Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to remind the member for Robertson of two things—just two things. Firstly, the matter before us today is:

The current failure of the Commonwealth and States to reach agreement on the future funding of technical and further education.

I also remind her that she is in the federal parliament here in Canberra. She is not in Brisbane; she is not in Sydney; she is not in Melbourne. I remind her that, if she was in those state parliaments, she would have to check her facts, because what she has been saying has nothing to do with the actual facts. I will give you one fact which puts paid to what the member for Robertson said in her very passionate stump speech about what a federal coalition government would do. Let's just look at one fact. What has the Victorian government done in the TAFE sector? One billion dollars of extra funding in four years has been provided. I did not hear that mentioned once—not once. There will be $1 billion in extra funding for TAFEs in Victoria and it was not mentioned once in her speech. If that is not misleading this House, then I do not know what is. It is all very well to come in here and speak so passionately about what a coalition government would do if it were elected federally, but can I tell you: I hope that we as a federal government will be able to look after our federal responsibilities, and they include the coordination of proper technical training in this nation.

I go back to 2007, when there was a commitment given by the Labor government that it would stop the blame game. Yet, here we are, five years later and all we hear from the member opposite is, 'It's all the states' fault.' She took no responsibility at all for the federal government in this area, yet, as this matter of public importance clearly shows, the federal government has a responsibility as well. What did we hear from the member opposite about the federal government's responsibility—what it is doing to improve training across the nation? We heard nothing because they have got nothing to say. All they can do is come in here and blame the states for everything. It is pathetic. They accuse us of being a policy-free zone in opposition, but the sad thing is that they are a policy-free zone in government and they are meant to be running the nation. It is absolutely pathetic and we have to sit here and listen to it.

I will tell you what is worse: when they came into government in 2007 we had set up Australian technical colleges.

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