Radio interview with Oly Peterson - ABC Perth Drive

OLY PETERSON, HOST: If you're a tradie listening or you employ trades or perhaps you even train apprentices, I want to know, are there enough of you working on sites across Perth? Because we're trying to build more homes, meet some lofty targets, but the question always goes back to, are there enough tradies to build them? Andrew Giles is the Federal Skills and Training Minister.

He joins me live on Drive. Minister, thanks for your time. ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Great to be with you, Oly.

Unfortunately, that bell in the background may require this to be a very short interview. If you've got to go, you've got to go. We'll try and get you back on the line in a moment.

I'm just getting some guidance, but I guess while I'm waiting, if I can just say, from the Albanese Government's point of view, we want to say to Australians, particularly West Australians, there's never been a better time for people to get on the tools and become a tradie. And I really do want to see more Australians, and especially younger ones, choosing a trade, especially to help us build more homes.

And my office tells me that I'm not required to vote on this one. All right, good to know. So there's 36,000-odd construction sector apprentices who've started in the last 12 months or so, Minister.

What's that down to, in your opinion, and which courses are proving to be the most popular? We've introduced just over a year ago the Key Apprenticeship Program for housing, which offers $5,000 to businesses to take on an apprentice, recognising that sometimes that's a challenge, particularly for the smaller businesses which are a big part of the housing industry, and $10,000 over the life of the apprenticeship to support the apprentice.

So we've seen a really strong take-up, nearly 3,500 of those in WA. And the top trade in that is carpenters and joiners, but we’re seeing large numbers of people in the electrical trades, plumbers, bricklayers, concreters, all of the trades associated with housing but particularly that big three, carpenters, electrical trades workers, and plumbers, really taking up that opportunity.

How successful is the $10,000 incentive been, Minister, and how many have taken it many have taken it up here in Western Australia? 3,470 in WA in the first 13 months. So it has been a really big driver. What we're hoping to see in this, and the early indications are really positive, is it's not so much about getting people in but helping them stay.

So getting that first $2,000 at six months, another at 12 months and so on, just as maybe pressures of cost of living or the need to get new tools by it, to demonstrate the value that we attach to what these people, particularly young people, are doing for themselves but also to help build our nation. Are there enough incentives that exist for businesses who are training these apprentices?

Could they do with a bit more support though, Minister? Well, we have put some money on the table in this program for the employers, $5,000, to recognise that smaller businesses in particular, it is a big decision to take on an apprentice, and I know that most tradies who do that take it really seriously because of the pride they have in their own trade. So that's something that we've looked at very carefully.

We've got to get the balance right, obviously, between spending taxpayers' money wisely and making sure we deliver a benefit. There’s a couple of other things we’ve done. We've put some money on the table to support those employers that are taking on an apprentice who may have a disability.

That’s a support that's existed for a long time but hadn't been indexed for more than two decades. So we've seen a strong response to that. And similarly, we've increased after, again, two decades the allowance paid to an apprentice who has to travel away from home to do their TAFE or training, which obviously was a huge disincentive, again, with those cost of living pressures on an apprentice wage.

The other criticism we hear, Minister, is that our TAFEs currently just don't have the staff, the lecturers, to meet the demand. Could more be done to bring tradie talent into the classroom? For sure.

Look, one of the things we're seeing as Australians right around the country, but particularly in the West, respond to our call to arms to get them on the tools, obviously, we need more trainers and teachers in our TAFEs. We’ve put a big stream of our effort in the National Skills Agreement towards boosting that workforce, thinking about ways how we can encourage a lot of tradespeople who tell me that one of the things they enjoy about their work is working with apprentices to help them get their training qualification, and to think about more ways in which we can encourage people perhaps to mix a bit of time on the tools and a bit of time teaching.

Because one thing that we do know is that for apprentices, having the opportunity to learn at TAFE from someone who's currently engaged in the workforce is really critical. Minister, thanks for your time. Great to chat, Oly.