APPRENTICES AND TRAINEES
861. Hon ROBIN SCOTT to the Minister for Education and
Training:
(1) Is the
minister aware of a recent report by the National Centre for Vocational
Education Research to the effect that in Western
Australia the number of trainees and apprentices in training declined by 7.4 per
cent in the year to March 2018?
(2) Is the
minister aware of a statement by the chief executive officer of the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry of Western Australia to the effect that training
commencements for existing workers have declined by 24 per cent following the
government's removal of the trainee exemption for payroll tax?
(3) Is the
minister aware of a statement by Apprenticeship Support Australia that in the
first half of 2018, traineeships for existing workers fell by 44.4 per cent
compared with the first half of 2017?
(4) What is the
current state of negotiations with the federal government in respect of the
Skilling Australians Fund?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The
Department of Training and Workforce Development advises that the National
Centre for Vocational Education Research figure quoted is correct.
(2)–(3) The
government removed the payroll tax exemptions for existing worker trainees—that
is, not apprentices but trainees—effective 1 December 2017, in response
to concerns that many businesses were registering existing staff as trainees
primarily to avoid payroll tax and that the training was not targeted at
meeting skill gaps or future priority training needs for the state. At the same
time, the government was facing a shortfall of $54 million in annual training
funding as a consequence of the commonwealth government ceasing the previous national
partnership on 30 June 2017. To address these issues, the state government has
redirected the savings from the removal of payroll tax exemptions for existing
worker trainees, worth around $96 million, to pay for approximately 43 000
training places across the forward estimates.
The department has advised it cannot
reconcile the figures quoted by Apprenticeship Support Australia that in the
first half of 2018, traineeships for existing workers fell by 44.4 per cent
compared with the first half of 2017.
(4) The state has
been negotiating a new national partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund
for over a year. The commonwealth government's offer presented a number
of risks to the state. Negotiations are continuing in good faith and I am
optimistic that the state can come to a mutually agreeable arrangement in the
near future.