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Official data shows 1190 fewer Tasmanians are engaged in apprenticeships or traineeships than when the Federal Coalition took office more than six years ago.
That’s a drop of 12.5 per cent.
Over the same period, the Government has issued more than 500,000 visas to overseas workers to cover the skills shortages created by its cuts to TAFE and training.
Tasmanian employers are crying out for qualified workers.
The skills crisis in engineering, health, trades, technicians and construction is hurting the Tasmanian economy and denying young people a pathway to secure, well-paid jobs.
Nationwide, since the Liberals were elected six years ago, Australia has lost around 150,000 apprenticeships and traineeships.
Scott Morrison has no plan to fix the skills crisis he created.
He has no plan to create more jobs or to lift wages for those who are employed.
Australia is perfectly placed to reap the benefits offered by the extraordinary economic growth in our region.
But to take full advantage of this growth we must train Australians so they have the skills and qualifications to exploit the looming opportunities in manufacturing and construction.

Greens’ Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, responded today to the release of the Mid-Year Economic Forecast and Outlook (MYEFO).
“Today’s MYEFO has confirmed that Scott Morrison is not interested in governing.
“In the face of unheralded economic conditions and a climate emergency, the government is running idle.
“Interest rates are at record lows. Wages, productivity and spending are all in a slump. The enormity of the climate crisis is dawning on the nation.
“So what does the government offer up? A hope that house prices will return to their record highs.
“Property speculation, not productive investment: that’s the mantra of the Property Council PM.
“The bringing forward of $4.2 billion in infrastructure spending is scraps off the edge of the table. Non-defence capital spending is still in decline over the forwards estimates. And the government is still paying down debt when what we actually need is government to invest in job creating infrastructure.
“This government wants households to take on more debt while it takes on less debt.
“This economic pigheadedness is distorting the whole economy, making housing less affordable, and leaving us more exposed to the climate emergency.
“The Greens have put together 5-point stimulus plan to kick-start the economy and to act on the existential crisis that is climate change.
The Greens Stimulus Package would:

1. Accelerate and expand the pipeline of green infrastructure investment in electricity generation, transmission and storage, energy efficient public housing and public transport.
2. Create thousands of jobs to protect and restore Australia’s flora, fauna, land and sea.
3. Remove the Commonwealth public sector wage cap and commit to lifting wages by 4% per annum.
4. Immediately increase Newstart and Youth Allowance payments by at least $75 a week.
5. Unleash private sector wage growth by legislating to reverse the cuts to penalty rates and peg the minimum wage to 60% of the median full-time wage.

Australian Greens Disability Rights & Services spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said the vast majority of the government’s reduced budget surplus of $5.1 billion – announced today in the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook – was coming from a structural underspend in the NDIS.
“This is a government who is boasting about balancing their books on the backs of disabled people and our families,” Steele-John said today.
“A structural underspend to the tune of $4.6 billion in the NDIS means there is money that was allocated to disabled people in their plans that they haven’t been able to spend because this Liberal government has so disastrously mishandled the roll-out of the scheme over the last 7 years.
“The reality of the last 25 years of economic growth in Australia is that we’ve seen a massive concentration of wealth in the hands of a very small group of people that has lead to slower economic growth, and an explosion in social inequality.
“It’s time for us to move past the idea that a credit rating is the best measure, or even a good measure, of how well our society is functioning and start aligning what we prioritise in the budget with the values that our community holds, like caring for people and protecting the planet.”

Australian Greens Senator and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has released figures showing that The Gardens outside Newcastle is the deadliest track in New South Wales. The second deadliest tracks were Gosford, Nowra and Lismore with six deaths each. Wagga Wagga was the most likely for a dog to die, with one in five race meets resulting in a dead greyhound.
Across all tracks in New South Wales, stewards reports reveal that throughout 2019, 63 dogs died on track and 2,530 dogs were injured in greyhound racing. The most common reason dogs were put down was a fractured hock, which in most cases should not require euthanasia. Dogs are being killed because they are no longer profitable, showing that the industry hasn’t changed.
Senator Faruqi said:
“2019 has been another brutal year in greyhound racing, with dogs dying across the state. Across NSW at least one dog has been killed and 48 injured on track each week, but the Newcastle track is the deadliest with 8 dogs dying for the sake of a bet this year.
“Greyhound racing can never be made safe for animals. We know that only half of dogs make it out of racing alive. Drugging and doping of dogs continues. The original reasons for the ban are still very much present. We must reinstate the ban on this so called sport once and for all.
“$41 million in taxpayer money has been sunk into greyhound racing and gambling industry since the Liberal’s backflip and dogs are still breaking their necks, spines and legs for the sake of a bet. I’m dismayed that taxpayers are propping up this bloodsport. At the very least, we cannot allow public money to subsidise the gambling and racing industry.
“This is the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds more dogs are killed each year off track with the Government’s annual report showing that in 2018-2019, 538 dogs died off the track from injuries or because they are considered ‘unsuitable for rehoming’, which is the latest industry euphemism for disposable dogs. We know 40% of dogs still leave racing in a body bag.
“Forcing dogs to run and putting them at risk of death and injury for human entertainment and gambling is unacceptable.
“We also know that many of these dogs die after suffering entirely treatable injuries, such as a fractured hock. The owners simply don’t want to pay vet costs once a dog no longer turns a profit which is appalling. These dogs are quite literally running for their lives.” she concluded.
Tracks, Deaths and Injuries (according to Stewards Reports)

