Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for his question, and his lack of impersonation of my answer. This government understands that the most important thing to give to young people is the opportunity to get a long-term job and a well-paying job, and the member for Herbert understands that. I have had the opportunity with the member for Herbert to visit a skills and training centre in his electorate, and his support for the young people in that electorate is palpable. You only have to talk to the member for Herbert to know that he sees the importance of getting young people into jobs. And the way to do that in particular is to upgrade their skills and to encourage them to not only take up apprenticeships but to actually complete them.

What we have in Australia at the moment is a situation where half of the apprenticeships that are started are not completed. We announced in our Economic Action Strategy that we intend to build a strong and prosperous economy, and to do that we want the young people—not just in Herbert, but right around Australia—to participate in the growth of that economy. We want to see them get a trade, go out and earn a living and look forward to a long-term prospect, and they will not do that if they do not complete their apprenticeship. So we have introduced a Trade Support Loans scheme that will give apprentices a loan of $20,000. Under this scheme we will roll out about $1.9 billion worth of loans, and when they complete their four years 20 per cent of that loan will be written off—20 per cent, $4,000, immediately discounted. Not only that, but the value of the discount in terms of repaying it over the term against a commercial loan makes this scheme worth more than double the scheme it replaces in Tools For Your Trade.

We are moving from a scheme such as Tools For Your Trade—where money was just given with no requirement to complete your apprenticeship—to a scheme where we actively encourage young people to complete their apprenticeships. Not only is it worth more than double—

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