Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Pete Stefanovic – Sky News Australia

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP – SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH PETE STEFANOVIC – SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA

Friday 24 January, 2025

TOPICS: Apprentice incentive payments

E&OE

Pete Stefanovic: The Federal Government will offer apprentices $10,000 to stay in the residential construction sector. Apprentices will be offered $2,000 every six months until they complete their trade. The $620 million initiative to be formally announced when Anthony Albanese addresses the National Press Club later on today. That’ll be live on Sky. That will aim to reduce the number of tradies who are leaving their training. The cash splash aims to keep workers on the job to fulfill Labor’s pledge of building 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade.

Richard Marles GRAB: When you provide incentives of these kinds, young Australians are taking them up with both hands and this $10,000 incentive for people to take up trades in the construction industry is what we need to see happen in order to get the workforce to build those 1.2 million homes. And it’s a great industry and high paid jobs in it.

Pete Stefanovic: The Coalition says it supports the pledge, but claims the initiative has come too little, too late.

Matt Canavan GRAB: This Government didn’t continue the Coalition Government’s job training scheme, which helps subsidise the wages for tradies that was worth $15,000. So this $10,000 payment seems a pale imitation of what the Coalition already had in place. But look, we’ll look at the details of this. We’re not going to stand in the way of support to get more apprentices, but it’s a shame we haven’t had that support for the whole life of this government.

Pete Stefanovic: So that’s the Nationals side of things. Let’s go to the Liberals now. Joining us live is the Shadow Housing Minister, Michael Sukkar. Michael, thanks for your time as always. So let’s start with that. So the $10,000, it’s going to be spaced out over three years. You got $4,000, $4,000, and then $2,000 to complete the third year. What are your overall thoughts on it so far?

Michael Sukkar: Well, I think not usually for this government, they’ve closed the gate after the horse has bolted, we’ve lost 80,000 apprentices and trainees since this government came to power. As Matt Canavan was just saying in that clip, they removed previous support that the Coalition had in place that was successfully encouraging people to take up apprenticeships and now we’ve seen housing starts absolutely fall through the floor, housing affordability getting worse than it’s ever been, fewer homes being built now than were built under the former coalition government. And why does it take an election for Anthony Albanese to admit they got it wrong when they when they changed those rules? And I mean, obviously apprentices have been smashed in Albanese’s cost of living crisis. So this is, in a sense, a dollar short and a day late. But finally they’ve seen sense that the idiotic decision that they took early on to remove support for apprentices.

Pete Stefanovic: Yeah look just a point on on the take up because there’s some conjecture around that, wasn’t your program nixed because of slow take up. Just elaborate on that point was it successful or not?

Michael Sukkar: Well look, as the Shadow Housing Minister and the former Housing Minister, I can tell you any approach that increased the numbers of apprentices entering the residential construction industry I saw as a great success because for many years we had seen it get more difficult for employers in particular to take on young apprentices. Then we saw completion rates of apprentices getting worse, which is why we acted and it was definitely moving in the right direction. So why on earth Labor would make that decision at the start of their term and now belatedly admit that they got it wrong? I suppose it’s better late than never, but sadly we’ve lost 80,000 apprentices and trainees in that time, so there’s been a huge cost to Australians through that just by the Albanese Government. So look, we think we can support this because in a sense it’s taking us back partly to a position that the Coalition…

Pete Stefanovic: … Alright so, so just on that final point there that you make, so you’d support it.

Michael Sukkar: Yeah, we think we can support this. I mean in the end apprentices have been smashed under Anthony Albanese. The building industry has been smashed. We’ve seen more administrations and liquidations in the building industry than we’ve seen in a lifetime. We’ve got fewer homes being built, we’ve got fewer first home buyers, we’ve got less houses being approved and labor talking about the 1.2 million homes promise, it’s an outrage that they still even talk about that – they’re hardly going to reach 800,000. They’re not going to miss by a smidge. They’re going to miss by 400,000 homes. Why? Because they have no idea how to build homes. And that’s why they’re building record low levels of homes.

Pete Stefanovic: So do you think this will work? Yeah, you do say that. And and the master builders reckon it’s. Yep, 350,000, close to 400,000 that they’re going to be short. So what do you do to to make up that shortfall? Will this help?

Michael Sukkar: Well, I think the proof will be in the pudding. In the end, anything that can retain apprentices and encourage potentially new people to enter the industry is a good thing. But I think sadly at the moment, as I travel around the country, there are many people currently in the industry who, particularly under this government, are finding it harder and harder to keep their business afloat to start with and before you have an apprentice, you’ve got to actually have a business or an employer who is willing to employ them and it’s never been harder in the industry. The government has not put in place one measure that has built one home in this country in two and a half years. They’re running on the fumes of the former government, but that’s running out. And that’s why, again, 400,000 homes short. We’re not making a promise and missing it by a little bit. In which case you say, well, good on you for trying. They’re going to miss by 400,000 homes to put that into some context, in the last five years of the coalition government, we did build more than a million homes. Now it’s going down to 800,000. And whilst is going down to 800,000, Anthony Albanese is running a world record migration program with no idea where more than a million migrants are going to live. You can understand why the industry in many respects is in turmoil and why less houses are being built. So this is very belated and small, but given apprentices are being smashed by this government, it’s better than nothing.

Pete Stefanovic: Okay, we’ll leave it there. Michael, thanks for your time.

ENDS