Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for his question, and I know he is deeply concerned about education and training in his electorate. The recent budget delivered $19.3 billion for education, skills and training—$11 billion of it in the form of our new Education Investment Fund. Some $1.9 billion was delivered directly for skills, and vocational education and training providers will have access to the $11 billion Education Investment Fund. We needed to make investments of this mammoth nature because by world standards the education system of this country is falling behind, and we face a skills crisis. The legacy of the former government to the nation in education and training has been a system falling behind the standards of the world and a skills crisis. In the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition they have the people who were personally in charge of these matters for half of the period of the Howard government, so they are uniquely, personally responsible for Australia falling behind the rest of the world and facing a skills shortage. The fact that we face a skills shortage was verified by the member for Goldstein, who in the same statement verified that this was basically from neglect. Last year, the member for Goldstein told an industry group, and this is a very revealing quote:

... we’ve got a problem with skill shortage. ... I mean we knew it was coming but it has arrived with a force. ... And you know, it’s only going to get worse.

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