Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This government has put in place a system of training and apprenticeships which is better than anything Australia has had for a decade. The budget includes $1.4 billion in initiatives to promote vocational education and training, including $537 million to extend youth allowance to apprenticeships. It has $350 million for 25 Australian technical colleges. It has $143 million to improve careers advice. It has $120 million for tool kits and $106 million for the Commonwealth trade-learning scholarships. The total funding for VET has more than doubled over the last 10 years, from $1 billion in 1995-96 to $2.55 billion in 2006. So funding has more than doubled since the Australian Labor Party was rightly thrown out of office. This support is delivering results. The total number of new apprenticeships doubled from 156,700 in 1996 to 397,800 in September 2005. The number of new apprenticeships in traditional trades increased from 120,000 in 1996 to 168,000 in September 2005.

So on any measure, whether it is spending, whether it is apprenticeships, whether it is VET or whether it is Commonwealth investment in technical colleges, the Commonwealth has a bigger investment now than it has ever had in the past. One of the good things is that, if you are training at the moment and you do get a trade or a skill, your chances of getting a job are very good. I have been in this House since 1990, and I never, ever heard anybody complain about the difficulty of finding workers for jobs back in 1990. I heard a lot of complaints about the fact that there was mass unemployment and a shortage of jobs for workers. In the six years of Labor government that I experienced whilst I sat in opposition I never, ever heard anybody ever suggest that there was a problem in finding workers for jobs. Why? I will tell you why, Mr Speaker: unemployment was at 10.6 per cent. If I had the choice between an economy in which there were more jobs going than workers and an economy in which there were more workers going than jobs, I know which one I would choose. I know which one the Australian public would choose. I know what the Australian public would think the better problem was: a shortage of labour rather than excess labour. Let me say it again: the Labor Party is a party of mass unemployment. That was its record in 1993. The Liberal and National parties in the coalition stand, above all else, for jobs, and there have been 1.7 million new jobs in Australia since 1996.

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