Page 2091 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 25 October 1989
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continue in existence unless it receives financial support. The ITC has already asked the ACT Government for a grant of $25,000. The ITC has a budget of over $100,000 a year, partly funded by industry contributions. The ITC has identified three courses in the building industry that need to be developed by the Institute of TAFE, namely, plastering, glazing and roof tiling. The Government has estimated the cost of establishing these courses at over $150,000 per year. It is time for the Government to come to grips with this funding problem.
The Federal Minister, John Dawkins, has threatened a payroll levy of 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent for companies with a yearly payroll of more than $200,000 and for this extra revenue to be applied to training. The building and construction industry has special problems in regard to training and a specific scheme such as the one Mr Stefaniak outlined must be introduced to examine needs in the industry and determine funding mechanisms that are appropriate in the ACT.
The Industry Training Council, led by the BWIU, has proposed a levy on building permits as the answer. An amount of $1.5m, representing 0.2 per cent of the value of building commencements, has been proposed. This represents a 40 per cent increase in building fees - fees, no doubt, the public will end up paying for in increased building costs. This is simply unacceptable. The building permit fee in Canberra is already one of the highest in Australia. The amount of form filling that has to be done in Canberra for the simplest of government services is becoming a national joke.
The issue of a redundancy trust fund for the building and construction industry has been raised on a number of occasions in the Assembly, and still the Government is silent on this fund. If the ACT economy is to benefit, then an ACT run scheme which will fund training programs must be introduced.
There is a recognised linkage between redundancy, employment, training, long service, research and restructuring of industry. Building contractors, subcontractors and the overwhelming majority of businesses in the Territory have made it clear that additional costs through taxes, charges and levies cannot be carried by the industry, an industry already at a very low ebb.
The redundancy trust scheme proposed to be administered by the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Leave Board provides a mechanism for handling these issues at the least cost. At the contribution rate of $20 per week per employee, or about 4.5 per cent of wages, the amount currently being dragged out of the Territory by the CERT and MERT interstate redundancy funds, a scheme administered by the Long Service Leave Board should result in a surplus from long service leave of about $250,000 per year.
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