16 April 2025

 

THE Coalition has pledged to pay employers up to $12,000 for taking on new apprentices in critical occupations, at a cost of over $500 million over four years.

 

Australian Unions argue that support should go directly to apprentices and trainees to tackle low completion rates.

 

The Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System identified that low wages are driving Australians out of starting and completing apprenticeships and traineeships.

 

The Review resulted in the Albanese Government announcing a $10,000 wage bonus for apprentices to work in housing construction and clean energy. The direct cash payments to apprentices aim to encourage higher apprenticeship commencement and completion rates and build a long-term pipeline of skilled workers in critical industries like housing construction.

 

The Coalition’s record when last in government included spending cuts and neglect of Australia’s vocational education sector, resulting in a shortage of skilled workers that some industries are currently experiencing.

 

Commencements, apprentices in training and completions all fell under the Coalition’s last term compared to the previous period - with some figures falling as much as 26 per cent.

 

ACTU Assistant Secretary, Liam O’Brien said: “Australian Unions hear from young tradies across the country that low wages are driving them away from starting and completing an apprenticeship.

 

“If Australia wants more young people to complete apprenticeships, we need to pay them fair wages.

 

“The Coalition’s idea to give $12,000 to bosses is out of step with the real pressures facing apprentices and trainees in Australia.

 

“More apprenticeships are essential to building Australia’s future – but that only happens when you have a plan to lift wages.

 

“This is the same party that gutted vocational education and training and opposed free TAFE. They should not be taken seriously.”

 

To rub even more salt into the employment wound, bosses are arguing that low-paid workers don’t deserve $3.94 a day to spend on lunch.

 

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (ACCI), in its submission to the Annual Wage Review, are arguing that nearly three million award workers should not be paid enough to buy lunch at work.

 

The ACCI submission criticised Fair Work Commission research into the minimum income that award-reliant workers need for “healthy living” – because it included a daily lunch allowance of $3.94 a day.

 

The bosses push to deny low-paid workers enough money to buy their own lunch, which contrasts with Coalition Leader Peter Dutton’s policy to spend at least $1.6 billion in taxpayers’ money each year on free lunches for bosses.

 

ACCI also criticised the research for including $22.10 a week towards saving for an overseas trip to visit family and rental costs of $465 a week – a low-paid benchmark set at about 60 per cent of Sydney median rental costs.

 

ACCI instead said rental amounts should be aligned with rents in lower-priced capital cities, suggesting that low-paid workers should not live in Sydney.

 

The rental benchmark of $465 is already well below the median rent in every other capital city in Australia.

 

The Fair Work Commission’s budget standards show that a single person working full-time on the current minimum wage of $915.90 falls about $236 a week short of the minimum income standards for a healthy living.

 

ACCI have put forward a pay increase of just 2.5 per cent for lower-paid and award-reliant workers, barely matching inflation. Other employer groups have put forward claims that would see minimum wage workers cop a real pay cut of nearly $800 a year.

 

According to analysis by the Australia Institute, if the Fair Work Commission had agreed to ACCI’s pay claims over the past decade, minimum wage workers would be $160 a week worse off now.

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