Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Tangney for his question and I acknowledge his deep interest in this area. The $837 million Skills for the Future package, which was announced by the Prime Minister today, includes funding of $56 million over four years for 500 new engineering places at universities across Australia. These places will commence in 2008. These engineering places are going to contribute significantly to building our engineering capability and will add to the 65,000 students who are currently studying engineering and related technologies.

The 500 new Commonwealth supported places are in addition to the 510 new engineering places that I announced in July and they will commence in 2007, so over the next two years, 2007 and 2008, there will be 1,010 new engineering places, which will substantially improve the capacity of the higher education sector to deliver high-quality engineering courses in this country. That is going to support development of our infrastructure through to our high-technology industries and take full advantage of the mining and resources boom that is supporting our economy and driving our economic wealth.

I will be writing to Australian universities to seek proposals for the 500 new engineering places, and this underscores just how important the Skills for the Future package is. It will deliver more opportunities for Australians and it will continue to drive our innovation and global competitiveness with a productive workforce.

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