WA’s peak civil infrastructure industry group says it’s unfair to criticise the WA State Government for the Federal Government’s failure to adequately address shortages of skilled excavator operators.

Civil Contractors Federation WA CEO Andy Graham said the State Government should be commended for consistently striving to provide excavator operators and other civil construction workers fair access to migration and training incentives – in stark contrast to the Federal Government’s appalling record in both areas.

“There’s no doubt the Federal Government has again dropped the ball with the exclusion of excavator and crane operators from its Core Skills Occupation List,” Mr Graham said. “But for our industry, this is just another setback in a long history of civil construction skills shortages being ignored by the Feds.”

Mr Graham said the omission of skilled excavator and crane operators from the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) was inevitable given the Federal Government’s insistence on basing the list around the outdated ANZSCO skills classification system, which classifies all plant and machinery operators as unskilled and therefore ineligible. He said CCF had been advocating for years for the Federal Government to abandon this ‘computer says no’ attitude and recognise genuine civil construction skills shortages, with no success.

“But recent commentary that the State Government should share the blame for Canberra's mess makes no sense either,” Mr Graham said. “In fact, our State Government deserves a pat on the back for consistently acting to boost civil construction skills, and showing it understands that you can't build houses without housing lots, which requires skilled plant operators and pipelayers.

“We saw evidence of this only a few days ago when excavator operators and pipelayers were included as eligible for the $10,000 relocation bonus, aimed at encouraging interstate migration.

“And earlier this year, the State Government ensured the inclusion of excavator, loader and directional drill operators in its new WA Designated Area Migration Agreement, which helps employers bypass Federal migration roadblocks.”

Mr Graham said the State Government was also a strong supporter of civil construction skills through its apprenticeship funding programs – unlike the Federal Government, which refuses all civil construction apprentices, including apprentice plant operators, access to its Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System funding.

“This State Government actually created the civil construction apprenticeship, upgrading it from a traineeship three years ago,” Mr Graham said. “And our apprentices enjoy the same level of Construction Training Fund financial support as the building trades.

“In addition, civil apprentices working in residential subdivision construction are eligible for the State Government’s ongoing Group Training Organisation Wage Subsidy program.

“With this track record of practical actions supporting civil construction skills, we think it’s absurd to suggest that the Premier and his Government are somehow responsible for the Federal Government’s continued failure to show anything like a similar level of support.

“By all means though, we encourage the Premier to use his influence to try to sway Federal policy – the more voices calling for common sense, the better.”