Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

The aims of these bills, the Trade Support Loans Bill 2014 and Trade Support Loans (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014, are to help address apprentice drop-out rates, to improve completion rates. We have a duty of responsibility as a government to get people job ready, job steady, to infuse them with the skills and, in particular, to encourage, support and develop young people in the completion of their apprenticeships.

The current scheme is clearly not working. The evidence shows that young people are not completing apprenticeships. In fact one out of two fails to complete an apprenticeship. The facts of the matter are: this government has decided to invest $1.9 billion in loans over the forward estimates at a cost of around $439 million over the forward estimates. The member for Hunter, the previous speaker, said that this was a broken promise because we had said nothing before the election. That is not true in any way, shape or form. This was one of our key priorities going into the election. It was a key priority. I remember the announcement well—the $20,000. So to say that—

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