Press conference, Hobart

REBECCA WHITE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR THE FEDERAL SEAT OF LYONS: Well, it’s great to be here with Minister Andrew Giles and Ethan who just signed up for an apprenticeship today to commence his new career in a trade that we know Tasmanians need so many more of in the electrical trades.

It’s exciting to see so many apprentices start today, embarking on a new career that’s going to change their life. They’re not only going to be gaining new skills. It’s going to help improve their economic opportunity and give them secure work, but also grow our economy here in Tasmania, helping to do the things that we are already incredibly good at in the renewable energy space and making this superpower that we have here in Tasmania again the envy of the nation.

I’m really pleased to be here with Minister Andrew Giles, who has spoken with the apprentices this morning and talked to them about some of the additional supports the Federal Labor Government is providing to them so that they can earn while they’re learning, making sure that when they’re embarking on their new training program, they’re also supported by the Federal Government so that they can continue to pay their bills as they get these new skills and make sure that they can then have a qualification at the end that will never see them out of work. Because we know when it comes to tradies, there’s not enough of them, and that’s why these programs are so vitally important and why Free TAFE has been such a success here in Tasmania – 6,000 Tasmanians benefiting from that over the last two years. We’ve seen a massive take-up because we know that if we provide incentives for people to reduce some of those cost barriers, people take those chances, they improve their own lives, but they also grow our economy. This is a great initiative under Labor.

Andrew, I’ll now pass to you.

THE HON ANDREW GILES MP, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Thanks very much, Rebecca. Well, there’s never been a better time than now for Tasmanians, young and maybe not so young, to pick up the tools and to become a tradie as we’ve seen through this dozen young men and women who are embarking on a really big step in their careers, but also doing something great for the state and the country.

As Rebecca said, this is about realising the great potential that Tasmania has already demonstrated when it comes to energy and particularly renewables. We’re making sure that Tasmanians can all feel the benefit of that by ensuring that everyone can get these vital skills. So, today was incredibly exciting to be part of this signup. People taking a big step and we’ll hear a little bit from Ethan in a minute about what led him down the pathway to sign that bit of paper and to think about what it can mean for others.

We know that we need more workers in the electrical trades in particular. We need tens of thousands around the country but particularly right here in Tasmania. We also know that doing an apprenticeship requires some support and for apprentices at the very start, they need a bit of help because for many people being on a wage that’s considerably less than the average wage and considerably less than the minimum wage in some respects means cost of living pressures are really acute. That’s why we put in place the New Energy Apprenticeship Program, so all these people in trades like this will get $10,000 to help them through that journey.

We also know in a place like Tasmania, which is very decentralised, a lot of people have to move away from home. That’s why we, after 22 years of inaction, have increased the Living Away from Home Allowance – to make sure that geography is not the reason that someone can’t get the skills and do the job they want in the areas that they need. We also know that there is more to do and there’s a couple of things I just want to say about that. It’s really important to me as I go around here to listen to people, to understand what it is that’s driving them in their career choices, to understand what more we can do to build on the extraordinary success of Free TAFE, to build on the great traditions in the trades in Tasmania where people complete their apprenticeships at a much higher level than on the mainland. But we need to understand what we can do more to ensure that we can bridge the skills gaps, make sure that in every corner of this island more people get more opportunity to be part of the exciting opportunities that are before us.

And the last thing I want to say before handing over to Ethan is I can’t imagine a better guide in that journey than my great friend Rebecca White. I’m so thrilled that she’s put her hand up to work hard for the communities right across Tasmania but particularly in Lyons in the Federal Parliament, to ensure that she will be a really strong voice in a government that’s always on the side of Tasmania.

But now for the real star of the day, Ethan, tell us about your journey and what today means.

ETHAN JACKSON (TASNETWORKS): My name is Ethan Jackson. Background in civil construction and general crane hire. Yeah, the crane operating is how I was able to get the foot in the door through here and then I was able to work alongside the linesmen. It was something that from day one I aspired to have a crack at. After the previous two weeks have gone through, I’m just feeling inspired, supported and I just want to make the most of the opportunity that we have here at TasNetworks.

JOURNALIST: With the 10 grand that you will receive, how will that help?

JACKSON: Look, travel is a big one since in this early part we’ve got 17 weeks of training down in Hobart and I’m from the north-west so it will support me in that way and I might just look to offset the home loan as well, get creative with it. Yeah, things like that.

JOURNALIST: Is it nice knowing that the career you’re going into is so high in demand as well?

JACKSON: Yeah I was unaware that there were 800 applicants so, yeah, very honoured and I want to make the most of the opportunity.

JOURNALIST: So that 10 grand, you said before it was taxed. Do you know what the actual take-home amount is and how valuable that’s going to be?

GILES: There’s two things to say about that. It’s paid in instalments because we recognise that people need to be incentivised to go through their apprenticeship not just at the very start. So, after six months, after 12 months, after 24 months, 36 months, and then at completion. So, it will just be part of the – I’m not giving financial advice, so it will be part of the income received by that apprenticeship over that time course.

JOURNALIST: You said you have been speaking to apprentices about what they want to see. What have they been telling you about what they need?

GILES: Yeah, well, one of the real challenges is to make sure that the apprentice gets the opportunity to earn and learn on the journey. We’ve seen often some challenges in the apprenticeship space where apprentices have either been not well treated in the course of their engagement or haven’t been given the opportunity to build all the skills to be a successful tradesperson. Late last year, I wrote to all of my counterparts in the states to say this is not good enough. If we are encouraging people to take this big step to go through this apprenticeship project, often probably taking a bit of a step backwards in wages for someone like Ethan, we’ve got to make sure that we keep our promise.

The Federal Government is really focused on putting in place supports through the apprenticeship, going through the signup, the great people from Mas National have been guiding them through the complicated paperwork and making sure that people get the balance right between the work that they’re doing and also the technical part of the trade. We know we can do better. We don’t want anyone to waste four years of their life. We don’t want anyone not to complete.  So, I’ve been really focused on listening to people to find out what’s working so we can support that and where it’s not to make sure that we intervene early.

JOURNALIST: And given that there’s so much – I feel like previous generations talked were told to go to university. I myself am still paying my HECS fees and I’m 10 years into my career. Is there a shift nationally towards getting people to take up trades because that’s what the economy needs and are people that are still in university wasting their time?

GILES: Well, three questions there and one point I make at the very start: obviously, if an Albanese Government is re-elected, anyone with a HECS debt will have 20 per cent wiped off it. We understand that student debt is a real challenge. We’ve already made some steps. We’ll make a very big step, should we be re-elected at the next election in the next weeks or months.

On the issue of what people should do, as Minister for Skills and Training, I’m not in the business of telling people the choice that they should make, but I want to be clear about two things: most of the jobs right now and more of the jobs in the future will require post-compulsory education. I think that’s well understood. What we need to do a better job of is saying that a trade is not a plan B. Half of the jobs right now require a VET qualification and half require a university qualification. We’ve got to do much better at explaining that and helping people to understand the career options for them.

Here in Tassie there’s been great support historically for the trades. We know, though, that that’s not keeping up with demand so we need to do better. We need to invest in the workforce and support people with careers choices and we need to support all career options in an informed and considered basis. So, it’s not to say that anyone who’s going to university is wasting their time, but it’s also not to say that that is the approach that’s going to suit everyone.

JOURNALIST: And here in Tasmania we have an issue with a lot of young people going to the mainland for work. Is there anything that will keep these apprentices in Tasmania?

GILES: Well, as Bec said, Tasmania is a clean energy superpower, leading the nation and quite possibly leading the world in this area. There are so many great opportunities here when it comes to the electrical trades and renewable energy. I was in Burnie on Monday announcing our commitment to a Clean Energy Centre of Excellence, which really recognises how important this sector is in Tasmania and how much more we need to do if we build the skills base to support it. So, I think there are fantastic opportunities here.

One thing I’ve seen, as someone whose dad and his family came from Tassie to Melbourne a long time ago, is that people want to have more opportunities in Tasmania; particularly in regional parts of Tasmania where people have grown up, they want to lay down roots. The trades are a great way to do that.

JOURNALIST: And does – it’s a really obvious question, but is the main difference from yesterday’s announcement and today’s is that today we are seeing apprentices sign up that may be able to use the facilities you’ve announced?

GILES: That’s exactly right. This is going to be a journey, because as was said by an industry representative yesterday, some of the skills and some of the jobs that we are going to generate in renewables here whether it’s around pump and hydro or wind, we probably don’t even know what the jobs are. So, we need to make sure that we don’t fall behind in skills. When the Albanese Government was elected, Australia had the worst skills shortage in 50 years. That’s impacted every aspect of Australian life and in particular cost of living. We need to be ahead of the curve and we need to make sure that young Tasmanians and older Tasmanians thinking about retraining have every opportunity to be ahead of that curve and to make a contribution and have good secure jobs.

JOURNALIST: Just to confirm that centre of excellence will still get built even if the Federal government changes?

GILES: Well, I’m very confident that it will be built. We’ve made the commitment, the financial commitment. I think it would be absolutely extraordinary if Peter Dutton was opposed to that, but then again, Peter Dutton also wants Tasmanians to pay $600 billion for nuclear power plants that they’re never going to use, so perhaps that’s a question that he can answer. But the money is there already. Thanks very much, everyone.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

GILES: Thank you.