Labor Failing to Skill Fisher Workers

New data proves that despite promising to skill more Australians than the Coalition, Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government is overseeing a wholesale collapse in the number of apprentices and trainees in every state and in almost every electorate across the nation including in our backyard.

This new data demonstrates Labor’s much vaunted Fee-Free TAFE skills policy has comprehensively failed to maintain the number of apprentices and trainees taking up training with numbers collapsing across Fisher.

After just one year of Labor, Fisher has seen a 10.9% drop in the number of apprentices and trainees taking up a new trade or learning a new skill. This compares with the final year of Coalition Government that saw a 45.15% increase in apprentices and trainees.

Trade apprentices in-training hit record highs in the final months of the Coalition Government and as of June 2022 there were 429,000 apprentices and trainees in-training, 25 per cent more than at the same time in 2021.

In just 12 months under Labor this number has now fallen to 377,645. That means there are over 50,000 less apprentices and trainees in training today than when Labor took office, a loss of one in ten.

Sunshine Coast MP Andrew Wallace said Labor’s failures under Anthony Albanese would hit Fisher particularly hard, in light of the Region’s reliance on skilled trades in construction, healthcare, tourism and hospitality.

“I was an apprentice and a builder – I know firsthand just how powerful vocational training can be in unlocking opportunities and in pursuit of the Australian Dream of home ownership and enterprise,” Mr Wallace said, adding, “Australian apprentices and trainees are building homes, caring for kids, starting and supporting small businesses including primary producers and defence manufacturers. Our skilled workforce bolsters our sovereign capability and boosts our local and national economy.”

“We understood this when the Coalition was in Government, but under Labor we’ve seen a 10.9% decline in new apprentices and trainees in Fisher alone – at a time when the Sunshine Coast is crying out for skilled workers, particularly in education and social care,” Mr Wallace said.

“Last year four Labor Ministers claimed the early childhood education sector had another 123,000 educators in the training pipeline thanks to Labor policies. It turns out that this was just another Labor lie as those trainees were in fact counted in the 2021 Higher Education and 2022 Vocational data under the previous Coalition Government.”

“The data is clear. Despite all of Labor’s promises to skill Australians, they are failing, resorting to fake figures and fabrications to avoid accountability for yet another blunder,” Mr Wallace continued.

“We need more apprentices and trainees in our community not less. We need transparency from Government, not broken promises and deceit. This is another policy debacle brought you by the Australian Labor Party,” Mr Wallace added.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Skills and Training, Sussan Ley, who shares a background in skilled work and training, said this was a devastating blow for Labor’s economic credibility and would have serious impacts on Australia’s economy.

“Whether it is Anthony Albanese or Jim Chalmers, Education Minister Jason Clare or Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor, right across Labor’s key leadership group there have been massive drops in the number of apprentices or trainees in their own electorates.” she said.

“This puts Australia’s economy in a weaker position and brings into question our capacity to deliver on national priorities like AUKUS, the infrastructure pipeline and the housing we need to meet Labor’s out of control migration settings.”

The official government data shows that in the final year of the Coalition Government in-training numbers increased in every electorate bar one, while under the first year of Labor’s skills policies the number of apprentices and trainees dropped in every electorate except four.

This means under the Coalition's final year of government apprentices and trainees increased across 99.3 per cent of electorates whereas under Labor’s first year of government numbers dropped across 97.3 per cent of electorates, a damning statistic.

Labor came to power promising it would solve skills shortages and deliver more opportunities for Australians to get into training, but the reality is they have delivered a collapse in the number of Australians taking up training.