Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is the strangest interjection yet, but I will take it. I am not responsible for the goings-on in the South Australian government. I would have thought I had made that clear. Those opposite talk about government policy and the VET sector. What has happened with debt in the VET sector? It started at $699 million, it has got to $1.7 billion and it is now projected to rise to $4 billion. Bizarrely, this government—

Government members interjecting—

Well, student loans through debt. We know that there have been private providers out there treating this like it is a blank cheque for people to rack up huge debts to the Commonwealth. This is the greatest fraud on the Commonwealth in a very long time. And what are we seeing from those opposite? Inaction—because they are so obscenely interested in their own internal affairs. So rather than meeting out in Queanbeyan about VET education, rather than talking about any public policy matter out there in Queanbeyan, what they were talking about was themselves, their own arrangements. And we know now that their latest idea is to go after TAFE. So to deal with private providers they have, bizarrely, gone after the state TAFEs. It is bizarre. It is what we have come to expect from those opposite. When they were in opposition they lectured us about many things. But what we have had from them in government is ignorance under Abbott, followed by neglect under Turnbull. That is the reality. One should understand this: this government of bed wetters, of plotters, of inaction should not be trusted with public policy and should not be trusted with the treasury bench of this country.

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