Trades licensing 500% increase

Looks to me like the fees have been changed to make is the same for all the trades if you look at the actual instrument http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/di/2011-174/current/pdf/2011-174.pdf the fees for builders has dropped from over $1100 to $450 so rather than a grab for more money it looks like there trying to get some equity between all the trades so everyone pays the same. Why should a sparky be able to pay $85 for three years and a builder have to pay $1100 to get the same bit of plastic where’s the fairness in that?

Keep looking the instrument has stuff going in both directions some have gone up some at least it’s to everyone fair now.

Stop grizzling- that license gives you a government-granted monopoly to ply your trade. And it’s tax deductible.
A fully qualified electrical engineer, whose understanding of matters electrical is light years beyond that of the average electrical tradie, can’t so much as legally move a lightswitch because he/she doesn’t have that license. The monopoly that the license grants you is very valuable.

matt31221 said :

Firstly a nurse IS A TRADE.

I’m pretty sure the many people who have taken up the PROFESSION of nursing would disagree with you there.

I’ve got nothing against tradies – my dad is one, and I know that I’ll never work as hard as he does – but please don’t go lumping everyone who has any type of manual labour as part of their job into the tradie category. The years of University study nurses undertake before being qualified doesn’t automatically equate to the training a tradie undertakes.

I never figured why there was so much “us and them” between trades and, ummm, us.

I am amazed at how hard some of my friends work for the money they get. I am also amazed at some people I know that seem to hate their job (or there pay), yet make zero effort to do anything else.

Personally, I think people who work in aged care get the worst deal.

djk said :

matt31221 said :

Yeah go on and knock the HARDEST working people in Australia.

I am sorry but tradies are not even clost to the hardest working people in Australia. Off the top of my head, nurses (and similar staff) likely work much longer and worse hours for less pay, in a much higher pressure environment, with “customers” who are undoubtedly at their worst. Plus there is no possibility to open your own hospital after a number of years and make really good money in order to make up for the years of not great money.

I am sure rioters can come up with a lot more harder working professions.

(Not trying to bash tradies here as I agree most work hard doing things others would not really like to do, but the quoted statement is ridiculous.)

Firstly a nurse IS A TRADE. And secondly I stand by my statement %100 percent. Perhaps actually get some work experience working in the building industry before making that comment, because you obviously live in fantasy land.

And @Even James, we ALL are real Australians you twit. Every job has it’s place, some are harder than others. I was simply sticking up for the Trades because there aren’t many tradies on Riotact to defend themselves.

I agree with others, who mentioned that renewals ARE tax deductible.Get over it, tradies, nothing to complain about, you even get GST input credits for fuel and rego..
🙂

matt31221 said :

Yeah go on and knock the HARDEST working people in Australia.

Ah, tradie worship. The cult of the High-Vis vest. The REAL workers, the REAL australians. yep.

Okwhatever said :

The attitude of non trades persons towards tradies can be disgusting sometimes. Somehow the work of a non tradie is always worth more than the work of a tradesman, and they will always expect to earn more because there is somehow less skill/intelligence/effort involved? Do it yourself or shut your pie-hole I say. I Have a trade qualification and although I dont practice that trade anymore and work in an office most of the time I still respect what they do.

Some tradies may try to overcharge you but that is a common theme in society whether you are talking about a retail outlet or a plumber, caviet emptor as usual. Ok now just sit back getting paid to post on RiotAct some more.

“caveat emptor” sorry to be pedantic, but as a University Classics student the only official qualification I will ever have is to correct Latin.

cross said :

Their bad rep probably stems from their bad driving. Ever had a tradies ute tailgate you the whole length of the Parkway

YES!

matt31221 said :

Yeah go on and knock the HARDEST working people in Australia.

I am sorry but tradies are not even clost to the hardest working people in Australia. Off the top of my head, nurses (and similar staff) likely work much longer and worse hours for less pay, in a much higher pressure environment, with “customers” who are undoubtedly at their worst. Plus there is no possibility to open your own hospital after a number of years and make really good money in order to make up for the years of not great money.

