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

I thank the member for Deakin for his question and for his great interest in education. I also note that, despite the recent promotion of the member for Sturt, it is, of course, this side of the House that asks about education, because it is this side of the House that is interested in education. And, of course, on this side of the House, we are committed to ensuring that Australia is investing in its people. What we know from past economic downturns is that as the economy turns down so does the investment in skills and training. As a result, the skills cycle mirrors the economic cycle so that when the economy is turning down there is less investment in skills and training. When the economy moves back into growth then everybody screams about skills shortages because they cannot get the skilled labour that they need. In these difficult days following the global financial crisis, we want to make sure that we are investing in the skills and capacities of the Australian people. Even in these days, Australia cannot afford to not invest in our people and their skills. It was my pleasure to announce some new measures late last week to ensure that we are continuing to invest in the skills, particularly, of apprentices.

In this difficult period it is, of course, possible that with the best will in the world an employer, faced with a downturn in demand, may need to put off some apprentices. For those apprentices it might mean that, although they have committed one or two years of their study, unless they can secure a new position to complete that apprenticeship that study will have gone to waste. These special measures are to create incentives so that an apprentice who finds themselves in that position has a better way of securing an opportunity to complete that education and training. Most particularly, on top of all existing incentive payments, we are putting in place an additional $2,800 incentive payment for employers or group training organisations to give an out-of-trade apprentice an option, a possibility, a position to complete their apprenticeship. It would be completion right the way through, with $1,000 of that $2,800 to be paid when the apprentice completes their apprenticeship. In addition, for those apprentices who find themselves out of trade but who are not able to secure a position with a new employer or with a group training organisation that can give them on-the-job experience across a range of employers, we are also investing in training providers in registered training organisations to create new pathways for those apprentices to complete their study even though they do not have the benefit of a connection with an employer or a group training organisation. We believe that these are important measures from a government that is committed to jobs and committed to education.

Of course, we do not know what the opposition stands for in this area. We do know, of course, that they voted against jobs when they voted against the stimulus package, and we do know that their regard for education is reckless to say the least, with the newly appointed shadow Treasurer being a man who has said that investing in schools is ‘ridiculous’. That was his—

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