Interview with Ali Moore - ABC Radio Melbourne Drive

E&OE Transcript

ALI MOORE, HOST: Well, 10,000 dollars being promised to electrical, plumbing and carpentry apprentices. It won't be paid upfront - it will be paid on a series of payments over the course of apprenticeships. Would that be enough to entice you to either stay or enter a trade?

Andrew Giles is the Minister for Skills and Training. Minister, welcome to Drive.

MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING ANDREW GILES: Great to be speaking with you, Ali.

MOORE: Infrastructure Australia says we have a shortfall of 197,000 workers across the infrastructure sector. Is this going to make the difference?

GILES: Oh, yes and I think what we can say today is that the announcement that the Prime Minister has just made means that there just is no better time than now to pick up the tools and become a tradie, offering $10,000 on top of the wage so that people can get on helping to build those homes Australia needs.

MOORE: But is it going to make a difference in time? You have vowed to add 1.2 million homes by the middle of 2029. The average apprenticeship is four years. So, even if you start in the middle of this year, as promised, you're not going to get those tradies until the year those homes are meant to be completed.

GILES: Well, Ali, what happened when we came into government was that we inherited the worst skills crisis in 50 years and we have not wasted a minute in responding to it through all of the levers that are open to us. This is another step in rebuilding our TAFE and training system. While the former government cut $3 billion from TAFE and training, we have been through Fee-Free TAFE, through apprentice support, and now through this particular announcement, which is focused on getting people building the homes that we need.

MOORE: But do you acknowledge it's not going to help in the short term, is it? I mean, it is deliberately a staggered policy over the years of an apprenticeship.

GILES: It is indeed, because we've listened to what the experts have told us and we've listened to what apprentices have told us about what works and what hasn't worked. The review that was carried out by two very eminent Australians, Iain Ross and Lisa Paul, has guided us in this and in other respects as we keep rebuilding our apprenticeship system so that it's open to so many people. And I'll just say again, there is now no better time for parents to think about having conversations with their kids or for workers thinking about transitioning. These are the sort of incentives we need to build a training system that's not just fit for today, but fit for the future. Dealing with cost-of-living pressures today, but opening up pathways to really important careers for individuals, while of course, meeting those ambitious housing targets too.

MOORE: Is it enough? I mean, particularly in the first - the early years of an apprenticeship when they really don't earn very much. They may have had to have moved out of home to take up an apprenticeship and they'll only be getting a portion of this $10,000.

GILES: Well, this isn't everything that we're doing, for example, we've also announced an increase to the Living Away From Home Allowance, which recognises that people a bit further away from the centre of Melbourne often face particular pressures in accessing an apprenticeship or other forms of training. This is a payment that actually hasn't been increased for more than 20 years. That's another example. There are 34 recommendations in this report, some of which will take some time to work through to make sure we get all of the settings right. But this is a really important measure to incentivise more people to get the skills they need in areas that we so desperately need.

MOORE: You're listening to the Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles.

Andrew Giles, do you, as a government, are you sticking by that target of 1.2 million homes by the middle of 2029?

GILES: Yes, we are. My colleague and dear friend, Minister for Housing Clare O'Neil, is working her way through a wide suite of policy options, as Minister Collins did before us, because we need to really focus on this and it's not going to be about a silver bullet, it'll be about a series of measures that we apply.

MOORE: What about the other parts, I guess, of the infrastructure industry? You'd be aware of what civil contractors have said today. They say that your payment needs to extend to the people who build the things that have to be in place before the slabs are poured. So, the people who do the roads, the subdivisions, the sewerage infrastructure, that sort of thing - that if you don't get more people helping there, then you're not going to be able to build the, you know, the increased number of homes that you want.

GILES: Well, across the suite of recommendations that are made, we are committed to ongoing consultation and when we think about the wider incentive system, we've made some decisions to extend those arrangements so that we can have deeper conversations with stakeholders, so that we make sure our training system, and particularly the apprenticeship system, which has been such a foundation for so many of those critical skills which are in shortage right now, so that it is fit for today's purposes and for the future. We have been engaging deeply. That's what this review demonstrates and will continue to.

MOORE: Is it for all apprenticeships? I said at the outset, from what I have been reading, electrical, plumbing and carpentry. Are there others?

GILES: Yes, there are. What we're doing in terms of the announcement that the Prime Minister's made today about the $10,000 payment is apprenticeships in trades associated with residential housing construction. In some cases, it's very obvious what those trades are but what we've done is ask the expert bodies, Jobs and Skills Australia and the relevant Jobs and Skills Council, so bodies that bring together industry workers, peak bodies and unions, to make sure that we've got precisely the right trades covered so that there can be real certainty around this.

MOORE: So, that's still to be finalised, still being worked through, but it will start in the middle of the year, if you're re-elected.

GILES: It will start on the 1 July. Yes, that's right.

MOORE: On that election, how much trouble do you think Labor is in in the lead up to the poll?

GILES: Well, as the Prime Minister said at the National Press Club, we're not in the business of commentary. We're focused on governing and delivering for Australians, and certainly that's my focus. There will be endless commentary, and I understand people in the media have got a role to play in that regard. That's not my job. My job is to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to ensure that Australians get the skills they need to support our economy and maintain our living standards in the future.

MOORE: So, what role do you see skilled migration playing in that? The Master Builders, for example, they think that this won't help to reach the targets, it won't put enough apprentices on the ground. The CEO Denita Wawn told our breakfast program today that we do need more skilled migration to tackle the issue. What role do you see that playing?

GILES: Well, there will be a role, particularly in the short term, because as I said earlier, we did inherit a massive skill shortage. I was formerly, as you'd be aware, the Immigration Minister. In the last two years, we granted more construction visas than we ever had. There will be a role for this, and I guess there's some real questions for the Opposition and their statements in this area, which frankly make no sense and don't add up.

There will be a role for skilled migration, but what we need to do is something that didn't happen over the last ten years and that is to make sure that it is working consistently with the skills and training system. And these investments, and Free TAFE in particular, are all about getting that balance right so that Australians, young Australians, but also older Australians, can access these vital skills.

MOORE: Andrew Giles, many thanks for talking to Drive.

GILES: Great. Thanks very much, Ali.