JOBS — LNG
PROJECTS
698. Hon ROBIN SCOTT to the minister
representing the Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade:
(1) Has the Minister for State Development, Jobs
and Trade taken note of a report on page 1 of The West Australian of
Tuesday, 28 August 2018, which commences with ''WA is on the cusp of a $9
billion-a-year jobs bonanza servicing Australia's vast LNG
projects as an alliance of energy giants bids to make Perth the southern
hemisphere's version of Aberdeen, Doha and Houston''?
(2) Can the
minister confirm that Western Australia's Agent General in London has
been instructed to persuade multinational engineering companies to make Perth
their southern headquarters?
(3) What is the
government doing to ensure that these LNG jobs, instead of going to imported
foreign workers, will be filled by Western Australians who are trained and
prepared with the right skills?
(4) Will the government urgently
subsidise apprenticeships?
(5) Will the government restore the
payroll tax exemption for traineeships and apprenticeships?
(6) Instead of
trying to boost the population of Perth, will the government take the wiser
course of encouraging major international companies to establish their southern
headquarters in Broome, Port Hedland or Karratha?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
The following information has been provided by the Minister for State Development,
Jobs and Trade.
(1)–(2) Yes.
(3) I draw the
member's attention to an array of policies this government has put in
place to put Western Australian jobs first, whether it is the Western Australian
Jobs Act or reducing the WA skilled migration list from 178 occupations in 2016
to 18 positions in 2017.
(4) The state
government guarantees to subsidise all apprentices and new worker trainees. In
2017, the state government provided approximately $100 million to support
training for apprentices and trainees. In addition, the state government
provides travel allowance and accommodation of approximately $2.3 million per
annum for apprentices to undertake off-the-job training. The state government
also provides around $3 million per annum in incentives for group training
organisations taking on apprentices and trainees.
(5) I assume the
member is referring to the measures in the Payroll Tax Assessment Amendment
(Exemption for Trainees) Act 2018, which did not affect payroll tax exemptions
for apprentices. This legislation seeks to shut down systemic and widespread
abuse of the payroll tax exemption for trainees perpetrated by a small number
of training companies by limiting the exemption to trainees who are new
employees earning less than $100 000 per annum. Savings realised by this
measure will be used to fund around 43 350 training places over the same
period, partially offsetting the shortfall in funding created by changes to
funding arrangements of the commonwealth government.
(6) The
government expects both metropolitan and regional WA to benefit from this
initiative of the McGowan Labor government.