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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3996 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

I think Mr De Domenico is going to speak about the contract today. I would like to hear whether, once the tripartite committee is formed, they will be issued with a new contract. I would like to hear whether that is possible because, if they are the committee governing this skills centre, they should have the contract in their name, not with the MBA. I look forward to hearing from you on that point, Minister.

I went on and questioned the capacity of the industry. I am told that last year MBA Group Training had, at times, a downtime of up to 50 per cent, and I questioned the capacity of the industry to place apprentices employed by the skills centre. Mr De Domenico said:

Your point is a valid one, and it is certainly true that the industry is in a downturn at the moment.

That was a very astute judgment on his part, I must say. He went on:

However, the significance of an on-site skills centre as a mechanism for training apprentices is its ability to overcome just such a problem. In situations where on the job training is difficult to come by, the skills centre allows apprentices the opportunity of carrying on their training in an accredited way. You may be aware that an additional advantage of the skills centre system is that it allows for an accelerated completion of qualifications.

Another advantage of the skills centre approach is that during downturns in the industry, the flexibility inherent in the scheme encourages employers to take on apprentices in the knowledge that this does not necessarily bind them to a long term commitment. As a result, an apprentice may gain their on the job training with several employers over short time periods.

I would like to hear from Mr De Domenico where these employers are who are even prepared to take on these "new" apprentices when the existing schemes are struggling to find tradespeople willing to become involved. I look forward to hearing what you have to say on that, Minister. One of the big worries is whether this skills centre will go to tradespeople and offer them a deal too good to refuse which would force them to lay off their existing apprentices. It is a very worrying potential problem. You cannot say that it will not happen because potentially it could happen. Those 70 new apprentices will just be the ones who have been offloaded by their current employers. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about that.

The next interesting point is one that I am still not comfortable with. Mrs Carnell in her speech said:

If this legislation is passed, $300,000 will come from the long service leave levy fund. The rest, though, will come from the industry - $572,800 from employer reimbursements and $70,000 from the MBA.

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