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

I rise to speak to the private member’s motion moved by the member for Hindmarsh. Investing in education is absolutely essential to improving skills in Australia’s workforce. It is all very well for Labor to monotonously attempt to target the Howard government in a political sense over its education policies and track record, but let us just consider the facts. They show that it is the Liberal Party side of politics that is in fact equipped to invest in education in an effective manner and in a way that actually values education and the educational choices of young people. And let us not forget the need to be able to position oneself to be able to make the hard decisions that are necessary for education reform.

I would say that one of the Howard government’s greatest achievements is to have inspired the Labor Party to show an interest in vocational and further education. We have not heard the Labor Party’s policies on vocational education until recent months. In fact I understand that the word ‘vocational’ did not even appear in their 2004 election policy. They do not have form on this. They have no interest, except for the fact that it is the Howard government that has recognised that the skills shortage in this country is not simply a skills crisis, as Labor would have us believe, but that it is a skilled labour shortage. It is a problem brought about by having more jobs than there are people to fill them.

An outstanding example of a Howard government initiative to boost the trade skills of young Australians is of course the Australian technical colleges. I am not sure that the member for Hindmarsh even mentioned the Australian technical colleges. They are a great success around the nation. They are a new innovation, and they are successful because of the quality of the facilities and the teaching staff and, very importantly, the close guidance and involvement of local industry, which of course knows the needs of industry better than anyone else. Two thousand students across Australia are already benefiting from being able to do their year 11, obtain their year 12 school certificate and start an apprenticeship at the same time and, having completed two years at an ATC, to have knocked off the first year of their apprenticeship.

The Australian technical college in northern Tasmania, which I anticipate the member for Lyons will unequivocally support in his contribution, which I will remain in the chamber to listen to, is moving ahead in leaps and bounds—much to the contrary, I suspect, of what the Labor Party said would happen. The northern Tasmanian ATC was obstructed, molested and harassed by the Labor Party. They said it would never work. They said that students would not take up the option, that the courses would not be filled and that, in any event, students would not come away with an effective apprenticeship until something like 2012—just lies; just hampering a really good and useful initiative for young people.

In fact, the opposite has occurred; there are only 150 places in an Australian technical college in its first year. In the northern Tasmanian example, over the Launceston and Burnie campuses, all the courses are full. They have been oversubscribed. That is a great testimony not only to the value of the initiative itself, the policies of the Howard government and the enterprise of former minister Brendan Nelson and the present Minister for Vocational and Further Education, Andrew Robb, in carrying these initiatives through but also to the local initiatives of our industries in northern Tasmania and to the students and the families who have taken their chances with it and are already finding that it is giving them wonderful skills and abilities with which to contribute to the local workforce.

It is a great success and it ought to be celebrated. I have to say that, when I spoke to a group of students in my electorate two weeks ago, I was asked a fair question: ‘Why is it that the Howard government gives more money to private schools than to government schools?’ It was similar to the wording in this private member’s motion, which is completely prejudicial and based on a lie promoted by the Australian Education Union. It hides the fact that recognition is given to government schools but that equally this government supports choice. In fact, you will find, on average, a government school student—taking into account the total taxpayer contribution—receives double the amount which the average student in a non-government school receives.

In concluding my remarks I simply again state on record that if we could have a legitimate debate on this issue, if we could have some honesty in politics and if we could have members in this place championing education, they would not say the things they do about the Howard government. (Time expired)

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