Federal Election 2022: Skills & Jobs priorities

Ten days until the Federal election and there is still every reason to think it is going to be tight. Right now we are sitting on some extraordinarily low unemployment figures – which in of itself is great.

But – as an industry – we need the Government to be invested in helping us fill a gaping skills shortage.

In our 2022 Federal Election Policy Roadmap, HVIA has identified a range of policy issues that are crucial to the heavy vehicle industry and, by extension, affect every Australian.

The issues all fall under the theme “a strong heavy vehicle industry – vital for a resilient Australia.”

They address skills shortages, support for Australian manufacturing and productivity, safety and sustainability.

Between the COVID pandemic and the many other challenges over the last couple of years, Australians have faced the consequences of supply chain issues that have also highlighted the workforce challenges our industry faces, particularly in terms of key skills.

In the short term we need to address these challenges by streamlining the processes for bringing in skilled workers from overseas, but concurrently in view of the longer term, we need to attract younger Australians into the rewarding careers our industry has to offer.

This is what we have asked for in HVIA’s 2022 Federal election policy roadmap:

HVIA has called for streamlined processes for bringing in skilled migrants to address critical skill shortages in the heavy vehicle industry. That can be achieved by slashing red tape and reducing the costs of bringing skilled migrants into Australia.

We asked for heavy vehicle trade priorities to be recognised in the new Apprenticeship Incentive System by adding heavy vehicle manufacturing trades and heavy vehicle service and repair trades to the Australian Apprenticeship Priority List.

We have asked the Government to facilitate skills development to support all aspects of battery and fuel cell electric heavy vehicle deployments, maintenance and repair by placing courses and skillsets related to the Cert 3 in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology on the subsidy list for priority skills and developing a corresponding set of courses to cover skills related to Hydrogen Fuel cell technologies.

We have also asked that the next Government provide funding for capital investment by RTO’s to support the delivery of electric and hybrid heavy vehicle training.

These are our skills and jobs policies. See HVIA’s full 2022 election policy roadmap here.