Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bean for his question and, indeed, for his strong advocacy for the VET sector across the country. I'll say this too: when we came to government, we inherited the worst skills shortage in more than half a century. The shortages extended across the labour market and were as deep as they were wide. That's why we convened the Jobs and Skills Summit, and that's why in last year alone more than 355,000 Australians enrolled in fee-free TAFE, and a further 320,000 places are available from this year on in areas of demand. It's why we struck the National Skills Agreement with the state and territory governments, the first National Skills Agreement in a decade. In a decade, you on that side did not sign up one agreement in the skills area—not one! This is $30 billion. We're also giving more support to apprentices and employers, because, when the opposition were last in government, their last budget cut support—

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