Track	Deaths	Injuries	Race meets	Deaths/Meet	Injuries/Meet
Bathurst	2	118	49	0.04	2.41
Broken Hill	0	1	3	0.00	0.33
Bulli	1	113	45	0.02	2.51
Casino	2	122	50	0.04	2.44
Coonabarabran	0	1	1	0.00	1.00
Coonamble	0	3	1	0.00	3.00
Dapto	2	118	47	0.04	2.51
Dubbo	4	117	37	0.11	3.16
Gosford	6	141	46	0.13	3.07
Goulburn	4	271	76	0.05	3.57
Grafton	2	150	49	0.04	3.06
Gunnedah	3	50	23	0.13	2.17
Kempsey	0	1	1	0.00	1.00
Lismore	6	103	41	0.15	2.51
Maitland	2	93	46	0.04	2.02
Morree	1	1	1	1.00	1.00
Muswellbrook	0	4	2	0.00	2.00
Nowra	6	134	46	0.13	2.91
Potts Park	1	8	2	0.50	4.00
Richmond	4	292	99	0.04	2.95
Tamworth	1	1	1	1.00	1.00
Taree	0	3	1	0.00	3.00
Temora	0	8	5	0.00	1.60
The Gardens	8	250	99	0.08	2.53
Wagga Wagga	5	84	25	0.20	3.36
Wauchope	0	3	2	0.00	1.50
Wentworth Park	3	338	101	0.03	3.35
Young	0	2	1	0.00	2.00
Grand Total	63	2530

Manufacturing jobs are the heart of regional Queensland. There is no better example than the aluminium industry, which directly employs 3,000 hardworking, highly skilled Australians in good regional jobs. Almost 900 of those jobs are in Gladstone at the Boyne Island smelter.
Australia has a long and proud history as an aluminium producer and I want to see the aluminium industry grow, not shipped offshore because of the energy policy mess created by Scott Morrison.
Australia is the world’s largest producer of bauxite and a substantial producer of alumina. We have been producing aluminium for well over 50 years, but Australia now only has four aluminium smelters left. These smelters are crucial employers in regional centres and produce a strategically and economically vital metal.
Aluminium isn’t just another industry, It’s strategically important in sectors like construction and transport.
Through their inability to deliver a national energy policy, the Liberal National Government has placed the future of Australia’s aluminium industry at risk.
Since the Government’s energy crisis began in 2015, wholesale electricity prices have increased by 158 per cent. In the months since the embattled Energy Minister Angus Taylor took office, wholesale prices have risen by 20 per cent.
Rio Tinto, which has a stake in three out of four Australian smelters, has said Australian energy costs “are very, very high by any kind of global standard”, and as a result, “the current situation is not sustainable.”
Producers have been warning for years that the price and reliability of our energy system isn’t good enough to sustain a local industry able to compete internationally. Boyne Island has previously had to cut staff and production during periods when power prices have become unsustainably high. There continues to be a risk of plant closures.
Internationally, it is clear that the future of the industry is in low carbon aluminium, supported by renewable power, a future the Liberal Nationals are dead against.
The future of the aluminium sector is threatened by the LNP’s big headed refusal to accept a future driven by new technologies and new opportunities.
Its strength, durability, flexibility, corrosion resistance and the fact it is 100 percent recyclable, makes aluminium the perfect metal to support not only the industrial economies of the last century, but the clean energy economies of the future.
Labor is calling for the Government to finally get its act together, deliver a national energy policy that supports new investment in clean affordable, reliable energy, and support a crucial sector that their incompetence has put at risk.
They need to do this urgently, before we see any of our four aluminium smelters close.  If there are any further closures in this important industry, the blame will lie with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor.