we work is so critical. It's where we earn a living. But also, for so many, where we work gives us dignity in life. It gives us purpose. It's where we contribute to society. It's where we have a social outlet. So a well-functioning labour market means so much for the economic productivity of our society, but also for the quality of our social interactions.

I want to provide just a couple of observations about our labour market before I talk about this bill, because this bill reflects, I believe, not only the current state of our labour market but also how our understanding of our labour market has evolved over recent decades. Back when I was studying economics, many, many moons ago, when we spoke about our labour market, we used to talk about unemployment. That was basically the single characteristic of the labour market that was of interest: what proportion of the people in the labour market didn't have a job at any particular point in time? That was at a point in time when almost everybody had a full-time job, and so it was a very binary measure: were you are in a job or were you not in a job?

Now, of course, the labour market is so much more complicated. We have unemployment, which is still probably the single most reported measure of the labour market, but we also, of course, have underemployment. We have measures of job insecurity: the number of jobs where people may not have regular hours or may not have secure conditions. And now, of course, we have many people who come in and out of the labour market, people who may have gaps in their employment. That, of course, has consequences in terms of their economic stability but also in the longer term—for example, for their superannuation balances. So it's critical to think of the labour market in a far more nuanced way.

Going back to when I studied unemployment, we used to think about unemployment as having three types: frictional unemployment, cyclical unemployment and structural unemployment. I think that, while the real world is never so neat as that, those types still characterise, in broad terms, some of the main types of dislocation that people have from the labour market. 'Frictional unemployment' generally means people who have a short-term break from employment and maybe are just unemployed for a period while they do up their CV. They're just looking for a job and will find something very quickly. 'Cyclical unemployment' reflects the ebbs and flows in total unemployment numbers as a result of the business cycle. And 'structural unemployment' is where there are deeper, tectonic, changes in the nature of the economy, where some industries are on the rise and some industries are on the decline and where it can take a while for workforces to shift between those industries. As I said, things aren't that neat, but that's a useful frame for thinking about it.

The reason I raise that is: that last type of unemployment—structural unemployment—has always been more of a policy challenge. It can reflect where there is a mismatch between the skills of people who are looking for work and the jobs that either exist or are emerging—a mismatch between the experience and the qualifications of those people who are looking for work and the jobs that are currently open or are emerging. These mismatches can be difficult to identify and can take quite a while to fix.

The reason I raise that is that we now, I believe, have a much better understanding: that understanding that kind of mismatch requires much more granular data than we used to apply some decades ago. In order to truly understand how we can help people who are mismatched to emerging jobs, we need to deeply understand—and at a very granular level—what qualifications and skills those people have. If they don't match with jobs, we need to understand what it is that we can do to help those people update their skills or qualifications to match with the jobs that either are currently on offer or might be emerging in the economy. It's that really granular data and granular analysis which are so key.

I raise that because that's exactly the kind of data that Jobs and Skills Australia is going to be able to provide to government. It will form the basis, the underpinning, of the advice that JSA provides to the minister, to the government of the day and to the bureaucracy. Of course, it's important to be able to cut and splice that data to reflect the particular challenges that young people might have, that people in certain regions might have, that older people undertaking mid-career transitions might have, that people from particular backgrounds might have or that women might have in particular contexts. That kind of analysis requires very detailed data, which, again, is exactly what this organisation is going to produce and analyse and provide to government.

Another piece of context which I think is critical when it comes to Jobs and Skills Australia is that we are facing a massive skills shortage at the moment, which previous speakers have identified. To some degree that reflects the fact that our economy is in a state of significant flux. There are some industries that are declining in terms of their demand for employment and some that are rapidly increasing. But, at the same time, we've just come out of quite an unprecedented period where our borders were shut or near shut for a couple of years, and we went from a period of very high levels of migration to essentially zero levels of migration. This has created very sharp shortages in many areas. So, coupled with the fact that it's an inherently difficult kind of area of policy to deal with when there are mismatches between people looking for jobs and jobs that are either open or emerging, it's particularly difficult at this time, given that we have so many areas of skills shortage and such sharp skills shortages because of the period we've just experienced with COVID. That makes the work that Jobs and Skills Australia will undertake so timely and so critical. In fact, Australia has the second-highest labour shortages at the moment across all OECD countries. Those skills shortages are partly a reflection of mismatches—partly a reflection of the fact that there are people out there looking for work who don't have the skills and experience to precisely match up with emerging jobs—and it's partly a reflection of those broader macroeconomic issues that Australia has experienced over the last few years with the borders shutting.

