Transcript: Press Conference — Tuesday 5 April 2022
Topics: Apprenticeships surging in the Hunter Region; TAFE funding; Jobs in the Hunter; Submarine Base in Newcastle
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BROOKE VITNELL:
Brooke Vitnell here, your Liberal candidate for Paterson at the upcoming Federal Election. I'm privileged to have our Minister for Employment, Workforce, Small and Family Business here in the Paterson electorate today at Hunter Valley Training Company for an announcement around apprentices and trainees across the Hunter Valley. The Liberal-National Government has delivered a strong economic plan that will see more people in the Hunter get skilled and get into a job. And that is certainly a priority of the Government, it’s a priority in the Budget that was handed down last Tuesday night. The investment in skills has seen a surge of apprentices across the Hunter. And our economic plan is delivering more training for the region. We're going to be seeing 15,200 Hunter Valley small businesses also having access to a new 20 per cent bonus deduction for training and upskilling their employees. So absolutely fantastic having the Minister here in the region, and he's got an announcement about apprentices as well.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Tremendous. Thanks, Brooke. It's great to be here with you, especially at the Hunter Valley Training Centre, over 740 apprentices. And great to see 10 per cent of them being women. And a lot of women in what we call non-traditional trades, so sparkies, and welding, and fabricating, and the like, which is superb. And of course, we're seeing a great surge, 220,000 trade apprentices now right across the country, the highest since records have been kept.
And it's great to be here, Brooke, with you to talk through what that means for the Hunter, because today we can announce there is 30 per cent more apprentices now here than pre-COVID; 30 per cent.
At a time when we thought moving into COVID would have a permanent scarring effect across the apprenticeships and the skilled network. What we're seeing is a permanent skilling effect, which is extraordinary. There's more Australians in work now than pre-COVID. There are more apprentices, 30 per cent more in the region you're standing up for, than pre-COVID, all because of the Morrison Government's economic plan.
And the Morrison Government, Brooke, remains and is the best friend tradies have ever had. And we've doubled down in the Budget. There is $3.7 billion for a new skilling agreement with the states and territories that'll see 800,000 more Australian skilled workers. Widened and extended the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencement program that will see 35,000 more trainees on the tools as the Government provides a 50 per cent wage subsidy through to 30 June, and then a whole new Australian apprenticeship incentive program that'll start from 1 July. We're going to back in our tradies, we're going to back in skilling our young people. Unemployment's at 4 per cent. It's forecast to drop to 3.7, which is what it is in New South Wales right now. But we'll see that across the nation and we're going to do that through skilling Australians.
So Brooke, thanks for the invitation. Thanks to you and to the Hunter Valley Training Centre for the opportunity to come and join you. And thanks for standing up for what is great Liberal values and what it means to get more Australians into work.
QUESTION:
All right, so specifically today, what are you announcing for this particular area?
MINISTER ROBERT:
It's the fact that we are now at 30 per cent more people in trades and traineeships than pre-COVID. That not only have we come out very strongly from COVID, but we've come out with more people employed, more people in training, more trade apprentices for this area. This is not an area that is declining. This is an area that is growing. This is an area that the Morrison Government is going to back in 100 per cent. A future for the Hunter region here, in seats like Patterson, Shortland and Hunter, is incredibly strong under the Liberal-National Government.
QUESTION:
What do you put that down to, that increase down to?
MINISTER ROBERT:
That we’re backing in tradies. We're providing incentives for both apprentices and businesses. That we're providing incentives into the economy to grow. That we're saying to this region: you have a future. We're backing in Kurri Kurri in terms of a gas generated electricity supply as other supplies exit the market. We're backing the region in with new hydrogen as an approach for where we're going from, not just transition fuels but to future fuels. But we're also saying to this coal mining region that coal has a place right now for generating electricity, that we will move to transition fuels and gas quickly, and we will then move in to hydrogen.
But there is a strong future right now. And at the same time, we will back in renewables. We have a net zero by 2050. Our reduction in emissions since 2005 has been over 20 per cent, higher than commensurate countries like United States, like Canada, like Japan, like New Zealand, so that we can meet our climate reduction standards and targets, at the same time we get back in traditional industries and help them transition.
QUESTION:
You've had a good look around today, and I gather you're quite impressed with what you've seen. Just how important is organisations like the HVTC to getting people into work here in this region?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, the great thing about group trading organisations, and they provide about 10 per cent of apprentices, and HVTC is one of them, it makes it easier for young Australians to get into apprenticeship. So over 220,000 trade apprentices right now across the country, through over 70,000 different employers, which is great. So there's lots of small businesses taking one and two apprentices. There's 740 here. So group trading allows you to aggregate, allows you to have the best of technology. So we're seeing tradies there in fabrication, moving from milling machines and lathes across, then going into big CNC machines. So they develop their skills, they work here, they then go on site to serious companies like Glencore, who are serious manufacturers, and then come back here. So they come out very, very skilled. It’s not for profit, so community led and community owned – it’s really good.