I am sure rioters can come up with a lot more harder working professions.

(Not trying to bash tradies here as I agree most work hard doing things others would not really like to do, but the quoted statement is ridiculous.)

wildturkeycanoe said :

I wonder how much a practitioner’s license is worth every year? Oh, here it is “The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) has set its 2012 registration fees and has limited fee increases within a CPI rate of 3.3%. The Board has limited the fee increase to CPI, so the annual renewal fee will be $670 for the renewal period of 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2012.” http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/News/2011-07-04-Medical-Board-announces-2012-registration-fees.aspx
So you see, even they get a fee increase that is in line with CPI. NOT 500%.

For comparison, what is the cost of their insurance? Has the cost of their medical insurance increased by only 3% PA in the past years?

Also, while the increase in relative terms is high, maybe that is because the initial licence cost of $25/year was quite low. Its been a while since I renewed, but Im sure even a drivers licence costs about that much. To be charged an extra $125/year for a licence that qualifies you to do your chosen employment (to potentially make 40k+), hardly seems unreasonable, especially when you can claim it back on tax anyway.
That is what I’m talking about folks.
If anyone out there has had any of their bills, registrations, insurances, parking fees, training courses, or any other expense go up by as much in one fowl swoop, please feel free to have a go at me. If not, close the web browser on your screen and get back to drinking your latte and discussing the environment.

cross said :

Their bad rep probably stems from their bad driving. Ever NOT had a tradies ute tailgate you the whole length of the Parkway

FYP

wildturkeycanoe said :

Love the tradie bashing, very innovative idea.
Where do you people come up with the overcharging, rip-off, bags of money and 100% increases statistics?? Maybe for contractors, but those who earn an hourly rate working for a bigger company haven’t had more than 3% increases per year for the last decade. Yeah, subbies might be able to get back their own with upping the charges to compensate, but that’s why they charge so much in the first place – to keep up with the cost of running their business.

[…]

To put this into perspective for some, if your living depended on your driver’s license and they increased the cost of that 500% overnight, what would you be doing?

I can find anyone else asking when the cost of the licence last increased — so when did it? For how long has it cost $84?

wildturkeycanoe said :

r1 – if that’s the case, why do a 4 year apprenticeship for a job you don’t need to do an apprenticeship for? Because you are doing a job that doesn’t require licensing [ie. some sort of documentation to show that you are qualified for that position ], is exactly why you only earn $17/hour. A person with an engineering or scientific degree earns big $$ because they did all that extra training and spent a lot of money to get there.
I wonder how much a practitioner’s license is worth every year? Oh, here it is “The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) has set its 2012 registration fees and has limited fee increases within a CPI rate of 3.3%. The Board has limited the fee increase to CPI, so the annual renewal fee will be $670 for the renewal period of 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2012.” http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/News/2011-07-04-Medical-Board-announces-2012-registration-fees.aspx
So you see, even they get a fee increase that is in line with CPI. NOT 500%.
That is what I’m talking about folks.
If anyone out there has had any of their bills, registrations, insurances, parking fees, training courses, or any other expense go up by as much in one fowl swoop, please feel free to have a go at me. If not, close the web browser on your screen and get back to drinking your latte and discussing the environment.

That may be true, however relatively speaking, $450.00 is a paltry sum in the grand scheme of things. Furthermore, you may well complain about lack of parity with other states, however tradies in ACT also cost alot more than elsewhere. I’v heard a number of reports of people importing tradies from Sydney (mostly builders), as even factoring in accomodation and travel costs, their quotes still come in cheaper. I’m no expert, but maybe you can explain that lack of parity for us?

At risk of sounding pedantic, it’s “fell swoop”, not fowl swoop.

wildturkeycanoe said :

If not, close the web browser on your screen and get back to drinking your latte and discussing the environment.

Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise we were taking with a “real Australian”

We are not worthy.

r1 – if that’s the case, why do a 4 year apprenticeship for a job you don’t need to do an apprenticeship for? Because you are doing a job that doesn’t require licensing [ie. some sort of documentation to show that you are qualified for that position ], is exactly why you only earn $17/hour. A person with an engineering or scientific degree earns big $$ because they did all that extra training and spent a lot of money to get there.
I wonder how much a practitioner’s license is worth every year? Oh, here it is “The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) has set its 2012 registration fees and has limited fee increases within a CPI rate of 3.3%. The Board has limited the fee increase to CPI, so the annual renewal fee will be $670 for the renewal period of 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2012.” http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/News/2011-07-04-Medical-Board-announces-2012-registration-fees.aspx
So you see, even they get a fee increase that is in line with CPI. NOT 500%.
That is what I’m talking about folks.
If anyone out there has had any of their bills, registrations, insurances, parking fees, training courses, or any other expense go up by as much in one fowl swoop, please feel free to have a go at me. If not, close the web browser on your screen and get back to drinking your latte and discussing the environment.

screaming banshee said :

You need to factor how much a tradie charges, not how much they work, and you can be sure the former is always lower than the latter. If you’re assuming that when someone comes and does two hour job that they’re making that hourly rate every hour of the working week then you are sadly mistaken.

Assuming they work every day, it’s 60 cents/day. Anyway, my point was it’s not the $5/hr he’s claiming. To charge $5/hr extra, he needs to work no more than 1 hour every 7 days to justify the price increase.

Henry82 said :

Well, it shouldn’t go up $5 because you guys would be honest right? lets make a conservative estimate that a builder works 8 hrs a day – 5 days a week, thats 2000 hrs a year. Thats 7.5cents extra/hr.

You need to factor how much a tradie charges, not how much they work, and you can be sure the former is always lower than the latter. If you’re assuming that when someone comes and does two hour job that they’re making that hourly rate every hour of the working week then you are sadly mistaken.

r1 said :

If your in a licensed trade you should be grateful and pay your licensing fees with a smile.

Try doing a 4yr apprenticeship in an unlicensed trade such as hairdressing, chef, greenkeeping and so on , where once qualified you get about $17 per hour and your competing for your job with non tradespeople , because its not like there’s licensing to keep them out!

In the ACT for some unknown reason the majority of building trades including, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, tilers roof tilers, concretors are not required to have an appropriate license.

If your in a licensed trade you should be grateful and pay your licensing fees with a smile.

Try doing a 4yr apprenticeship in an unlicensed trade such as hairdressing, chef, greenkeeping and so on , where once qualified you get about $17 per hour and your competing for your job with non tradespeople , because its not like there’s licensing to keep them out!

Their bad rep probably stems from their bad driving. Ever had a tradies ute tailgate you the whole length of the Parkway

matt31221 said :

…Then you wouldn’t knock them and appreciate how easy you have it sitting at a desk playing with the latest Windows 7 machine.

Windows 7 machine? Bahahahahahahahha! I wish I had something so new and fancy to sit behind.

wildturkeycanoe, let’s talk compliance costs. This finacial year our compliance and licence costs have gone up nearly $8k. for a team of eight people that is $1k per person for a one year licence. When you take into account the mandatory training we pay for to maintain our compliance you are looking at approx $16k per person for this financial year alone. And thats just to sit behind a desk.

BTW, if one of my staff quit…I pay all those training costs, plus initial training costs, all over again. If you think being a tradie is expensive, come join us over here.

The attitude of non trades persons towards tradies can be disgusting sometimes. Somehow the work of a non tradie is always worth more than the work of a tradesman, and they will always expect to earn more because there is somehow less skill/intelligence/effort involved? Do it yourself or shut your pie-hole I say. I Have a trade qualification and although I dont practice that trade anymore and work in an office most of the time I still respect what they do.

