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

Well, if you believe it you should say it a bit more so that the young people in your electorate actually believe that their future can be achieved just as well as any university graduate's by being a tradesperson or trainee, getting a skill and filling an occupation. Do not give them false hope—we hear too often from those opposite that, if it does not go to plan, the government will just subsidise you or pick you up.

The member for McPherson has identified a key area that we will fix, and that is inconsistency in auditing. In fact, we see a whole opportunity within the skills space to streamline it. The member for McPherson and other members of my committee, which is headed up by the member for Dawson, are working with us and with the people out there in the RTOs, the apprenticeship centres and the skills areas to make sure that we streamline this area so that, when we spend money, we actually get results. As I said earlier, in the area of innovation, when we came into office, we found a whole string of programs that in fact had money allocated to them but had never even been implemented. When I asked the department what these schemes did, they said, 'Minister, they haven't started yet, so we can't actually tell you.' What outcomes did they produce? Zero.

Any discussion on skills would be incomplete without me mentioning the government's introduction of trade support loans. These loans, which I mentioned earlier, provide the opportunity for a four-year apprentice to borrow up to $20,000 and, at completion, have $4,000, or 20 per cent, of that loan written off as an incentive. To receive that loan interest free until he or she repays it is a huge incentive. In fact, it is worth probably over $12,000, or more than double the previous Tools for Your Trade scheme. We see from this scheme tremendous support coming back from the trainee community. As I said, I saw it myself in my own electorate. This is a great opportunity for young people to do their trades and be successful.

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