**Check against delivery
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here today to open the Skills DMC National Conference.
In preparation for this event, I looked over the speech my colleague Minister Brendan O'Connor delivered on my behalf last year.
It has been an eventful year, but despite all that has happened over that time, so many of the challenges he raised remain relevant and must still be addressed, namely:
- Securing sufficient skilled workers to meet demand
- 'Upskilling' the workforce as technology and work practices demand increasingly skilled workers.
- The need for ongoing productivity growth.
- Managing our place in the global economy particularly with the continued growth of China and India.
These challenges have survived the global financial crisis, during which time more companies have realised that a productive workforce is an essential corporate asset.
I am pleased to see many resource companies redeploying staff to other operations where possible to help mitigate job losses arising from production cuts, mine closures, and care and maintenance phases.
For example:
- Xstrata Coal in the Hunter Valley redeployed 174 staff from its Xstrata Coal United Collieries Mine to one of its 14 other coal mines in the area.
- Anglo Coal in Queensland for moved 43 staff from the Dawson North mine to other areas of its Dawson operation, and
- More than 120 staff cut from the Rio Tinto Argyle Diamond Mine have been guaranteed a job in Rio Tinto's Iron Ore section if they wish to remain with the company.
These are just some of the companies undertaking staff redeployment.
I welcome their commonsense, and I am sure the workers appreciate the efforts and loyalty of their employers during these difficult times.
Evidence also suggests many companies have reconfigured holiday pay and shifts to reduce hours and the payroll burden of staff without losing staff.
They know good help is hard to find.
As Minister for Tourism, urging staff to take holidays is pleasing - indeed, I launched the No Leave No Life campaign to urge more Australians to take a holiday.
Like I said at the time, it helps individuals get a life and it helps companies reduce the burden of accrued leave.
Australia has not experienced the sort of economic contraction and increased unemployment that have other countries as a result of the global financial crisis.
It appears that we may be less affected than most - if not all - advanced economies.
As we have seen over the past few weeks, the recession appears to be shallower than earlier predictions.
It may well be shallower than expected but it didn't happen that way by accident.
The Australian Government has invested in Australia to ensure that the burden of the recession was minimised for Australian families.
We did this through a number of processes:
- Direct cash stimulus.
- Investment in infrastructure for the short term to support jobs
- Investment in infrastructure for the long term to boost export productivity.
- Finally, we have invested in skills.
These last two points form the Nation Building component of our investment.
We need quality infrastructure and we need a quality workforce.
The Government recognises the importance of a skilled workforce to economic recovery and future prosperity and we are making the necessary investments in these fields.
For that reason the 2009-10 Budget contained a number of employment and training initiatives that will help position Australia for the next upswing in demand.
Under the Skilling Australia for the Future initiative, the Commonwealth has funded the Productivity Places Program over five years to deliver 711,000 training places.
These places will address areas of skills shortage to ensure Australian workers develop the skills they need.
These training places are being delivered in an industry-driven system, ensuring that training is more responsive to the needs of businesses and participants.
This goal fits with the aims of Skills DMC, and the work you will be undertaking with the Government to develop our skills policies into the future.
Of the 711,000 training places, 392,000 will be allocated to existing workers wanting to gain or upgrade their skills, and 319,000 will be allocated to job seekers.
The Government will assist Australians whose job prospects have been adversely affected by the global recession by investing $1.5 billion over five years through a Jobs and Training Compact.
The Government will also provide immediate assistance to Australians who have become unemployed through the $438 million Compact with Retrenched Workers.
The compact will provide $299 million to give retrenched workers immediate and personalised intensive employment assistance through Job Network and the new Job Services Australia.
These training initiatives will help position Australia for the return of economic growth, and minimise the crippling effect of long-term unemployment.
We know from research that the longer someone is unemployed the longer they are likely to remain unemployed - it becomes self accelerating.
Training programs help break the cycle of unemployment.
I urge Australians in the workforce to consider a trade - especially one which could include employment in the mining and energy sectors.
As the past few weeks have shown, despite economic challenges around the world, the global hunger for energy and resources remains.
And will forever remain - the world will always make things and they will need resources and energy to do it.
And Australia will always work to provide the resources the world needs.
If anything, our role will only increase in future years.
You would have heard, for example, that Australia recently signed the largest ever single trade agreement with China.
The deal is worth a staggering $50 billion.
It will see ExxonMobil export 2.25 million tonnes per annual of liquefied natural gas from the Gorgon field.
What you may not have heard is that this is not the only large-scale, long-term deal signed for gas from Gorgon.
Just seven days before the $50 billion deal with PetroChina, ExxonMobil signed a $25 billion agreement with India's Petronet LNG.
This is Australia's first long-term LNG contract with India.
These are not the last long-term agreements you will hear from the Gorgon field.
There will be more because there is a lot of gas to sell ... And there are going to be more iron ore agreements, more uranium sales, more coal contracts and more base metal deals.
The question is, whether we will be prepared.
In the past year I have been telling Australian resource, energy and tourism companies that the success of tomorrow will be built on the investment we make today.
Investment in infrastructure, investment in capability - and investment in people.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you today.