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

According to the OECD, we have one of the highest standards of living in the world. Today the Treasurer was able to announce some very good news. In the month of September, there were 36,000 new full-time jobs created. The unemployment rate is 4.8 per cent—the 37th consecutive month of unemployment below six per cent. There was a time when people thought six or seven per cent was full employment. Today Australia has 4.8 per cent unemployment in this country. It is breathtaking hypocrisy for Labor to accuse the government of failing to build a modern, competitive economy.

Let us have a look at what the situation was when Labor were in government. This is their idea of a modern, competitive economy. Back when Labor were in office, Australian government debt had reached almost $100 billion after five successive budget deficits. They had already sold off Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank and they were still able to rack up a debt of $100 billion. Interest rates had peaked at 17 per cent for homeowners. They averaged 12 per cent under Labor. Unemployment reached almost 11 per cent, averaged at 8½ per cent. Inflation averaged at more than five per cent. This shameful record of Labor hit average Australians hard, damaged small business and destroyed the confidence of this nation.

We have heard a lot today from the opposition. I want to remind the House of a comment from the Leader of the Opposition when he had responsibility for education and training. He said:

... I had sort of finally got to accept that I would never be Defence Minister again, so I lost a lot of ambition and I stopped straining ... I thought that there was less capacity to achieve in that [education] portfolio than just about any I have had.

That is a disgraceful admission from a man who would want to be Prime Minister of this country. Compare this to the energy, the commitment and the reforming zeal of the Howard government. The admission of failure on the part of the Labor Party does not stop at federal Labor. The Victorian Labor education minister recently admitted that the Victorian Labor Party got it wrong when it closed that state’s technical schools in the 1980s. That was state Labor that closed technical schools in Victoria. I should also remind the House that back in 1993 when the Leader of the Opposition was Minister for Employment, Education and Training, the number of apprentices in training was down to 122,600. Under the coalition government, there are now more than 403,000 Australian apprentices in training.

Labor—state and federal—have a track record of failure and a lack of commitment to providing young Australians with choice and opportunity in training and education. The Howard government has been able to provide opportunities to young Australians and we are also focusing on enhancing the skills of the entire workforce. The Prime Minister announced today a major package of skills initiatives worth $837 million over five years: Skills for the Future. This will deliver more opportunities for Australians to gain new skills and help develop a much more entrepreneurial workforce. We are focusing on the need for a continuous upgrading of skills over the course of an individual’s life. The package includes a major investment in improving the basic skills of Australia’s workforce. It will particularly assist adults to gain literacy and numeracy skills—basic requirements in the workplace.

There will be new financial incentives to help more Australians who are looking to take up a trade apprenticeship midcareer. Apprentices in traditional trades will also receive support to help them gain the necessary skills to run their own businesses. The package makes a substantial new investment in Australia’s future engineering skills. As well as funding more university engineering places—in fact, 500 new engineering places in addition to the 510 new engineering places I announced in July of this year—our Skills for the Future package offers additional employer incentives so that more Australians gain higher level technical skills at diploma and advanced diploma levels.

Vocational and technical education is a responsibility of the Commonwealth and the states and territories, and the Prime Minister has indicated that he expects the states and territories to invest in workforce education and training to complement the Commonwealth’s initiatives. Federal Labor would do the Australian community a service if it called upon state Labor to support our $837 million package with complementary funding. This $837 million package builds on the Australian government’s previous record commitment to vocational and technical education. Since March of 1996, when the Howard government came to office, funding for vocational and technical education has increased in real terms by 85.2 per cent and the Australian government is spending a record $10.8 billion over the next four years on vocational and technical education.

In the 2006-07 financial year alone, the Australian government have committed $2½ billion, which includes funding for a range of initiatives aimed at addressing skills needs, particularly those in the traditional trades. I have put together a list of initiatives that the Australian government have introduced, to evidence our commitment to skilling Australia. It includes establishing 25 Australian technical colleges in 24 regions across Australia; establishing the Australian Institute for Trade Skills Excellence; providing a tool kit worth up to $800 to Australian apprentices in skill needs occupations; providing two $500 Commonwealth trade learning scholarships to Australian apprentices in skills needs occupations who are employed by small or medium sized businesses or a group training organisation; providing an additional 5,000 places per annum for four years in the access program, which assists job seekers experiencing barriers to skilled employment to obtain and maintain an Australian apprenticeship; providing up to 4,500 prevocational training places in the trades through group training arrangements; working in partnership with the group training organisations to provide an additional 7,000 Australian school based apprenticeships; increasing the funding for Australian apprenticeship centres to allow them to intervene at key points during an apprenticeship to increase retention and completion rates, particularly in occupations that are experiencing strong skills needs; extending employer incentives to include selected diploma and advanced diploma qualifications; and supporting national reforms—getting the states and territories, through the Council of Australian Governments, to agree to support initiatives that are designed to underpin a new and genuinely national approach to apprenticeships, training and skills recognition.

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