There are 286 occupations experiencing skills shortages, double the number that were experiencing skill shortages just 12 months ago. There are particular areas which warrant mention. Construction, for example—the industry recorded difficulty at 80 per cent levels in December 2022. This is critical, of course, because it relates to so many areas, like housing and those critical to supply chains, that are important for dealing with pressures on rent, pressures on homelessness and all sorts of other areas of social policy. Construction shortages are absolutely critical to dealing with a whole raft of other policy areas. Health care and social assistance is an area where massive employment growth is expected, and there are some particular occupations within that broader sector that are currently experiencing significant skill shortages. So, again, it's critical that an organisation like Jobs and Skills Australia provide the government with the most up-to-date and granular information so that we can understand our best to deal with those areas.

Another issue in the labour market that is absolutely critical is the underutilisation of skills. This relates to matching, but it's a different dimension to matching. It's where the skills of a whole raft of people in the community are not being currently recognised in a way where they are able to fully utilise those skills. A good example of that is a raft of people in the CALD community. This is a group of people that I talk to regularly. These are people who might come to Australia with qualifications in other countries or experience in other countries but those qualifications or that experience are not able to be utilised where that person would desire them be used and where they would benefit the community for a considerable amount of time. Again, fully understanding that challenge of the underutilisation of skills requires very granular data and very expert analysis of that data.

As I've indicated, Jobs and Skills Australia will put the government in a much better position, firstly, to understand these challenges and, secondly, to develop the appropriate responses. Jobs and Skills Australia, I think, was the first bill that passed through both houses of this parliament after this government took office—if not, it was one of the first. It reflected, right from the start, that getting better labour market outcomes is right at the top of this government's priority list.

As previous speakers have indicated, Jobs and Skills Australia has been operating on an interim basis. This bill will provide a permanent governance arrangement for this extremely important organisation. It will establish a ministerial advisory board, which will be a key part of the governance structure of this body. It will also require the minister to commence a review of the JSA within two years and it will establish the key functions of Jobs and Skills Australia, including a range of functions in terms of advising the minister. Jobs and Skills Australia will identify labour market imbalances and analyse the demand and supply for particular skills. Again, as I indicated at the beginning of my speech, it's extremely critical that government has that very granular level of analysis. It will analyse workforce needs in relation to migration, an area that touches on the matching of skills and labour force shortages, as indicated. That will also help us to get over the challenge of workforce shortages which were exacerbated by those two years of very low migration. This lies at the heart of the government's response to a more functional and better suited, better designed migration system, which the Minister for Home Affairs has talked about so much over the last few weeks. So it's important that we pass this bill to put Jobs and Skills Australia, an absolutely critical organisation, on a more permanent footing.

The kinds of analysis and the kind of advice that will come out of this body to the minister, the government and the bureaucracy are going to be absolutely critical for the government. That's not just in resolving shortages within the labour market but in dealing with a raft of much broader policy issues. We're not going to be able to deal with housing shortages unless we deal with workforce shortages in the construction sector. We're not going to be able to deal with shortages in the care economy, or be able to provide the quality service in care that people deserve, unless we deal with skills shortages in that area. This organisation is going to put the government in a much stronger position to deal with those issues.

This government has a very broad agenda when it comes to providing people with the opportunity to reskill or for people leaving school to gain additional skills. There will be 180,000 free TAFE places and 10,000 New Energy Apprenticeships—those are just two examples. But in order for school leavers to make the right choices about what degrees or courses to take and what areas to focus on, and in order for those offering courses to know what the right courses are, given the emerging industries in the economy, everybody in the ecosystem that is the labour market needs to be better informed. All of these different areas of government policy priority are going to require better information and better quality advice. As Minister O'Connor said in his second reading speech:

I firmly believe that JSA is, and will be understood widely as, one of Australia's essential social and economic agencies.

I think that when you consider the importance of a well-functioning labour market in giving people opportunities and also in underpinning long-term productivity growth, then that it is going to underpin better policy in exactly the way that the minister indicated.

