Michael Ferguson (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to hear the interjections. I think those interjections are terrific because they are so shallow and so hollow. The Labor Party today have nothing to offer young people of Australia. Their policies are empty. And they come in here and accuse the government of flip-flopping. I find that very ironic indeed. I note the interjections are slowing down. It is just superficial. There is no substance behind it. The Minister for Education, Science and Training has very boldly and quite properly proposed continuing reform in education in Australia. This is a difficult issue. It is difficult because not all of the problems can be solved in this room. The member for Jagajaga ought to remember that. Many of the problems facing young people in our education and vocational training system around Australia require cooperation. They require genuine political goodwill from all of the authorities around this country—that is, the states and territories.

I would suggest that it is fair to say that, despite the good offices of this government, it is people like the member for Jagajaga and the Leader of the Opposition—those who would be Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister—who may in fact have some influence on their Labor colleagues in the states and territories. The influence that there may be will never be tested. We will never know because they never pick up the phone. They do not pick up the phone and ask their education minister colleagues why they do not give priority to education in the state budgets. They do not do it. They do not go to the Minister for Education in Tasmania and ask him to abolish up-front fees for TAFE students; they lecture this minister. This minister is lectured by that woman, who would be Deputy Prime Minister, about up-front fees for TAFE students—in Tasmania, something like $1,000 for a year. That may not sound like a lot of money to people who rest their buttocks in these comfortable green chairs, but for a young person—

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