Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the National Centre for Vocational Education Research advises that there are 320,830 active apprentices and trainees in training, representing a drop of 107,320 apprentices and trainees in training compared to when the Opposition was last in office;

(b) that new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released in September 2025 shows Australia's building approvals are collapsing, with total dwelling approvals down by 8.2 per cent and private sector apartment approvals down by 22 per cent; and

(c) the critical link between the collapse in apprentice and trainee numbers and the shortage of skilled workers needed to address Australia's growing housing crisis, with fewer tradespeople available to build the homes Australians desperately need;

(2) recognises that the housing crisis is being compounded by this failure in skills and training, leading to higher costs, longer delays, and fewer Australians able to achieve the dream of home ownership;

(3) condemns the Government for failing to ensure an adequate pipeline of skilled workers to meet Australia's needs, and for overseeing a collapse in both apprentice numbers and housing approvals at a time when the nation can least afford it; and

(4) calls on the Government to take immediate and urgent action to:

(a) rebuild apprentice and trainee numbers across the economy, particularly in construction and housing trades;

(b) work with industry and employers to support real pathways into skills and training; and

(c) develop a credible strategy to ensure Australia has the skilled workforce required to meet current and future housing demand.

I move this motion out of deep, deep concern for the sector, deep concern for our young people, concern for our tradies, concern for the employers and concern for the future of the skills pipeline for this country, because, under this government, we're watching a collapse of Australian apprenticeships and trainees that we have never seen in our history. It's having a devastating consequence for our economy and the workplace and, more particularly, the housing market.

The national pre-eminent body, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research—they're the pre-eminent body that capture the data. You will hear those on the other side of this chamber come in and make these flippant allegations that, when they took over in government four years ago, the economy was terrible and everything was upside down. But, I can tell you, these numbers from the pre-eminent independent body do not lie. When we left office—when we left government—the sector was healthy. We had over 428,000 apprentices and trainees in the sector working and contributing to our country. Today, after four years under this leadership, we have 107,000 fewer. Let me repeat that: there are 107,000 fewer apprentices—fewer younger Australians getting the training they need for skills, fewer jobs and fewer decent careers. How can that be? This is not a statistic; this is a Labor failure. This is a homegrown crisis, either intentionally or unintentionally grown by the policy failings of this Labor government—a failure of policy, a failure of leadership and a failure of vision.

I've been on the road right across our country from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth to Darwin. I've been meet being employers, apprentices and training providers all around the country, and, everywhere I go, they're telling me the same thing. They are desperate for skilled workers. Builders can't find enough tradies. Civil contractors can't find enough plant operators. Electricians, plumbers and mechanics are stretched thin. In the regions, it's amplified. It's even worse. We're facing a skills drought, and this is a direct result of this government's neglect. At the very same time, Australia's housing approvals have collapsed.

We have seen Labor make some attempts to put some incentive programs in for apprentices. But they're very narrow; they're not for all apprentices. As Labor pursues their net zero targets, they'll give it to the apprentices that might be involved with building solar panels or windmills in that sector. Or they might give it to the affordable housing sector. But, when I was in Western Australia and I spoke with those from the resources sector, those looking for fitters, mechanics, diesel fitters—there was no support from Labor for those; zero. When I speak to the hospitality sector—the chefs, the caterers, the bakers, the sous-chefs, the apprentices—there was no support for those. When I talk to the car manufacturing sector, when I talk to the car dealerships—there's no support for the mechanics apprenticeships. There's no support for those that we need to train to accommodate the next wave of electric car fleet.

The recent ABS data in September shows total dwellings approvals are down 8.2 per cent and private apartment approvals have fallen by a staggering 22 per cent. All of this is under the new Labor government—a nation in the grip of a housing crisis while the pipeline of skilled workers to build the homes we need is drying up. It's little wonder Australians are waiting longer, paying more and losing hope of ever owning their own home. Labor will talk a big talk, but, when it comes to delivering, they'll always be found wandering. My motion today is not about politics; it's about the people. It's about the young apprentices that we need to employ in this country who can't get a start. It's the civil contractor in Darwin who can't find the tradies. It's time to get Australia building again. It's time to get Australia training again, and it's time to get Australia working again.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is seconded, and I reserve my right to speak.

Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this motion moved by the member for Wright. I do so not only as a parliamentarian but as someone who spent years on the tools as an electrician. What the member for Wright is attempting today is pretty straightforward—to pretend the challenges in skills and housing began the moment the Labor government was elected. That takes a level of imagination reserved for fantasy novels or coalition budgets. The truth is this: when Labor came to office, we inherited the worst skills shortage in half a century. After nearly a decade of neglect, apprentice commencements had fallen from over 220,000 in 2014 to less than 135,000 in 2019. Completion rates cratered, billions had been ripped from TAFE, pathways were hollowed out, and skills policy was reduced to handing public money to fast food chains for traineeships that never led to real qualifications. So let's not take lectures from those who drove the car into the ditch and now want to yell at us for calling the tow truck.

The motion claims apprenticeship numbers are collapsing. That is wrong. As of 31 March 2025, more than 320,000 apprentices are in training, up 15 per cent on pre-COVID levels, and trade completion rates are 34 per cent higher than in 2019. Apprentices are training in the trades this country actually needs—electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Since 2023, over 650,000 Australians have enrolled in free TAFE, with more than 170,000 completions. We've locked free TAFE in as a permanent feature under the free TAFE act 2025, guaranteeing at least 100,000 places a year from 2027. And we're backing apprentices with real practical support. From July, new apprentices in housing construction can receive up to $10,000 in direct incentives. In the first three months, 4,700 apprentices have taken up that opportunity—real people starting real careers. We've lifted the living-away-from-home allowance for the first time in over two decades, now $120 a week for first-year apprentices, easing the pressure for those who move from home to train. We've doubled wage support for apprentices with a disability to $216 a week, indexed for the first time since 1998. We've also extended incentive payments for employers and apprentices in priority trades, with up to $5,000 in direct support.

In my electorate of Moore, we are fortunate to have two north metropolitan TAFE campuses. Their staff train nurses, cybersecurity experts, community workers and tradies that keep our regions running. Those campuses connect to construction training at Clarkson and Balga, a pipeline of skilled workers ready to build the homes Perth's north needs.

The member for Wright says housing approvals are collapsing—again, misleading at best. The slowdown began under the coalition, driven by the unwinding of their HomeBuilder stimulus and their failure to plan for materials and workforce shortages. This government has faced those pressures head-on. We're targeting 1.2 million new homes through the National Housing Accord, supported by the $32 billion Homes for Australia plan—the largest investment in housing in decades. We are cutting red tape, streamlining approvals and ensuring a skilled workforce to build those homes. That alignment between housing and skills is deliberate. It's the centrepiece of Labor's plan to build more homes and create secure jobs. When I was on the tools, TAFE fees had climbed to over $3,000. What many in this chamber don't realise is that, for some trades, many of those fees are paid for by the employer, so, every time those opposite hiked TAFE costs, they hurt not just the apprentices but also the small businesses that were training them. They made it harder for young people to start a trade and harder for employers to take them on. That's the record we inherited. They failed, and now they want to pretend this mess that they left never happened.

Australians deserve better than this kind of politics. We will keep investing in TAFE, we'll keep driving apprentices into critical trades, and we'll make sure every young person in Moore, in Western Australia and across our nation can build a skilled, secure future. I reject the motion.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:47 to 12:58

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important motion moved by the Member for Wright. Last week, the AustralianFinancial Review reported that, at the current rate, every state in this country will fail to meet its housing target, with my state of New South Wales amongst the furthest behind. This comes as median house prices hit record highs across every major city. In Sydney, the median price has reached $1.7 million—19 times the median full-time salary. In 2003, John Howard famously said that he didn't have people stopping him in the street to complain that house prices had gone up—well, I do. It's clear we've reached a tipping point with fewer and fewer young Australians believing homeownership is within their reach.

As the member for Wright highlights, enabling pathways into trades and apprenticeships is part of the solution. While I agree that the skills shortage is a major barrier to new construction, the problem runs much deeper than the recent decline in apprenticeship commencements. According to Jobs and Skills Australia, our construction sector is in a persistent shortage. The Master Builders association estimates that Australia will need half a million additional construction workers by 2029. If we assume a similar growth in apprenticeship completions over the next five years, we will barely make 20 per cent of this target.

The industry already relies on migrant workers, and one in four were born overseas. So, if we're serious about addressing our shortage, we must lift skilled migration and do so urgently. That starts with a designated construction skills visa, like those of the UK, New Zealand and Canada—countries facing similar housing affordability issues. Instead, construction workers seeking to come here face delays of up to 18 months and high application costs. The government had a chance to act last year, but, inexplicably, chose to vote against my amendment to include trades workers for the specialist skilled visa pathway.

