Australia's skills shortage

Amazing how many conversations I have about this. Was talking to some workmates about it today - how much of today's shortages are due to the unintended, unforeseen consequences of the privatisations of the last decade or so? All the apprentices that Qantas used to train, for example. Similar for energy companies. Even the bloody training levy. Since then, skills/upgrading has been the first to be dispensed with as profit maximisation becomes the sole objective. In an economic sense, cross-subsidisation of organisations that used to provide these benefits is seen to be inefficient. So we made sure it didn't happen at all, and end up with the shortages we now are wailing about. What do want - outcomes or policy purity? Is that efficient? It's about time that we started to give spillover effects a bit more value.