Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone, wherever they live, deserves access to the best education and training Australia has to offer. But this government is deliberately making it harder for young people in my community to take up a trade. Over the past eight years the Morrison government has cut millions of dollars from vocational education and training. This has led to a 10 per cent drop in the number of apprentices and trainees on the north end of the Central Coast. And now the government has decided to exclude young people living in my community from the Commonwealth Scholarships Program for Young Australians.

This program offers $13,000 scholarships for people wanting to take up an apprenticeship or traineeship in a few hand-picked regions across Australia. In New South Wales, this includes Gosford but completely excludes the north end of the coast. This doesn't make sense. How can you exclude part of the coast from this program when we're one region? It's hard enough for young people living outside big cities to get the training and skills they need, but now they're being deliberately overlooked. There are already a higher number of jobseekers on the north end of the coast. If this scholarship program is based on need then why are young people in Dobell being excluded? We have a skills crisis across the coast, not just in Gosford, and people in my community deserve a fair shot at training and more secure work. Every young person, wherever they live on the Central Coast, deserves this opportunity. The Morrison government needs to explain to young people in Dobell why they're missing out again.

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