Alison Byrnes MP

Member for Cunningham

SPEAKER: I call the member for Cunningham.

Ms BYRNES: Thank you and congratulations, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. Can the minister please inform the House how the Albanese Labor government will address skills shortages, improve employment opportunities and economic growth as part of its plan to strengthen vocational and educational training.

SPEAKER: I call the Minister for Skills and Training.

MINISTER O’CONNOR: I would like to thank my friend and the member for Cunningham for the question and congratulate her on election to this place, a fantastic community champion for the region and I've known you for many years, it's great to see you in this place, representing your constituents It's true to say that the constituency of Wollongong and that region understand the need to respond to the skills crisis in this country. They understand how important it is for workers and businesses to have the skills that are in demand. And so too does this government, Mr Speaker. And that's why the first bill introduced by this government today was to create Jobs and Skills Australia working with employers and unions, working with state and territory governments training providers and others, to make sure we fill the skill shortages across the labour market, across the economy in many sectors of course indeed. Now, Mr Speaker, we have got a very big agenda when it comes to this area. We understand how important it is to our economy. We are dealing with, in fact, we have inherited one of the largest public debts for any government and if we are going to deal with those challenges we have to grow the economy. And the way to grow the economy, or at least one of the ways to grow the economy is to invest in skills and training. But to invest billions of dollars of taxpayers' money in this area at the state and territory level, we need to understand those shortages. We need to understand where they are. We need to make sure we precisely anticipate the areas of emerging demands and that's why we create this body, working with the states and territories as I say, and working with employers and unions and others. And that's also why we're placing TAFE back at the centre of vocational training. TAFE has been under resourced, it's been unrecognised, in many cases neglected by the former, the previous government. I just remind people of this. The first visit in Victoria of the Prime Minister after the election was to a TAFE college. That says everything about the priorities of the Prime Minister and this government about addressing these skill shortages in this country.

SPEAKER: Order!

MINISTER O’CONNOR: So we need to do a lot more. There are shortages of course and many people know where there are. There are shortages in aged care, disability care, children's services, the care industries generally are really, really in need of supply of skills and labour. The OECD says we have the second worst, if you like, or the second highest labour shortage in the developed world. So this is a job that needs to be tackled immediately. It's not just for industry, it's not just for our economy, it's not just for employers, it's for workers. To provide them the skills that they need that are in demand means that they will have better, secure employment going forward. We have got a big agenda. We can't wait to get down to it and we started today by introducing that bill to the House.

ENDS

You can watch the full question and response here.