CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY TRAINING FUND

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:45): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about the Construction Industry Training Fund.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) was established under the South Australian Construction Industry Training Fund Act 1993 to implement training programs across all three sectors of the building and construction industry: housing, commercial and civil. The CITB levy, which is a compulsory levy collected by the board, is a quarter of 1 per cent of the estimated value of building and construction projects over the value of $15,000 (including GST) in South Australia. The levy is used primarily to subsidise the training of workers in the building and construction industry—apprentices, typically.

My conversations with a number of leading builders in the industry have indicated to me that many companies are very unhappy with the way that the Construction Industry Training Fund operates and that they would like the option of directly investing in apprentices and alternative training programs; that is, those in the building and construction industry would prefer the option of sending their CITF levies directly into prevocational or group apprenticeship schemes, rather than being forced to direct their training investments to the CITB, which is currently operating as a monopoly in the construction training field and, according to many, is not directing funds where they are needed most. My questions are:

1. Does the minister acknowledge that the trade situation is in fact worse today than it was in 1993, when the CITF was introduced, and that the rate at which the industry is losing skilled tradespeople greatly exceeds the rate at which new entrants are being recruited and trained and therefore that the CITB has actually failed to meet its primary objectives set many years ago?

2. Does the minister acknowledge that the unavailability of trained tradespeople is leading to increased costs and longer times to build, which is directly affecting housing affordability in South Australia?

3. Does the minister accept that those closest to the action—that is, the senior builders themselves—are in fact in the best position to determine what the most pressing training needs are and therefore should be able to decide whether to direct their training levies to the central fund for distribution or directly into entry-level training schemes and apprenticeships themselves?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:47): I would have thought that through the Construction Industry Training Fund those large builders would be able have their point of view put in relation to the direction of the training.

With respect to the honourable member's question about whether I believe the fund has been successful, in the sense of whether there is now still a great shortage of tradespeople, there could be many reasons, including the ageing of the population, the current commonwealth works in construction, the Building the Education Revolution program, and other programs, which of course have significantly increased construction work to offset the impacts of the GFC, so there are a number of factors.

I would not claim to have enough intimate knowledge of the operation of the construction industry to be able to give an opinion on that particular matter, but I will seek the views of those who do and bring back an answer in relation to that matter and to the future of the fund. Again, I will take that part of the question on notice and have discussions with the relevant colleagues in another place as to the future of the fund.