COALITION SENATORS' ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

1.1        Coalition Senators acknowledge that there is strong stakeholder support for this bill. However, Coalition Senators are concerned that the Gillard Government has a history of poor policy implementation and constant re-allocation of budget funds in relation to helping the Australian workforce develop the skills our economy needs for the future.

1.2        Coalition Senators are concerned that Skills Australia, set up under the Rudd Government in 2008, is already being superseded by another Agency with more powers and a further expansion of bureaucracy. In each budget we see a major redirection of funding from various training initiatives into new initiatives.

1.3        Skills Australia was tasked, together with the Industry Skills Councils, with addressing Australia’s current – and future – skills needs. Yet skill shortages across the nation are worsening at a time when economic growth is falling; even the ACTU has been critical of the Government’s recent approach to addressing the skill shortages:

Plans by Australian mining and construction companies to embark on an overseas recruitment drive with Australian Government support are premature and a process must be established for thorough market testing of the skilled labour requirements of the resources sector.[1]

1.4        AWPA expands the Skills Australia Board from seven members to ten, in an effort to increase union and industry representation, but fails to include representation from the training industry. Given an expected training shortfall of over 250,000 skilled employees during the next five years, it will be an increased challenge to ensure a match between skills expansion and work opportunities.

1.5        Keeping the training sector away from the AWPA whilst increasing union presence warps the decision making process. The Australian Council for Private Education and Training say in their submission:

ACPET believes that it is appropriate that the training sector also be represented as part of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency membership... Such an appointment would add valuable expertise to the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency as it develops advice for Government. This is particularly so given the vital role that the VET sector plays in skilling and upskilling Australia’s workforce.

1.6        In addition to the $558 million National Workforce Development Fund, there is a $20 million pool of funds AWPA can allocate to unions and employer groups, with no defined purpose for this pool of funds and no criteria for its allocation. 

1.7        The Queensland Government’s submission highlighted that there is evidence that purchasing of training by both States and Commonwealth is fragmenting skills investment and duplicating effort:

...[A] unique strength of our national training system is that co-funded training delivery is administered primarily by states and territories. This arrangement supports a cohesive national system and targets the available funding efficiently to complementary local, state and national objectives...A far more effective system would be for the funds to be allocated to the States, with clear performance benchmarks on how the funds  were to be invested to support an industry led system.[2]

1.8        The Coalition supports efficient cross-jurisdictional allocation of resources and an approach to training that ensures industry can best get the skills it needs.

Recommendation

It is not the intention of the Coalition Senators to oppose the Bill.

 

Senator Chris Back                                                              Senator Bridget McKenzie
Deputy Chair

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