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

Where members opposite failed, the Rudd Labor government is delivering on skills and education. We are delivering on skills and education because we know this is a capacity constraint on the economy that is putting upwards pressure on inflation and interest rates. If members opposite doubt the veracity of this advice then they may choose to consult the current chief of staff of the Leader of the Opposition, who said when he was the head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2004, ‘A recent survey of investor confidence in Australia revealed the No. 1 threat to future investment was the availability of suitably qualified staff.’

Mr Hendy had it right back then in 2004. It was a criticism of the former government, who did not do enough in this area to prevent a skills crisis. We are certainly working on this area. In particular, we delivered in April this year 20,000 new training places, the first of 630,000 training places to be delivered by this government. I am pleased to report that, with these 20,000 training places being delivered, the first 500 graduates will be finished their training and be ready to start work in June. Encouragingly, there has been uptake in skill shortage areas targeted by the program, including aged care and child care.

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