I can think back to the jobs and skills round table that I held in my electorate—fittingly, at Victoria University, one of Australia's dual-sector universities. I heard there from employers at the coalface right across my electorate about the skills shortages they were facing, and also from people helping young people to make decisions about what courses to undertake after they finished school. Information coming out of Jobs and Skills Australia is going to help all of them. It's going to help government, it's going to help young people choosing courses, it's going to help employers and it's going to help those offering courses to do so in a way that better suits the emerging economy, which will be a higher productivity economy and also an economy with opportunities provided for all.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has had a skills crisis for the last decade. The policies of the previous Liberal government led to a reduction in the number of Australians in training for apprenticeships and traineeships. They led to a reduction in the amount of funding that was going to, in particular, public education around vocational education and training in this country. The result of those cuts to funding for public education in vocational training and the lack of support for apprenticeships and traineeships was the skills shortage—not enough Australians with the skills that employers needed to ensure that they could do the work that they were contracted to do through their businesses. As a result we suffered a productivity slump.

The previous government's solution to this problem was simply to import labour, to bring in foreign workers to fill the gaps that had been left by the lack of investment and the lack of commitment of the previous government to invest in training and skills for the next generation of Australians. It's known that our nation has one of the worst shortages of labour supply amongst the OECD. Thirty-eight per cent of jobs are experiencing skill shortages that require a vocational pathway.

For too long the lack of investment in appropriate education and training put a brake on our economy. We could have been growing our economy at a higher rate. We could have been a much more productive workforce. Instead, we had a handbrake on our economic development because of a lack of commitment from the previous government to invest in vocational education and training.

The system only got worse during the pandemic. When the government was required to close the borders because of the pandemic that migration of foreign labour into the country stopped. As I said earlier, the government's solution was to import labour from other nations to plug the skill shortages. When COVID hit, migration stopped and we faced even greater shortages of skills and supply chain disruptions. Employers were simply not able to get workers for particular jobs. That accumulated, and it has only got worse and worse. We are still facing the hangover from that, despite the fact that skilled migration has recommenced. For too long there has been a lack of appropriate investment in education and training and that has put a brake on our economy.

In 2012, more than 57,000 Australians had completed a trade apprenticeship. By 2021 that number had dropped to 20,000. It was less than half the number it was a decade ago. That's a sad indictment on our nation and on the development of skills in Australia. We weren't interested in investing in developing the skills of the Australian people. We rely on those apprenticeships and traineeships for economic growth, and it's going to be particularly important as we enter into what will be the equivalent of the second industrial revolution for our nation.

The changes that are coming in clean energy development are going to require massive upskilling of our nation and refocusing of certain trades, particularly electrical trades, for the jobs of the future. The investments that the government is making through AUKUS and the development of a nuclear-propelled submarine industry—a huge undertaking for a nation to be involved in—will create 20,000 jobs. They're not going to be unskilled, low-paid jobs. They're going to be high-skilled, high-tech jobs that will require a decent vocational education and training system. We are going to rely on that training to meet those AUKUS commitments, to transition to renewable energy and to restore manufacturing in this country.

While apprenticeship completion rates have declined across all groups, they are particularly low for women, First Nations people, people with disabilities and people living in remote Australia. If we get support for apprentices right, we're going to be rewarded in the next generation with a highly skilled, highly technical, vocationally trained workforce.

It has taken the election of the new government to focus Australians' minds on change in this area, and I believe that this is one of the key areas where Australians voted for change. I certainly know that, in the area that I present, support for apprentices and investment in vocational education and training was a key issue for people who switched their support from Liberal to Labor.

We've been strengthening our targeted support for services available to lift apprenticeship completions, to address critical skills shortages and to ensure that all apprentices feel valued in the workplace and are encouraged to succeed—and we saw that in last night's budget with those additional investments in TAFE training for Australians. The changes will help them—particularly women—to complete apprenticeships and find rewarding jobs. The bill that we're discussing here today is an important part of that reinvestment in and reinvigoration of vocational training in Australia.

We made a commitment at the election to establish Jobs and Skills Australia. This bill delivers on that. We established JSA as an interim body in 2022, in November. JSA will play a critical role in addressing Australia's current and emerging skills and training needs. This amendment bill delivers again on that commitment to collaborate and seek wideranging advice from tripartite partners.