QUESTION:
And I guess it’s also filling a really important gap that’s not being filled really by TAFE.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well TAFE is the public training organisation. It does about 20 per cent of the nation’s training, but the other 80 per cent is done by private providers, be it NGOs like group training organisations or other 4700 private RTOs. They’ve all got their place which is superb, and we need an ecosystem of trainers or where we can go. And the Commonwealth has spent $13.8 billion during COVID, $7.8 billion this financial year alone backing in our skills, backing in our skilling. And we’ve seen record funding for TAFE – TAFE has not had a better friend than the Morrison Government in terms of the money that’s flowing to it, and we’ll continue to support the public RTOs, whilst we support the private RTOs and the group training organisations because they all have a great part to play.
QUESTION:
As you've probably heard a lot, the Labor Party is saying that the Morrison Government and all levels of Liberal National Government have cut funding to TAFE, but particularly the Federal Government. How do you respond?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, I respond with the facts, and the facts will set you free. And the facts are over $2 billion has gone from the Commonwealth to the states for skilling, and that excludes $2 billion in JobTrainer, excludes $3.7 billion in Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements, excludes $717 million for Completing Apprenticeship Commencements. So if you exclude all of those extra funds and we just go to the base funding through what's called the National Agreement on Skilling and Workforce Development, and of course the Skilling Australia Fund, the SAFF, those two together is the base funding that the Federal Government provides to the states and territories. It has been increasing every single year. Commonwealth outlays to the states for skilling, which includes expenditure on TAFE, has been increasing as a statement of fact. And anything else is a flat out lie. In short, typically Labor, because the facts don't support them.
QUESTION:
All right, looking ahead, what's the future for training organisations like this one in the Hunter, and particularly for apprentices here in this region?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, it's very strong. I'll give you what the future is in skilling, and I’m super keen to hear Brooke speak about her view of the future for a region she's standing for. And we need good representation. We need people like Brooke. We need people like Brooke who’re going to stand up for a region and stand up for economic development, and don't squib and hide and run off to climate change conferences and speak to the woke folk and then come back here and pretend they support. And that's what's happening to the existing members of Parliament here on the Labor side. They're not standing up consistently for their regions and their traditional industries.
So in terms of the future, there is a record $7 billion plus for skilling in the Budget. We will continue to skill and train Australians; we’ll move forward after the election, conditional upon the Australian people backing us, of course, to finalise the new training agreements and new skilling agreements with states and territories so we can deploy that $3.7 billion into 800,000 opportunities for young Australians. The Budget forecasts an unemployment down to 3.7, the lowest in 50 years, which is great for everyone who's looking to get in the workforce, great for the young people who want to get an opportunity, and the Morrison Government is going to back them in in terms of opportunity for apprenticeships and opportunity for skills.
But Brooke, your area, you're standing up to represent them.
BROOKE VITNELL:
Thanks, Minister. I've been discussing this with a lot of businesses and apprentices and tradies as well, and they want choice. They're sick of being told what industries of the future that they will be working in, and the Liberal National Government, the Morrison Government, are backing in the industries that they want to work in, whether that's mining, whether that's gas. We won't be telling them that they can't have a fruitful future in employment in that that industry, and those industries are the lifeblood of the Hunter. And quite frankly, I'm sick of people demonising the industries that have created prosperity and wealth here for generations. And my message to those young people that are looking to have a job in skills in the mining industry or gas and, you know, manufacturing here in the Hunter. The Morrison Government will back them in with their chosen profession, and we’ll back them in every day of the week.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well said.
QUESTION:
Clearly, also there's opportunities coming up, perhaps potentially, for a nuclear sub plant or base here in Newcastle. That could provide some wonderful opportunities perhaps, but there's a certain level of opposition to it as well, a bit of scaredy cat kind of politics going on. How do you respond to all that?
BROOKE VITNELL:
I've been leading the charge with that. I wrote to our Defence Industry Minister last year and our Defence Minister Peter Dutton, and when I heard that the Prime Minister had announced AUKUS, I said we have the proud shipbuilding heritage here, we have the skilled workforce, we have the defence personnel. We should be considered here for the creation of parts for the submarines, and potentially a maintenance hub here. You know, we have the working port, they needed an East Coast base. So I wrote the letters and I've been advocating for it for our region. I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister announced that Newcastle is considered one of three locations that would be optimal for this base. I'm thinking of the potential $10 billion economic injection that this would provide for the Hunter region, and to the thousands of jobs here that have been- we had a kick in the guts under- in 2012 when Forgacs closed, our proud shipbuilding heritage closed. We’ve had the Kurri Kurri gas smelter there close. We've had a few kicks in the guts under the previous government here in the Hunter, and it's about time that we stand up for them here, stand up for their jobs, and stand up for their industries and say no more. We're going to welcome additional investment, and we're going to- I'm going to champion investment in jobs for this region.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Thanks all.