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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that not one dollar of his Skills for the Future package will go to attracting or supporting Australian young people to get into traditional trade apprenticeships? Given that almost two-thirds of Australian apprentices are under the age of 25, why have they been comprehensively ignored by this package? Given that the Prime Minister acknowledged on AM this morning the inevitable problem of retaining people in low-paid apprenticeships, why isn’t there any help for young apprentices, many of whom are on $6 or $7 an hour? Why is the Prime Minister so ignorant of the fact that 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds are the long-term future for dealing with Australia’s skills shortage?

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