‘If you don’t fight, you lose’: Allan appeals to party faithful with sparkie apprentice drive

The State Electricity Commission will pay for an army of apprentice electricians to learn their trade on wind farms and data centres, Premier Jacinta Allan will announce.

Allan will unveil the policy at Labor’s state conference on Saturday, in what will be a soft launch of the party’s campaign six months before the Victorian election.

Across town in Caulfield, Liberal leader Jess Wilson will spruik the Coalition’s plan to return to power in November, telling her party’s annual state council that a government she leads will allocate 25 per cent of all new infrastructure spending in regional Victoria, echoing a similar pledge in 2022.

In a copy of Allan’s speech provided to this masthead, the premier will announce the creation of an SEC apprenticeship academy to create 2000 electrical trade placements over the next four years, with training at two sites in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

These apprentices will be directly employed by the SEC, which will send them out to work on the commission’s projects or provide them to work on private projects such as wind farms or data centres.

The SEC will negotiate contracts with the private businesses using its apprentices to recover some of the money it will pay them in wages. The establishment of two training centres will cost $50 million.

Allan will make the announcement in front of her father, who worked as a linesman for the original iteration of the SEC before its assets were privatised and he was made redundant.

She will thank him for introducing her to the Labor Party as he is made a life member.

“We in the Labor movement all know the golden rule. That the number one cost-of-living help for any family is a secure job and public services they can rely on,” Allan will say.

In her speech, the premier will say she still remembers coming home to find her father sitting on the couch after losing his job.

“I’d only ever heard him cry once before,” she will say.

“As a young fella, my dad was promised a lifelong job in the electrical trades. But the lights on that job went out during the most productive years of his life.

“Dad – I will never give up on that promise.”

Allan will say it is too hard for apprentices to find a secure job in the private sector, but the state needs more electricians, and the government will step in where the market is failing.

The Allan government expects the number of electricians needed for the energy sector will need to grow by 50 per cent in time for 2040, but not enough apprentices are finding placements and completing this element of their training.

“Thirty years ago, a Liberal government switched the lights off on my dad’s career,” Allan will say.

“Now we’re training thousands of young people to switch them back on.

“Dad always said: if you don’t fight, you lose.

“Today – in front of this movement – I want him to know: my Labor government will fight for the future of working people in Victoria. And we’ll never stop.”

The duelling state conferences come as Labor and the Coalition have started laying out policy battlegrounds.

Wilson has announced a 10-year economic plan that commits to a freeze on public service hiring, which would eventually cut 7000 jobs. She has also pledged to return to a cash surplus.

She has insisted the hiring freeze would apply only to “back-office” roles and would offer an “essential services guarantee”, which she says will prioritise funding to government services that people rely on most.

The opposition leader has framed these announcements, of a return to cash surplus and cutting public sector jobs, as being honest about the government’s financial position, with net debt forecast to hit nearly $200 billion by 2030.

The policies have prompted an immediate attack campaign from Labor, which says the two policies will equate to $40 billion in cuts.

Allan will repeat this attack on Saturday, seeking to define her government as one that invests in important areas during difficult economic times.

Speaking to the Liberal State Council on Saturday, Wilson will commit to spend 25 per cent of new infrastructure funding in regional Victoria. The state Coalition made a similar commitment in 2022.

She will cite an analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office that says just 12 per cent of capital spending in the 2025-26 budget was spent outside Melbourne.

“For a decade under Labor, regional Victoria has been shortchanged and overlooked,” Wilson said in a statement before the announcement.

“Our team’s plan is simple – regional Victorians represent 25 per cent our population, so we will guarantee they receive 25 per cent of our infrastructure spending.”

Nationals leader Danny O’Brien said the guarantee would ensure regional communities received the road, hospitals and schools they needed.

“While Labor spends $1 million per hour on interest, our regional communities are missing out,” he said.

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