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The Hon. TONY CATANZARITI [8.05 p.m.]: The skills shortage in rural and regional New South Wales has long been of concern and is often compounded by the drain of young people to metropolitan areas. This has been confirmed by the Standing Committee on State Development's Inquiry into Skills Shortages in Rural and Regional New South Wales, which clearly showed that skills shortages exist across almost all sectors of the economy in rural and regional parts of the State. I am pleased to say that the inquiry generated a lot of interest across the whole of the State. The Committee secretariat, whom I wish to thank for their assistance and input, received high-quality submissions from a diverse range of people and organisations including local councils, employers, training organisations and government departments. Public hearings were also held throughout rural and regional New South Wales, with many people taking the time to participate in the hearings. The future prosperity of rural and regional New South Wales is of high importance to local communities and the response to the hearings was most encouraging.
The New South Wales Government is committed to ensuring that skills development is at the forefront of policy decision making. A New South Wales Skills Council is being established to act as a bridge between business, training providers and policy makers. Further, the New South Wales Government is considering the establishment of an employment lands task force to help increase economic growth in the Riverina-Murray region. The idea for the task force follows feedback from the region's communities that identified addressing the skills shortage, attracting new businesses, access to employment lands, and continuing to build and diversify the economic base as high priorities.
The State Government also recognises that as industry and the economy change, people will need to have the skills to adapt. This Government has set the target of increasing the proportion of the population aged 15 to 64 years participating in vocational education and training from 11.7 per cent in 2005 to 16 per cent by 2016. Of course this target will only be met through joint effort with industry and the Commonwealth Government. Unfortunately, in recent years we have witnessed the Howard Government reducing education funding. It is disappointing to see, as a percentage of the Howard Government's budget expenditure, that spending on training has declined and is projected to decline through to 2009-10. We need serious investment in training from the Federal Government to address skills shortages. It is ridiculous that there are not enough places in universities for example to train doctors when our population is increasing; and further, that John Howard places more importance on using funding as a gun to the head of educational institutions all for the sake of achieving his aim of reducing the conditions of workers.
Existing institutions, such as TAFE colleges do an excellent job, yet the Prime Minister is hell-bent on creating his own Australian Technical Colleges [ATCs]. The strong possibility that there will be duplication of roles, particularly when New South Wales students are offered the opportunity of participating in vocational education and training in schools, have access to nationally accredited courses at TAFE and will benefit from the establishment of 10 trade schools across the State, is of great concern. At present only a few ATCs exist in Australia and those are all located on the eastern seaboard. Negotiations on the establishment of the ATCs have been troubled, to say the least, and the future of many ATCs is unclear. John Howard has rejected all bids by New South Wales—which have extensive industry and community support—to run the ATCs.
The New South Wales applications proposed the delivery of the colleges within the existing governance and human resource framework of New South Wales public schools to ensure that public schools students would be able to take up the opportunities they will offer. Training for our young people as well as older workers is invaluable. However, the Federal Government quietly continues to cut back programs, including the rural and regional skills shortage incentive for many apprentices, and funding to our educational institutions.