Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite are obviously concerned and interrupting my flow. They are very concerned—and they should be concerned if they are not—that all this money is being ripped out of trade training centres, it is being ripped out of apprenticeships, it is being ripped out of schools and, of course, they are trying to put up HECS fees for students. It is not okay. If you really want opportunity in this country, if you really want to grow jobs, if you really want educated people in the future to innovate and to create more jobs in this country, they need proper support and proper programs. They need programs that work, like Youth Connections, which had an 80 per cent success rate for students who were disengaged. Why would you cut it? Because you do not understand what it does and you do not understand what your budget is doing. (Time expired)

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