The government must also deliver on its promise to tackle occupational licensing barriers between states and from approved overseas jurisdictions. I recently spoke to a UK citizen who is a fully qualified electrician but has now been forced to retrain because his UK qualifications weren't fully accepted here. The government's national licensing for electrical trades is a good start but still won't help my constituent fast enough.

Even if we fix migration and training, it will take far more than skills to solve this crisis. Firstly, the crossbench has long called for the government to restructure state incentives to help clear the capacity and bureaucratic bottlenecks holding back housing supply. This approach is backed by the sector itself—the people navigating the red tape every day.

Secondly, we need to prioritise infrastructure projects that enable housing. If the Commonwealth invests heavily in transport, that investment should be tied to appropriate zoning and development around new transport corridors. In addition, we need to make sure that, when we are investing in infrastructure, that is doing things like enabling the sewerage and other treatments that are needed for housing.

Thirdly, we need to stop demand-side interventions like the five per cent deposit scheme that the government has recently brought into being, which has absolutely no friends among people who know how house prices are driven—economists and housing experts. We know these don't work. We know that these have made things worse for young home buyers. But still we are seeing a government introducing pieces of legislation that just make it harder for young Australians to buy their own homes, rather than easier.

Fourthly, the government must deal with the CFMEU once and for all, appointing a genuine industry regulator with teeth. Despite the appointment of an administrator, which I supported, we still see appalling conduct from self-interested actors undermining trust in this critical sector and holding back the house-building and other building that we need in this country.

Finally, we need to improve the allocation of existing housing. Too many young families are squeezed into two-bedroom apartments while empty-nesters remain in large, mostly unused, homes. The key reform here is a transition from stamp duty to land tax, unlocking mobility and better using our existing housing stock. It is fairer, it is the appropriate thing to do, and the federal government needs to work with the states to enable this to happen.

Our generation of parliamentarians will be judged on whether we fix housing affordability, and it is time to pull all the levers that we possibly can. Too often, both of the major parties pull one lever or another that they think is politically convenient for their side of politics, rather than deal with the overarching needs across the whole of the economy.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to speak in the Australian parliament on apprenticeships and skills and to make one thing clear: when it comes to rebuilding our TAFE system, backing apprentices and setting Australia up for the future, Labor delivers. Every Australian deserves the chance to learn a trade, build a career and shape the future of our country. Apprentices are the backbone of our workforce, from the homes we live in to the infrastructure that connects us and to the industries that power our economy. Under Labor, apprentices are getting the support they need, not just to start but also to finish their training. We know times are tough and cost-of-living pressures are real.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 13:04 to 13:17

We know times are tough and cost-of-living pressures are real and that is why the Albanese Labor government is helping more Australians take up apprenticeships and stick with them, particularly in the housing and construction sector where the demand for skilled workers has never been greater. From 1 July 2025 we expanded the Key Apprenticeship Program to include a housing construction apprenticeship stream, offering up to $10,000 in incentive payments to eligible new apprentices, and already more than 4,700 have commenced in trades like plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. In the first month of the incentives for housing construction apprentices, 1,250 apprentices have signed up, and I am very pleased to advise the House that 475 of those were from my electorate of Newcastle. If ever you wanted to understand a community that prides itself on the benefits of a trades education, you need look no further than Newcastle. We have increased the living away from home allowance for the first time in 20 years and we have lifted the disability Australian apprenticeship wage support payments for the first time since 1998 because we want cost-of-living support to match the value of the work that apprentices do.

Across the country we partnered with states and territories to deliver $1.5 billion for over 500,000 free TAFE and VET places and we made free TAFE permanent, locking in 100,000 places every year from 2027 under the new free TAFE act of 2025. Already more than 650,000 Australians have enrolled in free TAFE and over 170,000 have completed a course, 48,000 of those in construction alone. That is 170,000 people saving thousands of dollars and setting themselves up for secure well-paid work.

In Newcastle we're seeing this investment transform our region. At TAFE NSW, on the Tighes Hill campus, Labor is investing or delivering a $60 million net zero manufacturing centre of excellence. It's a partnership between the Albanese and Minns Labor governments that links our clean energy goals with real training and real jobs. It's making sure local people—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 13:20 to 13:30

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 1.30, the Federation Chamber will suspend until the chair is resumed at 4 pm.

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00

The Federation Chamber transcript was published up to 13.30 . The remainder of the transcript will be published progressively as it is completed.