Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. Does the minister stand by his attempt today to shift blame for the nation’s skills shortage onto the mining industry with his statement that he cannot ‘accept that mining can get away with this claim that they had no idea the minerals boom was going to come on so quick’ and that, instead, the mining industry has just gone and, according to the minister, ‘pilfered everyone from the sugar industry’? When will the minister take responsibility for our nation’s skills crisis instead of just finding someone else to blame? If the minister is so concerned about skills shortages in the Pilbara, why hasn’t he opened the Pilbara technical college promised to the region almost two years ago?

See this speech in context