The bill will establish a tripartite ministerial advisory board that includes representatives from state and territory governments, unions, employers and experts. The ministerial advisory board will provide advice, ensuring that the JSA can effectively guide the government on workforce needs. The bill also legislates the requirement for JSA to consult with that ministerial advisory board in the development of its work plan, and that will ensure that the JSA's work is done in consultation with stakeholders and, importantly, that they are getting feedback about how to address those shortages of skills in particular areas where Australia is going to need skills into the future. It's about developing the long-term capacity of our nation.

The bill specifies that that work plan must invite public submissions, and the permanently established JSA will develop a work plan to help the Australian government improve skill development, employment opportunities and economic growth. We've already consulted broadly on the permanent model of JSA, which will conduct labour-market analysis in order to ensure that we're responding to existing and emerging skills demands.

The new proposed functions include providing advice on the demand for and availability of workers in particular industries and occupations; a greater focus on analysis of regional, rural and remote locations; and supporting decision-making in relation to Australia's migration program. JSA will also conduct studies focused on opportunities to improve employment, VET and higher education outcomes for those who've historically experienced labour-market disadvantage and exclusion, and on building an evidence base of the impact of various workplace arrangements on economic and social outcomes. Working closely with industry consultative forums, such as the Jobs and Skills Councils, will strengthen that national evidence base.

Additional changes to JSA's governance include replacing the JSA Director with the JSA Commissioner and introducing up to two JSA commissioners. They'll all be selected through transparent, merit based selection processes. There will also be a requirement for a statutory review of JSA's operations, to commence within two years of its permanent establishment, and the government's amendments to this bill will expand the representation of JSA governance arrangements.

This bill is pretty important. It cements this government's commitment to ensuring that we're investing in the skills of the future. The Albanese government is determined to ensure that there are genuine partnerships between JSA and the business community, particularly small businesses. Our small businesses are particularly susceptible to skills shortages and their effects on their businesses. You only need to walk down the main street of many towns and cities throughout the country and see the signs advertising for labour in shop windows or in business windows throughout the country. Over 2½ million small and family businesses operate in Australia, making up 97 per cent of businesses.

Not only will JSA respond to the current skills crisis that has been imposed on the county; it will lead to more strategic planning and investment in education. That will be crucial if we are going to see the energy transformation to clean, affordable and reliable power; if we're going to rebuild our manufacturing capacity through the National Reconstruction Fund and build the infrastructure needs for the future; if we are going to keep up with technological advancement, particularly in the digital economy; if we are going to strengthen and support the growing care economy and ensure a sustainable health and disability support sector, particularly as the Australian population ages; and if we're going to significantly upskill and uplift our capacity when it comes to the defence of Australia. Reforms such as this are vitally important and are part of the government's suite of policies to reboot and reinvigorate vocational training in Australia.

We know that the key to unlocking Australia's economic development into the future is ensuring that we have the skills amongst the Australian workforce to achieve that unlocking of that potential by providing employers with the skills that they need to grow their businesses and to grow our economy. That's why this bill is so important, and I commend it to the House.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government agenda to tackle ongoing skills shortages and underemployment in Australia has been front and centre since the federal election last year. I am honoured to join several of my colleagues in advocating for the passage of the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. The bill will amend the Jobs and Skills Australia Act 2022 to outline Jobs and Skills Australia's permanent functions and the governance arrangements. It will ensure that the body is set up for success by enshrining an economy-wide perspective that encourages contributions from the union, industry, vocational education and training and higher education sectors.

The passage of this bill will complete the second stage of the two-stage process that was made clear in the introduction of The Jobs and Skills Australia Bill 2022. We are living in a time of rapid change, where technology advancements and global competition are transforming the way that we work and live. In this dynamic environment, it is more important than ever to have a skilled and adaptable workforce. Jobs and Skills Australia will be a crucial pillar in making sure we can meet the challenges of the present and the future.

The bill is a result of extensive consultation and deliberation, which began in the lead up to this government's landmark Jobs and Skills Summit in September last year. This was followed by the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee inquiry into the first bill, a discussion paper seeking public comment and bilateral and other targeted engagement activities. Feedback received through the stakeholder engagement process did not just inform the development of the legislation. Rather, it informed, and will continue to inform, the engagement protocols and operational elements of Jobs and Skills Australia. Over 130 submissions from across government, unions, business, industry and employer groups and education sectors were received by the committee during the public submission process.

