❓ The Premier responds to questions about the government's investment in training and skills development, highlighting initiatives to support apprenticeships in the construction sector and the state's strong employment figures.
AnsweredQoN 193Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TRAINING
AND SKILLS — INVESTMENT
193. Ms C.M. ROWE to the Premier:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to delivering a strong economy and creating
more employment opportunities for Western Australians.
(1) Can the
Premier update the house on the work underway to ensure that Western Australians
have the skills and training needed to support and grow our economy?
(2) Can the
Premier advise the house of this government's record of driving down
unemployment and creating more jobs for West Aussies?
AND SKILLS — INVESTMENT
193. Ms C.M. ROWE to the Premier:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to delivering a strong economy and creating
more employment opportunities for Western Australians.
(1) Can the
Premier update the house on the work underway to ensure that Western Australians
have the skills and training needed to support and grow our economy?
(2) Can the
Premier advise the house of this government's record of driving down
unemployment and creating more jobs for West Aussies?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2)
I thank the member for the question. It is a very important one, because Western
Australian jobs are our highest priority as a government. We want to keep our
economy moving. We want Western Australia to be the strongest state in
Australia. This morning, I was with the Minister for Training and Workforce
Development, Simone McGurk, and we visited the Construction Futures Centre in
the member for Belmont's electorate.
There we met some of the apprentices who will help build many of the homes we
need in Western Australia. Those apprentices—Ava, Marcus and
Noah—are all working on residential projects in Perth. In fact, Marcus
and Ava were on site this morning and came off to spend some time with us. Each
of them is benefiting from the WA Labor government's group training
wage subsidy initiative. This is a really important initiative that subsidises
group training organisations to bring more apprentices on, so that they can
continue to feed the workforce that we need for our residential construction
industry. We introduced this program early last year to help small to
medium-sized businesses employ aspiring tradies. This has helped to get 300
apprentices and trainees into a job in the construction sector, where they are
desperately needed. We are talking about in-demand skills here; we are talking
about plumbing, carpentry, electrical and gas-fitting skills. Today, we
announced an additional 150 building and construction apprentice places. They
will be made available immediately. This involves a $21.5 million expansion to
the current program. All up, it will be an $87.8 million program. Our GTO wage
subsidy provides around $135 000 for a full year apprenticeship, which is the
average estimated award wage of apprentices in building and construction. We are doing everything we can to build more
houses across WA and we are doing all we can to create quality jobs for Western
Australians. We understand that one of the key constraints around the housing
construction industry at the moment is the availability of workers. This is an
important opportunity to directly inject workers into that industry so that we
can get more homes built here in WA.
Our commitment to jobs is second to
none. We have had a record investment in infrastructure. We have invested in
training and TAFE, providing free TAFE courses for more than 40 000 Western Australians.
We have brought local manufacturing back to Western Australia. We are
diversifying the economy and investing in the future. The latest job figures
again demonstrate our success. I do not know whether members have seen them,
but they are off the chart! Data released today shows that Western Australia's
unemployment rate fell to 3.6 per cent, below the national average of 3.7 per cent.
I remind all members that when we came to government, unemployment was 6.5 per cent,
among the highest in the nation. Employment
in WA grew by a massive 1.7 per cent last month. That is more than 26 000 jobs
in a single month, and it is the best result of all the states. It is
our strongest growth in employment in almost three years. I might add that 73 000
jobs have been added to the WA economy since June last year. That is an
extraordinary vote of confidence by businesses in Western Australia, people
voting with their feet, coming to WA to take up the huge opportunities of a job
in Western Australia.
In
another record, for the first time WA's total employment exceeded 1.6 million.
Our policies are working . We are
making the investments that are needed to keep growing Western Australian jobs,
providing young people with the skills they need for the jobs of not
only today, but also the future. I congratulate the Minister for Training and
Workforce Development. She and her team are doing a great job supporting young
people getting great Western Australian jobs, which is our government's
number one priority.
I thank the member for the question. It is a very important one, because Western
Australian jobs are our highest priority as a government. We want to keep our
economy moving. We want Western Australia to be the strongest state in
Australia. This morning, I was with the Minister for Training and Workforce
Development, Simone McGurk, and we visited the Construction Futures Centre in
the member for Belmont's electorate.
There we met some of the apprentices who will help build many of the homes we
need in Western Australia. Those apprentices—Ava, Marcus and
Noah—are all working on residential projects in Perth. In fact, Marcus
and Ava were on site this morning and came off to spend some time with us. Each
of them is benefiting from the WA Labor government's group training
wage subsidy initiative. This is a really important initiative that subsidises
group training organisations to bring more apprentices on, so that they can
continue to feed the workforce that we need for our residential construction
industry. We introduced this program early last year to help small to
medium-sized businesses employ aspiring tradies. This has helped to get 300
apprentices and trainees into a job in the construction sector, where they are
desperately needed. We are talking about in-demand skills here; we are talking
about plumbing, carpentry, electrical and gas-fitting skills. Today, we
announced an additional 150 building and construction apprentice places. They
will be made available immediately. This involves a $21.5 million expansion to
the current program. All up, it will be an $87.8 million program. Our GTO wage
subsidy provides around $135 000 for a full year apprenticeship, which is the
average estimated award wage of apprentices in building and construction. We are doing everything we can to build more
houses across WA and we are doing all we can to create quality jobs for Western
Australians. We understand that one of the key constraints around the housing
construction industry at the moment is the availability of workers. This is an
important opportunity to directly inject workers into that industry so that we
can get more homes built here in WA.
Our commitment to jobs is second to
none. We have had a record investment in infrastructure. We have invested in
training and TAFE, providing free TAFE courses for more than 40 000 Western Australians.
We have brought local manufacturing back to Western Australia. We are
diversifying the economy and investing in the future. The latest job figures
again demonstrate our success. I do not know whether members have seen them,
but they are off the chart! Data released today shows that Western Australia's
unemployment rate fell to 3.6 per cent, below the national average of 3.7 per cent.
I remind all members that when we came to government, unemployment was 6.5 per cent,
among the highest in the nation. Employment
in WA grew by a massive 1.7 per cent last month. That is more than 26 000 jobs
in a single month, and it is the best result of all the states. It is
our strongest growth in employment in almost three years. I might add that 73 000
jobs have been added to the WA economy since June last year. That is an
extraordinary vote of confidence by businesses in Western Australia, people
voting with their feet, coming to WA to take up the huge opportunities of a job
in Western Australia.
In
another record, for the first time WA's total employment exceeded 1.6 million.
Our policies are working . We are
making the investments that are needed to keep growing Western Australian jobs,
providing young people with the skills they need for the jobs of not
only today, but also the future. I congratulate the Minister for Training and
Workforce Development. She and her team are doing a great job supporting young
people getting great Western Australian jobs, which is our government's
number one priority.
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