Matters of Interest: National Tradies Health Month
The Hon. H.J. GUMBYS (15:47): I rise today to speak about something close to my heart: the importance of well paid, meaningful and skilled jobs, and the people who do them. Additionally to my learned colleague across the aisle, I will be reminding everyone that it is also Tradies National Health Month, and we will also be celebrating National Skills Week at the same time. Those two occasions belong together, because if we want a strong, skilled workforce, we also have to look after the workers behind those skills.
Tradies are very good at getting on with the job but, as a general rule, they do not always talk about personal issues face to face. It has been my experience that they talk about them shoulder to shoulder. The physical demands of trade work are significant. New research released by the Australian Physiotherapy Association for Trade National Health Month this year found that nearly three in four tradies (74 per cent) experienced physical pain or discomfort as a result of their work at least weekly, yet only 10 per cent regularly see a physiotherapist to help prevent work-related pain or injury. That should concern all of us.
Pain does not simply affect someone while they are on the tools. It follows them home and it can stop them playing with their kids, participating in sport, sleeping properly or simply enjoying their life. Physical health and mental health cannot be separated. That is why early identification, injury prevention and early intervention matters. We need workplaces where seeking help is seen as sensible, where workers know what professional supports are available, and where physical and mental health are treated as fundamental parts of workplace safety.
I am encouraged that attitudes are changing, particularly among young workers and apprentices. Looking after your health is increasingly being taught alongside looking after your tools, your workmates and your workplace. The way we train these young workers is changing too.
This year's National Skills Week has the theme 'life changing', and I think that describes the value of vocational education perfectly. Apprenticeships create a visible pathway for a young person into a well-paid, meaningful career. They allow people to earn while they learn, develop practical, real world skills and come away with a nationally recognised qualification without a HECS debt hanging over their head.
Well-paid, meaningful jobs are transformative. They give people independence and purpose. They allow people to build families, strengthen communities and contribute to the industries on which our state and our nation depend. They are nation-building jobs. But creating those skilled jobs is only part of the equation. We also need to make sure the people who enter those trades are able to stay in them.
The same 2026 Australian Physiotherapy Association research found that more than half of tradies surveyed—52 per cent, to be exact—lack confidence that they will be able to continue working in their trade until retirement age, with ongoing physical strain, the risk of injury, and general wear and tear among their major concerns. That makes looking after the health of our skilled workforce not only a health issue but a skills and workforce issue as well. You can have all the plans, projects and investment in the world, but without people with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver them, those plans remain exactly that: just plans. That is why the Malinauskas Labor government's investment in technical colleges is so important.
South Australia's technical colleges link students directly with employers and industries where skilled workers are needed. Students can complete their SACE while undertaking vocational training, workplace experience and, in some programs, begin an apprenticeship while still at school. More than 1,000 students are now enrolled across the state's technical colleges. Importantly, those opportunities are not confined to metropolitan Adelaide.
Regional technical colleges at Port Augusta and the Limestone Coast provide training designed around the needs of their regions, with short stay accommodation available so regional students can undertake blocks of training without having to travel enormous distances every day. That is what a genuine pathway looks like: school, training, apprenticeship and then a career. That pathway is strongest when government, industry and unions work together.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union understands better than most that skills policy is also a jobs policy. The AMWU represents the people who build, manufacture, maintain and repair the things our economy depends upon. It continues to fight for apprenticeships, local manufacturing and secure, properly paid, skilled jobs, because the objective should never be training for training's sake. It should be training connected to real work: apprenticeships connected directly to industry and young people able to see from the very beginning that there is a secure career waiting for them at the other end. That is what our technical college model is designed to achieve: employer partnerships that do not simply teach a young person a skill but create a pathway into a career.
Where we invest in skills, we protect the health of our tradies. When government, industry and unions work together to create secure pathways into good jobs, we are investing in people. When we invest in people, we build a stronger South Australia. I commend Tradies National Health Month and National Skills Week to the chamber.