ETU national secretary Michael Wright said substantial productivity gains could be unleashed for the economy if electricians and other trades were able to work across the country with a single licence.
At its 1921 national conference, the Electrical Trades Union passed a motion calling on the federal government to create a national licensing system for all electricians.
Wright said a high-quality national licence would enable electricians to seamlessly cross state borders to carry out necessary work.
He said while there appeared to be broad political support for the single licence, there was a fear state bureaucracies may put the issue on the backburner.
“There is a risk of it being slow-walked to death,” he said.
“We’re not trying to change anyone’s mind, but we do want to bump this up to the top of their email to make it a priority.
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“This is a common-sense change that will boost productivity, safeguard quality, protect safety and start unlocking a projected $10 billion in gains for the nation. It’s about a century overdue.“
A single licence for electricians is expected to be used as a template for other sectors, starting with the nation’s patchwork of licences for engineers.
Demand for both occupations is growing, with figures released on Thursday showing a huge lift in work on data centres.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that business capital expenditure on information media and technology equipment jumped by 91.5 per cent in the three months to September to a record $2.8 billion.
The sector is dominated by the rollout of data centres. Over the past year, capital spending has jumped by 147 per cent with the sector now the third largest for investment, eclipsing manufacturing for the first time and only behind mining and transport.
The large lift in spending helped push up overall capital spending to almost $49 billion, the stronger quarterly result in a decade. It is expected to help push up the September quarter GDP result that will be released next week.
Chalmers said the stronger-than-expected lift in business investment was a positive sign for the economy.
“These figures show not only is investment in priority areas like data centres and cleaner and cheaper energy growing, it’s growing even faster than anticipated,” he said.
“This investment will help make our economy stronger, more resilient and more productive over time.”
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