Millions pledged for SA construction apprentices
Liberal and Labor are pledging millions of dollars to expand a vital construction program, one claiming SA building sites are relying on Victorians to fill gaps. While a shark attack victim shares his apprenticeship story.
Both a Malinaukas Labor and a Hurn Liberal government would double funding to the Master Builders Association’s (MBA) Born to Build program if elected at the state election this month.
Speaking at the MBA’s Top 100 Business Luncheon at Adelaide Convention Centre, Premier Peter Malinauskas and Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn vowed to inject an extra $2 million into the construction apprentice program.
SA Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn said that with major projects such as AUKUS, the North-South Corridor and the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital, “we are facing one of the most complex construction pipelines that we’ve faced in modern history”.
She said South Australia was currently facing a skills shortage, with construction projects relying on short-term labour from Victoria.
“It’s a real constraint that people are experiencing right now, and it is affecting construction timelines and project feasibility and business confidence across a whole host of different sectors,” she said.
As a solution, Hurn pointed towards SA Liberal policies such as an $80 million payroll tax exemption for businesses taking on a trainee and a $10,000 cash bonus for mature-aged apprentices.
You might like
A priority of a Hurn Liberal government would be cutting red tape and taxes for businesses, with Hurn saying the private sector was best placed to address the housing crisis.
“The government’s job is to make the road straight and then get the hell out of your way,” she said.
“That’s our view, and I suppose that’s a pretty profound difference between how we – being the Liberals – see the housing market and how Labor is approaching it.”
Hurn said another “elephant in the room” was the impact of militant unions, saying “we want to avoid seeing the CFMEU’s chaos coming to South Australia”.
Malinauskas said that the recent announcement of a $30 billion AUKUS submarine yard at Osborne and the shift by BHP to copper presented a “herculean opportunity” and “a line in the sand for the state”.
South Australia has about 69 per cent of Australia’s copper reserves.
Stay informed, daily
“Your kids are going to have more new wealth going into their economy than at any other point in our living memory,” he said.
However, Malinauskas warned that without the skills and a large enough population – including homes for the workforce – this would not be possible.
He pointed towards Labor’s promise to build new technical colleges as a solution to the skills shortage, adding that, to maintain SA’s high standard of living, we would need to build “a lot more homes”.
Malinauskas said SA’s population would need to grow by 20,000 people per year, as well as bringing in 2,000 skilled workers.
He said this is where the construction industry comes in, with the state requiring 13,500 new homes every year.
“You will not get other political parties being so genuine about this because it’s seen as a source of unpopularity, but here’s the truth: unless you are a political leader that’s willing to stand up and say, ‘I don’t want more high-paying jobs for our state’, then this is happening,” he said.
Attendees also heard from shark attack survivor Chris Blowes, who credited the Born to Build program helped him become a carpenter again after his horrific injury.
Blowes was attacked by a five-metre-long great white shark while surfing at Fishery Bay on Anzac Day in 2015, losing his left leg and requiring emergency CPR, blood transfusions and surgery to survive.
“It only seems like yesterday that I was lying in an induced coma surrounded by my family. On that night, my family received the worst possible news – that I had a 10 per cent chance of surviving that night and a zero per cent chance of waking up with no brain damage,” he said.
“Losing a limb is something you never think can happen to you, but what I’ve learnt from the whole experience is that life can throw all kinds of challenges at you, and when you least expect it, but there can be so much to gain, and we can come out from the other side.”
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
