Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to respond to some of the specific questions that have been put in this consideration in detail. Firstly, with respect to students with a disability, the government will invest an estimated $22.1 billion for students with disability over 2018 to 2027. On average, funding for students with disability will grow by 5.7 per cent each year over this period. In relation to child care, can I say that the transition to the new childcare package is well and truly under way. More than 850,000 families have now transitioned to the new system, and around 95 per cent of services have transitioned. The Turnbull government's sweeping reforms to child care are set to put money back in the pockets of working Australians. We can see this and the benefits of this—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18 : 39 to 18:50

Before that division was called, I was speaking in relation to child care and the reforms, and I would like to make one update. I indicated that there were more than 850,000 families who had transitioned to the new system. It's actually more than 900,000, so it is still above the 850,000 but is now over 900,000.

We can see the benefits of this package across the country: in South Australia, more than 61,000 families will benefit, including more than 4,700 families in Mayo; more than 17,700 families in Tasmania will benefit, including more than 3,100 families in the electorate of Braddon; and in Queensland, nearly 200,000 families will benefit, including more than 7,100 families in Longman. As you can see, Mr Deputy Speaker, these are significant reforms that the Turnbull government is introducing, and ones that are fair and will, clearly, lead to greater prosperity in our nation.

There have been a number of comments made with respect to vocational education and training. I would like to put on the record some very relevant information about what the Turnbull government has done and will continue to do in the vocational education space. In the budget, we announced the Skilling Australians Fund. That Skilling Australians Fund will result in about 300,000 additional apprentices coming into the workforce. That comprises pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and the higher apprenticeships, which are effectively at the associate diploma and diploma levels and are specifically designed to deal with the skills needs in the spaces that are emerging into the future in the advanced manufacturing space and the IT and finance sectors. So we as a government are looking at making sure that we are addressing our skills needs into the future. We have been very clear in the design of the Skilling Australians Fund that we are focusing on the priority skills needs areas for the future. Those include areas such as hospitality, tourism, health, ageing, the disability sector, manufacturing, and agriculture.

We know that we need to train for specific areas in the future. We are partnering with the states and territories to make sure that, collectively, we meet those needs. We have said to the states that we want to work with them to develop the projects that are going to change this space—and it's a space where change is very much needed. We need to make sure that we are addressing those skills shortages. We have put up a proposal in two parts, and I do intend to talk in more detail about that later. But at this stage, it is sufficient to say that we have partnered with five states and territories for the new Skilling Australians Fund National Partnership Agreement that commences on 1 July and runs for four years.

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