The high level of interest in and engagement with this process reiterated the importance of Jobs and Skills Australia. This process was crucial in ensuring the body operates in a way that serves the purpose and needs of different partners across states and territories, industry, business and the entire tertiary sector. As a result, the government has committed to state and territory colleagues that they will have a role in Jobs and Skills Australia governance to ensure that it is working to provide analysis and advice on areas that are crucial for them. In addition, the government will make sure that industry, education providers and union voices are a feature of Jobs and Skills Australia's governance. The deep insights and observations they will bring will ensure Jobs and Skills Australia's outputs are fit for purpose and have an economy-wide focus. The vision is necessary for Australia to resolve the labour market issues it currently faces. Currently, Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortage across the OECD. This means over three million Australians did not have the necessary skills to participate in training and secure work. Even industries crucial to Australia are not immune to skill shortage. Of the top 20 occupations in demand, seven have a shortage that is primarily driven by a lack of people with required skills, reinforcing the importance of having a renewed approach to our skills system for addressing these shortages.

The passage of this bill will introduce that renewed approach Australia desperately needs and deserves. It will establish Jobs and Skills Australia as a permanent body, including its full range of functions and governance arrangements. The major difference in the governance of the proposed permanent model is embedded in the commitment to its tripartite governance, with a Jobs and Skills Australia commissioner who will in turn be supported by deputy commissioners and a ministerial advisory board. The proposed permanent arrangements outlined in this bill will mean Jobs and Skills Australia adopts a broad based approach with a range of functions and responsibilities. These functions include: identifying labour market imbalances to analyse the role played by the demand and supply of skills; building an evidence base to assess the impact of various workplace arrangements, like insecure work and casualisation, on economic and social outcomes; analysing workforce needs and skills to align our migration program with what the Australian economy requires; undertaking studies to improve employment, VET and higher education outcomes for cohorts that have historically experienced disadvantage, thus ensuring a fairer and more credible system; and contributing to industry consultation forums.

The bill also includes a requirement for a statutory review of Jobs and Skills Australia to commence within 24 months of the commencement of the amended bill. The statutory review will guide the execution of the bill and rectify any issues that may arise in the future. The core of Jobs and Skills Australia remains unchanged from the objectives of this government's jobs and skills agenda, engagement and collaboration. The JSA will be one body that will bring together unions, employers and state and territory governments, which are largely responsible for our education system. It will be a mechanism for the tripartite partners to engage and collaborate to achieve goals which require efforts that are bigger than the respective sectors alone. All three sectors share the experience of the existing skills shortages and changing labour market needs. Through the JSA, these three sectors will work towards achieving their shared aspiration for Australia's workforce into the future. The government and the JSA will hear directly from these partners about industry-specific issues and requirements relating to skills and the labour market.

The provisions outlined in this bill specifically require JSA's advice to be informed by stakeholder expertise, insights and networks. These provisions ensure that JSA can inform the government to support our response to the evolving demands of the economy and Australia's workforce and learners, and better support the training system to deliver the skilled workers that Australians need. The bill will require JSA to consult with a broad-based ministerial advisory board in the development of its work plan. This approach was emphasised by stakeholders throughout the consultation process. It will ensure that the work plan directly aligns with addressing workforce shortages and building long-term capacity in priority sectors. The bill will establish the Jobs and Skills Australia commissioner as the head of Jobs and Skills Australia, who will be appointed in a long-term, permanent capacity through the merit based selection process, in line with the APS merit and transparency guidelines. To support the commissioner, the bill will allow for up to two long-term deputy commissioners to be appointed for up to a five-year period for Jobs and Skills Australia's functions and business as usual requirements.

Additionally, the bill amends flexibility in the agency's framework to ensure it can best respond to emerging needs and priorities in the response to changing economic conditions. Experts will be engaged under a written agreement on a time limited or study-by-study basis, ensuring that sector-specific experience, influence and networks are brought to each of the JSA's workforce and cohort studies or detailed regional assessments.

To further support the governance of Jobs and Skills Australia, the bill will establish a ministerial advisory board that consists of representatives and independent experts with skills and experience in areas relevant to Jobs and Skills Australia. Board members will include experts from tertiary education, employment and industrial relations with experience in unions, data analysis, workforce planning and regional organisations, and those representing priority cohorts and those most disadvantaged in the labour market. The board will be tripartite, and participation from employer organisations and unions will be fair and equitable. The ministerial advisory board will provide the minister and the JSA commissioner with expert advice on the work plan of Jobs and Skills Australia and other products. Board members will also be expected to consult with and represent the views of respective sectors and industry where relevant.

