Just $55m in new funds as apprentice incentive scheme rebadged

Employers will get $8000 to take on apprentices under a rebadge­d $525m skills package that contains just $55m in new spending.

Skills and Vocational Education Minister Michaelia Cash said the package would ensure the vocational education and training sector was accessible, high-quality and responsive to industry needs. Picture: Kym Smith

Individual employers will receive an $8000 incentive payment to take on apprentices under a rebadge­d $525 million skills package that contains just $55m in new spending on skills over five years.

Josh Frydenberg used his budget speech to “announce” the package that promises to create an extra 80,000 apprenticeships in industries with skills shortages by doubling incentive payments to employers and promising a $2000 payment to apprentices.

But departmental officials revealed­­ just 10.5 per cent of the $525m was new funding, with $463m in skills funding promised to Victoria and Queensland and $7.74m in scholarship funding not used by South Australia being redirected­.

Bakers, bricklayers, carpenters and plumbers are the occupations nominated by the government as eligible for the expanded apprenticeship incentives, with the list to be reviewed annually to try to capture emerging skills shortages.

The package, which the government said responded to the Joyce review into vocational education and training, includes $156m for incentives and $4m for a new National Skills Commission that will be charged with developing efficient pricing for training.

The government has promised $36.3m over four years for a National­ Careers Institute and a National Careers Ambassador, and a further $52m to upskill 11,000 “at risk” workers with low-level language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills.

It has allocated $67.5m over five years to set up 10 industry training hubs supporting school-based vocational education in regions­ with high youth un­employ­ment.

Skills and Vocational Education Minister Michaelia Cash said the package would ensure the vocational education and training sector was accessible, high-quality and responsive to industry needs.

The government will spend $24m to encourage more people to take up seasonal work by expanding Harvest Labour Services to an additional five horticultural regions­ experiencing significant labour shortages.

Providers will receive new finan­cial incentives to place job seekers in seasonal work, with the government arguing that the scheme helps them gain work experience and “increase their competitiveness” in the labour market.

In a bid to neutralise Labor on aspects of workplace relations policy, the government has promised additional funding in areas where the ALP and the union movement have campaigned heavily.

Just more than $9m will be provided­ over four years to set up a dedicated sham-contracting unit within the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The government says the unit will seek to more effectively tackle sham contracting by increasing­ compliance, education and enforcement activity, with extra resources to investigate and litigate cases.

Almost $27m will be spent over four years on establishing a national­ labour hire registration scheme and giving extra resources to the ombudsman to investigate worker underpayments.

Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said the national labour hire registration scheme would ensure compliance and transparency in the labour industr­y in high-risk sectors.

The cost of administering the scheme will be recovered from the registered labour hire operators through annual fees and charges.

Ms O’Dwyer insisted that the gov­ernment­ had “no tolerance for ­exploitation in Australian ­workplaces­ and is continuing to take action­ to protect vulnerable workers”. The budget papers show that the government will provide $4.3m over four years to finance new appointments made by Ms O’Dwyer to the Fair Work Commission last year.

The appointments were critic­ised by the ALP and unions, who accused the Coalition of trying to stack the tribunal with business-friendly appointments ahead of the federal election.

The government has allocated $249.8m over five years for its new employment services model, with a trial to start in South Australia and NSW from July 1.