Portfolio — 27 March 2026

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Rishworth, released figures showing 17,729 housing construction apprentices have enrolled in the Key Apprenticeship Program since its July 2025 launch — with 4,379 of those commencements recorded in January and February 2026 alone, indicating accelerating uptake [TA-260327-dewr-fda15cb07d6b]. The program pays each apprentice $10,000 distributed across five milestones over the life of their apprenticeship, while employers can claim up to $5,000 in the first year — a payment structure the Minister framed explicitly as a response to the cost-of-living pressures that drive non-completion rather than as a general workforce subsidy [TA-260327-dewr-6d0c01d46c2e].

The Minister for Skills and Training anchored the program's rationale in a generational skills shortage in housing construction trades, citing the government's own metric that each newly qualified tradesperson enables construction of 2.4 additional homes — a figure that links apprenticeship completions directly to the broader housing supply challenge [TA-260327-dewr-6d0c01d46c2e].

Industry endorsement from the Housing Industry Association and Master Builders was cited to support the program's design and sectoral credibility [TA-260327-dewr-fda15cb07d6b].

By trade, carpenters and joiners lead commencements at 6,431, followed by plumbers at 3,680 and electrical trades workers at 3,135 — a distribution that tracks the core on-site trades required for residential construction at scale. South Australia has recorded 924 commencements, ranking fifth nationally behind Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

The Minister also addressed construction industry concerns about rising fuel costs stemming from the Middle East conflict, stating the government's focus is on securing fuel supply and shielding Australians from global economic shocks rather than directing targeted financial support to the construction sector [TA-260327-dewr-6d0c01d46c2e] — a framing that draws a line between the apprenticeship instrument and broader industry cost relief.