A large part of this bill builds on the work of the interim Jobs and Skills Australia, which has been underway since November 2022 and has continued the important work already begun by the National Skills Commission. It has also started new work such as commencing a clean energy capacity study and a national study on adult foundation skills to better understand the barriers to the workforce faced by so many Australians.

JSA will continue to produce skills and workforce data and analytics to contribute to a more granular national evidence base. It will continue to provide crucial insights into disadvantaged cohorts, provide regional analysis and support workforce planning. Workforce planning for industries is crucial. It will support education and training and migration systems to respond to current and future workforce needs. This bill expands the workforce planning function for Jobs and Skills Australia, which will assess how skills and workforce issues can be addressed across the whole economy. For example, skilled STEM graduates from both higher education and the VET system are likely to have the skills and training which are adaptable for several different emerging and crucial industries, like technology and clean energy. It will complement the sector-specific workforce planning undertaken by jobs and skills councils. The government has consulted broadly on the permanent model of Jobs and Skills Australia to ensure that this bill supports an ideal range of ongoing functions and products it will deliver. Equipping Australians with the skills and knowhow they require to remain at pace with the rapid growth of this age has been at the forefront of the government's priorities. Indeed, I believe the Jobs and Skills Summit will continue to be among the cornerstones of Australian political history.

This bill gives effect to the tripartite approach that became a signature of the summit—one that was reflected in the Holt jobs and skills summit ahead of the main Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra. Establishing a permanent Jobs and Skills Australia will mean that this approach is permanently enshrined. It will mean that the people of Holt will be able to receive the skills they need to get the jobs they want. I commend the bill to the House.

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023. This bill comes at a critical point in time. Here we are the day after budget day, and we've seen the first budget surplus in 15 years—the first budget surplus that has been delivered since the global financial crisis. One of the features of that budget surplus was the strength of the Australian labour market—the number of people employed and the growth in wages that has been experienced, both of which were critical to delivering the outstanding budget outcome the Treasurer was able to deliver today. This speaks to some of the real challenges and opportunities in our labour market.

This bill comes at a critical point in time. It comes at a time when businesses everywhere are talking about the challenge of skills and employment. Right now, Australia has the second-highest labour supply shortages of any OECD country around the world. Three million Australians lack the fundamental skills needed to participate in training and secure work. It's clear we need real solutions to address the jobs and skills shortage today so that we can build a stronger economy for tomorrow.

This bill proposes to establish a permanent Jobs and Skills Australia. This government acted quickly to establish an interim body last November, but a permanent body is needed to begin the work of building a strong, skilled and secure workforce for our future. Our proposed government amendment will be a statutory body that works with businesses and industry leaders as well as education providers and unions to give independent advice and address the skills crisis being faced by so many businesses across our communities.

One of those communities is the city I am proud to represent. Parramatta is a city of opportunity. Parramatta is a community of aspirational families and individuals all striving for success in the emerging heart of Greater Sydney. It's a city of small businesses, of people who have come from all over the world to build a better life for themselves and their families. Parramatta has a longstanding reputation as a launchpad for first-generation Australians, and that reputation has been founded on the ability of the city to give those who work hard the opportunity to build and find their own success. Parramatta supports this aspiration for its people. It supports it with good infrastructure rivalling that of many cities across the country—a world-class health district in Westmead, an emerging transport hub in Parramatta CBD and no fewer than nine university campuses offering high-quality education to local residents.

With a large and booming economy as diverse as our community, Parramatta today is a city of growth. With regional GDP of more than $30 billion, Parramatta holds the title of Sydney's second CBD. Its economy is even bigger than some of the capitals of other Australian states. But, right now, as strong as Parramatta's economy is, businesses face challenges every day. Cafes face challenges finding workers to keep the doors open. Technology firms are struggling to find the specific skills they need to grow. The four banks that have taken premises in Parramatta's new CBD are all struggling to fill roles in their Parramatta offices. We have a young, vibrant workforce, lots of universities and growth across the city, with companies extending their footprint to have a place inside the geographic centre of the city, and yet many of these businesses can't find the workers that they need. That's why jobs and skills are so important to our community and so important to many communities across the country.

