Is this a joke? No, it’s the Labor Government!
Feb 16, 2012
Mark Goldsworthy MP
Shadow Minister for State/Local Government Relations
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs
Is this a joke? No, it’s the Labor Government!
More than 200 plumbing and gas fitting apprentices and more than 200 builders are waiting months for the office of Business and Consumer Services to process their licence applications.
Apprentices are being told they will have approval and their licences when the public servants have the time to get to the applications.
Plumbing apprentices that finished all their training and put applications in during October were then asked to provide more paperwork in mid-November. It took four weeks for someone to check the paperwork. The application was then transferred to a supervisor in mid-December and there it sits!
In the meantime, a plumber is being paid fourth year apprentice rates and not qualified plumber rates, because he is not licensed as a qualified plumber.
Costs to the apprentice? More than $300 a week, every week, since October and for how many more weeks? No-one knows!
It should not take four months for someone to get a licence.
Minister Rau should explain why the ‘service’ is so hopeless.
Is this a joke? No, it’s the Labor Government!