The recent Commonwealth Economic and Fiscal Update showed the grim reality of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s finances to support the health system and to sustain households and businesses. The long-term economic outlook is for record deficits, high unemployment and struggling enterprises. However, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, provided a positive perspective on recovery, stating that Australia’s economy had passed its low point but faces a ‘bumpy path ahead’ with the Federal Government best placed to support the recovery.

Feedback from affected members is that economic recovery is evident with some businesses rehiring and lifting hours to meet the gradual upturn in business. The value of the Federal Government’s economic stimulus measures has proved to be vital in sustaining businesses. As indicated in the Association’s COVID-19 Automotive Industry Survey and Report, 83 per cent of businesses applied for some form of government support including JobKeeper and Apprentice Wage Subsidies.

We have been proactive in our advocacy to influence the extension of JobKeeper and welcome and support the Federal Government’s renewed and restructured income support measures for those businesses meeting the assistance criteria. At a brittle time in the economic recovery, the Government’s decision gives confidence to those businesses that are still heavily impacted by COVID-19. It recognises too, that there are many uncertainties associated with the pandemic and the effect on industry, including automotive, that may increase with time. Some businesses are yet to be affected and will require support due to global supply chain implications yet to be felt – a matter I raised with the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Senator Michaela Cash and Federal Government officers.

The Government’s response to addressing the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 is valued, but the automotive value chain recognises that this support is finite. As business conditions improve, the innovative thinking of automotive businesses that has driven them successfully for more than a century will ensure a strong return and contribution to the nation’s economy. For Queensland alone, the automotive value chain (pre COVID-19) employed approximately 90,000 people and generated in excess of $21 billion annually. Going forward, the balance must be for the government’s policy settings to be responsive to the needs of industry and for automotive businesses to respond with entrepreneurialism and innovations that advantage the economy.

Skill Development and the Workforce

Fundamental to the economic recovery are the skills and the workforce needed by industry to restore the productivity, job security and employment lost due to the need to follow COVID-19 restrictions. MTA Queensland is conscious that as the largest independent provider of automotive apprenticeships and training in the State, its role is to deliver the skills needed by industry and to be influential advocates in the development of skills policies. Feedback from members indicate that skilling and workforce issues remain critical to the future of the industry and that there has been very little, if any, decline in demand. The Federal Government’s JobTrainer package will form a vital part to ensuring businesses are able to get the skilled workers needed and meet future demand.

MTA Queensland is the automotive ‘Industry Skills Advisor’ for the Queensland Department of Employment, Small Business and Training. In that advisory role, we have engaged with stakeholders and provided the state government with priorities for investment for the 2020-21 Vocational Education Training (VET) Budget. Abundantly clear is that the requirement of skill sets has been amplified with COVID-19 and the acceleration of the technological advancements within the industry. There is evidence the workforce is looking at skills sets as a means of keeping up with current and emerging technology such as Hydrogen-powered vehicles, advanced driver assist systems, and automated vehicles. Others, however, are looking to complete skill sets to pivot into new automotive sectors. These may include a light vehicle mechanic wanting to gain skills and knowledge in the heavy vehicle road transport sector as a result of the high demand on freight movement throughout the nation generated by online shopping and contactless trading.

Recently, I signed off on our submission to the Productivity Commission’s National Agreement for Skills Workforce Development Review discussion paper which included views on the shortage of qualified persons available to meet mandatory supervisory requirements. This is a critical issue for regional apprentices and businesses as in Queensland, Australian apprenticeships are required to be supervised by a suitable qualified person. MTA Queensland’s training regimen includes investment in trainers that are geographically dispersed in major regional centres and its apprentices include those in the employ of de-centralised and regional automotive businesses. Included in the proposed VET training package is additional funding for a Trade Skills Assessment and Gap Training Program which would support eligible tradespeople to have their trade experience recognised, enabling them to act as qualified supervisors for apprentices.

In numerous stakeholder forums and in submissions to state and federal agencies, we have advocated for enhancements to VET career information and advice provided to school students as a pathway to a fulfilling vocation other than by university. Consistently, we have advocated for a paradigm shift towards a secondary school student having pre-requisite knowledge of science, technology, English and mathematics to enter the trades, equivalent to that required for an undergraduate qualification. With this in mind, I took a keen interest in the review of senior secondary pathway into work, further education and training led by an expert panel chaired by Professor Shergold AC. The review considered the design of an education system that prepares young people for their future, including employability. It sets out findings and key recommendations in relation to the VET sector and how senior secondary students can be better supported to choose a pathway into work, further education and/or training.

The report’s VET recommendations align with our advocacies but more has to be done, as stated in the report, to ensure ‘all students. . . should be supported to undertake career education and work exploration at school, through workplace learning, work skills courses, and/or undertaking applied subjects such as design and technology’. In stakeholder forums and submissions, we will continue our advocacies to achieve this outcome. MTA Queensland recognises that the Federal Government’s new JobTrainer package provides up to an additional 340,700 training places to help school leavers and job seekers access short and long courses to develop news skills in growth sectors and create a pathway to more qualifications.

And the Last Thing

As industry transits through the economic recovery phase, we will continue to actively listen to the industry concerns and drive the necessary change through advocacy to government. Governments at all levels seek our input and it is the members’ views we articulate. We are preparing a supplementary submission to the Federal Budget to be handed on 6 October 2020 in Parliament that will reflect the automotive value chain’s requirements during and beyond the economic recovery phase.

With the state election due in less than 90 days, I’ll be submitting state election policy initiatives to the leaders of the major Queensland political parties.

Until next month, as Henry Ford, the industrialist and the founder of the Ford motor company said, ‘execute ideas with enthusiasm . . . as it is the bottom of all progress’.

11 August 2020