I heard this loud and clear at the Jobs and Skills Summit that we held in Parramatta last year. Over 80 attendees came from across a range of industries, from manufacturers to local educators to unions and peak bodies, and for all of them the skills crisis was a major concern. Not only do businesses have trouble finding the workers they need, but we also have many young people across the electorate who are struggling to get the skills they need to connect into the jobs of the future. We found that local stakeholders were concerned that huge sections of the local community—particularly school leavers, migrants, women and First Nations people—were struggling to participate in mainstream education and employment opportunities. We heard of an enormous desire from participants who were willing and excited to work with the government to tackle these issues. They wanted a government to design a policy that unlocks local talent and lowers barriers to participating in the workforce, starting by addressing the skills shortage in our communities. One of the things that were at the top of the agenda was proper funding to TAFE. People wanted significant improvements to the visa system by improving access and reducing wait times. They wanted more affordable child care to help parents enter the workforce.

I'm proud to say that this government has delivered on many of these aspirations. In the aftermath of the National Jobs and Skills Summit, we announced an additional $1 billion in joint federal-state funding for fee-free TAFE starting in 2023 and accelerated delivery of 465,000 fee-free TAFE places. We increased the permanent Migration Program ceiling to 195,000 to help ease widespread critical shortages, and we halved the backlog of unprocessed visas in March 2023. From July 2023, 9,000 families across Parramatta will benefit from our cheaper childcare plan, helping parents and mums get back into the workforce. We listened and we acted when local businesses and communities spoke to us, and this bill is about going further. It's about addressing the skills and job shortages that we have right across the economy.

It's no surprise that those opposite are opposing elements of this bill, because, after a decade of coalition government, local stakeholders and businesses had deserted them. It wasn't just a decade of delay, decay and denial, but also a decade when the concerns of businesses fell on deaf ears. No wonder businesses and voters across the business community lost faith in those opposite! Nowhere is this more clear than in their proposed amendments to this very bill. Whereas the government's proposed amendments allow for the appointment of a fourth employer representative to specifically cover the interests and voices of small business, those opposite have proposed an amendment which would undermine workers' voices. That's just not the constructive approach that we want to see in this legislation, and it's clear that the coalition have not learned their lesson. Whereas stakeholders and the crossbench have worked with the government to craft an amendment that strengthens small-business representation, the opposition have made it clear that they will not support this bill unless their amendment is successful. The difference couldn't be clearer. While we're taking a constructive approach in tackling the jobs and skills crisis to build a better future, the coalition continue to ignore and exclude the voices of those around them.

We know that business is critical in helping to deliver the government vision for Australia. After a decade in opposition, this government has watched and learned and seen those opposite ignore businesses and pay the price for it. Business has moved forward in so many areas across our economy. They've moved forward towards net zero with concrete plans and targets while the previous government vacated their roles and responsibilities. On gender equity, many businesses have set goals and targets to achieve gender equity in their executive ranks and boards.

When businesses were looking for leadership on jobs and skills; again, we listened and we responded. Jobs and Skills Australia reflects this government's commitment to listening and working with businesses, unions and educators to address the skills crisis. The government's amendment will ensure consultation will be baked into its core functions, ensuring ongoing cooperation with businesses. Under this amendment, Jobs and Skills Australia will be empowered to take on a broader range of functions, helping the government address the skills shortage better. These functions include identifying labour market imbalances and analysis of the role played by demand and supply of skills; building an evidence base on the impact of various workforce arrangements, particularly when it comes to insecure work and how that impacts economic outcomes; and undertaking studies on opportunities to improve employment and education outcomes for groups that historically faced labour market barriers and exclusions, such as women, seniors, those with disabilities, young people and First Nations people.

Finally, a permanent Jobs and Skills Australia will contribute to industry consultation forums and strengthen our ability to listen to business when it comes to key skills and labour shortages in their sectors. Establishing a permanent Jobs and Skills Australia will finally provide the independent advice that we need to address skills shortages. We've shown this government is determined to work with businesses—not against them or in spite of them—to tackle key economic challenges. This bill lays the building blocks for that.

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

I thank all of those who have contributed to this debate. Jobs and Skills Australia was established by this government late last year and has already begun important work needed to identify solutions to our skills and workforce challenges, and to build the workforce that Australia needs now and into the future.

Introducing the legislation in two stages, including this amendment bill, has allowed the government the time and opportunity to consult with key tripartite partners and stakeholders in state and territory governments, business and unions, and also training and education providers and civil society representatives. We've also had very constructive engagement with members of this place, in particular the crossbench, both the Greens here and in the Senate and indeed the member for Indi.