Some tradies may try to overcharge you but that is a common theme in society whether you are talking about a retail outlet or a plumber, caviet emptor as usual. Ok now just sit back getting paid to post on RiotAct some more.

matt31221 said :

Yeah go on and knock the HARDEST working people in Australia. As an electrician I see the hard slog and effort that fellow trades go to so you can have a roof over your head. I’d like to see the public servants here try and work as a concreter, steel fixer or carpenter for a day. Then you wouldn’t knock them and appreciate how easy you have it sitting at a desk playing with the latest Windows 7 machine.

Work for free do you?

Given how little the average tradie pays in tax, we are probably subsidising you as well!

Yeah go on and knock the HARDEST working people in Australia. As an electrician I see the hard slog and effort that fellow trades go to so you can have a roof over your head. I’d like to see the public servants here try and work as a concreter, steel fixer or carpenter for a day. Then you wouldn’t knock them and appreciate how easy you have it sitting at a desk playing with the latest Windows 7 machine.

wildturkeycanoe said :

I’m going to go and “cry a river” now, you’ve all hurt my feelings. But just don’t complain to me when you can’t afford to get a plumber to fix the hot water service, because he has either added another $5 to his hourly rate or gone interstate for an easier living.

And THIS is the problem. The tradies get charged $450 per 3 years for their licence (which can be claimed back on tax). This works out to $150/yr or just under 50c/day. A comment from a tradie that they’ll add $5/hr to their standard rate to cover the cost of the licence, shows why the general public have such disdain for the lot of em.

You were previously paying $84 for 3yrs for the licence that allows you to make a living. If $450 is too much for you to pay, then maybe you should re-analyze your business plan, and go flip burgers or drive garbage trucks.. oh, wait, you’ll have to pay for a licence to drive a garbage truck too, so I guess its down to flipping burgers if you dont want to pay 50c per day to be a tradie.

oh, and it’s tax deductible

wildturkeycanoe said :

But just don’t complain to me when you can’t afford to get a plumber to fix the hot water service, because he has either added another $5 to his hourly rate or gone interstate for an easier living.

Well, it shouldn’t go up $5 because you guys would be honest right? lets make a conservative estimate that a builder works 8 hrs a day – 5 days a week, thats 2000 hrs a year. Thats 7.5cents extra/hr.

All the people complaining about the current cost of plumbers and other trades should realise that the new cost will be passed on to consumers. A small increase is to be expected, but imagine if your car rego went up this much in a year. We’d all be whinging then.

Time to talk with the Union?

A lot of you are missing the point. I’m not against licensing, nor am I against the cost alone, I’m pointing out that an increase of this amount without giving any sort of “heads up” is unthinkable. When petrol goes up 10c/L overnight [ 7% ], parking fees go up 2$ per day [ 15% ] or electricity goes up by 30% everyone is appalled, but an increase of 5 times the existing rate is ridiculous. I especially disagree with the explanation that it supposedly brings us to the national average, when the new rate puts us at a place where we pay at least twice as much as the rest of the country.
I’m going to go and “cry a river” now, you’ve all hurt my feelings. But just don’t complain to me when you can’t afford to get a plumber to fix the hot water service, because he has either added another $5 to his hourly rate or gone interstate for an easier living.

I can appreciate that you feel hard-done by, however we all have costs associated with making a living. For some of us it’s $3000+ a year for parking because buses don’t cater to odd working hours, for others it’s huge insurance (GPs) etc. Just pay the cash, feel grateful you have employment, and move on.

Wildturkeycanoe, I feel your pain.

It’s all very well for people to point their finger and say ‘suck it up, princess’ but rest assured if the government did something similar to ACT folk across the board, there would be a humongous hullabaloo over it!

I’m not sure what action you can take other than to unite with your tradie comrades, seek advice from those in the know, and complain to the appropriate place… ACTPLA?

May the force be with you…..

Clown Killer said :

A $450 per annum compliance cost is a problem? Cry me a river princess.

$450 for 3 years… or $200 for 1 year

http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/18148/Fees_and_Charges_2011_2012_V10_20110720.pdf pg 17

Clown Killer said :

Besides it’s not a tax in any shape or form – to be so it would have to be proportional to something. It’s just a charge or fee straight up.

Ever heard of a poll tax/head tax?

A $450 per annum compliance cost is a problem? Cry me a river princess. Besides it’s not a tax in any shape or form – to be so it would have to be proportional to something. It’s just a charge or fee straight up.

Hey if you’ve got a problem paying it then go get a job insulting restaurant patrons or waiting tax-payers hard-earned in the public service

Blatant attempt at money grabbing by a monopoly? It’s a government charge, we’re not talking Coles or Woolies.

Maybe you should have done it two days’ ago – or you intended to but the parts didn’t arrive or the previous job took longer than expected

basketcase said :

It’s a tax on employment. I wonder if politicians have to pay a tax to be a politician.

Good luck with the warpath, but the way of politics is to pick small sections of the public a bit a time to tax, regulate and control, because the unaffected 99% don’t really know or care.

Good luck

You hit the nail on the head, this is exactly how they get away with it..Probably why you won’t see a 500% increase on private car rego fees anytime soon.

Love the tradie bashing, very innovative idea.
Where do you people come up with the overcharging, rip-off, bags of money and 100% increases statistics?? Maybe for contractors, but those who earn an hourly rate working for a bigger company haven’t had more than 3% increases per year for the last decade. Yeah, subbies might be able to get back their own with upping the charges to compensate, but that’s why they charge so much in the first place – to keep up with the cost of running their business.
For example, a sparky comes to install one (1) new power point to your bedroom. Before he sets foot on your premises, there is a $21.40 Additions and alterations form to be submitted to ACTPLA. Then, the usual callout fee, hourly rate,materials etc. So when you see the costs go up, don’t blame the guy who’d do it cheaper if only he didn’t have to comply with the red tape.
If you think tradespeople are too expensive, try getting an ACTPLA electrical inspector to come out on a Saturday – $422.30* minimum plus $91.30* per hour for each hour in excess of 4 hours. I wonder how much the inspector gets out of that?? No wonder they are looking for easy cash.

To put this into perspective for some, if your living depended on your driver’s license and they increased the cost of that 500% overnight, what would you be doing?

Mickeyau said :

I am definitely sure that the tradies hourly rates in the ACT have exceeded 100% increase in the last 3 years.

Head up your arse much? Scanned copies of your invoices or it didn’t happen.

basketcase said :

It’s a tax on employment. I wonder if politicians have to pay a tax to be a politician.

Do teachers have to pay a license fee?

As of this year, yes.

Wildturkeycanoe,
I am not sure on what your complaint is here is, yes ACTPLA have repeatedly proven to the ACT public of their incompetence but you can claim your $450.00 with your next tax assessment! I am definitely sure that the tradies hourly rates in the ACT have exceeded 100% increase in the last 3 years.

basketcase said :

It’s a tax on employment. I wonder if politicians have to pay a tax to be a politician.

Do teachers have to pay a license fee?

How about public servants, what do they pay for their right to work.

Just another rip off, and a boost the the control freaks in government.

Good luck with the warpath, but the way of politics is to pick small sections of the public a bit a time to tax, regulate and control, because the unaffected 99% don’t really know or care.

One opinion that could be argued is that this is government dishonesty, and encourages others to be likewise dishonest.

Good luck

Tradies paying tax now there’s a novel concept

They could always cry in their bags of money

The way Tradies treat and rip off Canberrans, you will get very little sympathy from us.

It’s a tax on employment. I wonder if politicians have to pay a tax to be a politician.

Do teachers have to pay a license fee?

How about public servants, what do they pay for their right to work.

Just another rip off, and a boost the the control freaks in government.

Good luck with the warpath, but the way of politics is to pick small sections of the public a bit a time to tax, regulate and control, because the unaffected 99% don’t really know or care.

One opinion that could be argued is that this is government dishonesty, and encourages others to be likewise dishonest.

Good luck

cross said :

Tradies being overcharged huh? paybacks a bitch

+1

cross said :

Tradies being overcharged huh? paybacks a bitch

Yeah, but guess who pays in the end.

Tradies being overcharged huh? paybacks a bitch