Linda Kirk (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As deputy chair of the Migration Committee, I was involved in the preparation of the report Negotiating the maze: review of arrangements for overseas skills recognition, upgrading and licensing. The report was tabled last month. At that time, I spoke to it. This evening I would like to focus more generally on the question of skills. During the course of our inquiry, we found that there is a substantial skills shortage in this country and there is a pressing need to do something about that in order to overcome the obstacles that are being placed in the way of our growing economy as a consequence of the skills shortage. In fact, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Jenny Macklin, said:

Australia’s skills crisis is here, now and growing … Australia will have a shortage of over 130,000 skilled workers over the next five years.

As we discovered during the course of the inquiry, this skills shortage is being filled from two sources—by persons who are coming to Australia from overseas who are skilled workers and, unfortunately to a lesser extent, by young people in Australia who are being trained to be skilled workers and to fill, in particular, the trades, such as plumbing and electrical work, where we have a particular shortage.

Today, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, released his skills package. It is an attempt to address the skills shortage that we have here in this country, but it really is an example of the Prime Minister and this government trying to play catch-up. As I said, we have a significant skills shortage. As the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, we will be some 130,000 people short in a very short time. What do we see when we look at what this Howard government has done? In the last 10 years, this government has turned away 300,000 young Australians from training places. When you see those kinds of figures, it is no wonder that in a very short time we will have a skills shortage of some 130,000 people. As I understand the skills package that the Prime Minister has released, he purports to be creating some vouchers. I am not quite sure how that will operate, but, as I read the package—and I have had only a short time to look at it—the vouchers will reach only about 30,000 of the 300,000 young Australians who were turned away from training in the last 10 years. This is just one in 10—just 10 per cent of those who have been turned away.

Another thing that has been identified is that the skills shortage that we have in this country is having a compounding effect within the economy. As we all know, Australians are facing rising interest rates. One of the reasons for this is the government’s failure on skills and trades. The Prime Minister’s failure in this area has effectively created bottlenecks in the Australian economy. These bottlenecks have in turn put upward pressure on interest rates. We would say that it is only Labor that can deal with the skills crisis. We are the only ones who understand it. We understand the interest rate reality and the impact that it is having on people.

I suppose that one thing you can say following the release of the skills package is that at least Mr Howard is finally acknowledging the failure that has occurred over the past 10 years. However, as we say, he is not the person to fix it. He has had 10 years to address the skills shortage and it has taken this long for him to release any kind of meaningful package. Yet still we have to see how this package will play itself out.

Labor does have a plan to deal with the skills shortage in this country, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, has laid it out. In the time I have available I can only point to some of the key aspects of our policy. Firstly, we intend to introduce what is known as the ‘completion bonus’ so that young people do finish their courses. We will also introduce free TAFE studies for traditional trades such as plumbing and electrical and the other traditional trades. In this way we could really ensure that we do get the tradespeople we need so that we do not again face the shortage that we currently have or the impact on the economy that has resulted. Finally, Labor have said that we will introduce into every school district a technical school, which young people will be able to choose to enrol in. As I understand it, the way it will work is that they will leave their studies with perhaps two years of an apprenticeship under their belt, which will give them an enormous advantage when they go on into the workforce.

As I said, the Prime Minister did release his skills package today. It has $837 million worth of incentives and vouchers. We would say that, really, this should have been introduced a long time ago. It really is too little, too late. Labor acknowledge that there is a skills crisis in this country and that it is a very significant factor in pushing up interest rates. It is also a significant factor which in turn is putting Australian families under pressure. Time and time again we are hearing how families are being squeezed from all different angles as a consequence of this government’s policies. It is Mr Howard who created this skills crisis. Of course we have to acknowledge that he is attempting to do something about it, but we would say that it has taken him 10 years to do it and already the crisis has done enormous damage to our economy and to the skills of young Australians. It is only by the election of a Labor government that we will be able to address the skills shortage in the way that Mr Beazley has outlined in his earlier announcements. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.