The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill, introduced by the government in March, establishes the ongoing governance arrangements for Jobs and Skills Australia, and additional functions to ensure that it will play a critical role as the national body providing consistent data analysis and advice.

We know Australia is experiencing acute skills shortages. As Jobs and Skills Australia has informed us, the recruitment difficulty rate in December last year was 65 per cent—26 percentage points above the level recorded in January 2021. Recruitment difficulty across higher-skilled and lower-skilled, casual and non-casual vacancies has also been trending upwards. Meanwhile, the number of occupations in shortage doubled in 12 months from 153 occupations to 286, which really underlines the scale of the challenge. Yet many Australians continue to face significant disadvantage and exclusion in the labour market, finding it tough to find secure and meaningful employment. Some of these groups, like First Nations Australians; culturally and linguistically diverse Australians; those living in regional, rural and remote Australia; over-55s; women; people living with a disability; and youth face regular challenges to fully participate in the labour market because too often they are marginalised by way of age, health, gender or background.

Can I thank all of those who have contributed to this debate. There were a very significant number, which really speak to the importance of this statutory body and this legislation. I thank the members for Spence, Moreton, Blair, Hawke, Lyons, Higgins, Cunningham, Swan, Holt, Fraser, Kingsford Smith, Parramatta, Bennelong, Gilmore, Bruce, Werriwa and Chisholm, for the government; and, indeed, the opposition members for Farrer, Sturt, Hughes, Casey, Riverina, Nicholls and Fisher. In particular, can I thank the member for Indi for her contribution and engagement. I also want to note the contribution made by the member for Fowler.

This is an important debate. It is absolutely vital that we have comprehensive debates in this place over significant public policy to make sure we get it right. As a result of the engagement we've had and the contributions made in this place, we are better off. For that reason, I thank everyone who has been genuinely engaged. The majority of members in the House—those who support and will support this bill—agree that workers, employers, governments and the training and education sector must work together if we want to unlock the full potential of Australia's workforce and ensure Australians have the skills and training needed for jobs now and in the future, even when we come from different viewpoints. There is, however, not unanimity on this in this House. Later we will debate the amendments proposed by the opposition.

The opposition's amendments are designed, in the government's view, to undermine worker voices on Jobs and Skills Australia and thus undermine industry's voice on that body. Whereas stakeholders and the crossbench have worked with government to craft an amendment that strengthens small business and regional, rural and remote representation within JSA, the opposition have made it clear that, if their antiworker amendment is unsuccessful, they will vote against the bill. They're insisting on an amendment that would remove representatives of workers from this body, and, if that is not successful, they will vote against the bill in its entirety. I think it's very disappointing that the opposition is considering doing that. It would be fair to say that, when you're looking at training and education and when you're talking about skills and the labour market, it's only reasonable that we have employer bodies and unions that represent their constituencies. They most often come together with a common purpose to advise government and advise industry about what is needed. Unfortunately the opposition have chosen a very antiworker approach to this legislation with respect to their amendment.

I want to thank Senators Faruqi and Barbara Pocock from the Greens political party for their engagement on this bill and shared commitment to ensuring employment and training opportunities for those who have historically experienced labour market disadvantage and exclusion. This includes considering the role that lived experience will play in determining members of the ministerial advisory board. The effect of those consultations is reflected in the bill that was introduced to the parliament. I'd like also to thank Senator David Pocock for his engagement. Senator Pocock's interest in the role universities play in educating the skilled workforce we need is an interest shared with the Minister for Education and me, and it is also reflected in this bill.

Government amendments have been circulated, and I'll discuss those in more detail when the House considers them, but I also want to specifically thank the member for Indi in particular, as I said, for her constructive engagement, which is reflected in the government's amendments. In addressing the member for Indi, I also want to thank her staff for their engagement with my office and thank the department for the manner in which analysis related to regional, rural and remote Australia is strengthened by the amendments in this bill. I want to provide assurances that these amendments strengthen JSA's remit in this space, and I look forward to their analysis being made public and supporting policy development to support those areas. I want to again thank all members of the House who've contributed to this very important debate, and I hope we see its passage after the debate on the amendments.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that this bill be now read a second time. There being more than one voice calling for a division, in accordance with standing order 133 the division is deferred until the first opportunity the next sitting day.

Debate adjourned.