Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Would the Deputy Prime Minister outline new training options for workers who have been retrenched?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for her question. I know that she is deeply concerned about training and skilling in her electorate and in the nation generally. As the Prime Minister has been making clear to the House, the government’s Economic Security Strategy and the Nation Building and Jobs Plan are about supporting jobs in this country. With those additional supports for jobs in this country, the government also recognises that, as a result of the global financial crisis and global recession bearing down on our economy, there will be and there have been jobs lost by Australians. The government has therefore taken a series of practical measures to assist those workers.

Last week I announced a new measure to support apprentices who find themselves out of trade. The Prime Minister and I had the opportunity to meet some young apprentices this morning. If you meet those young apprentices and you imagine a circumstance where they are one or two years into their training and find themselves without a job through no fault of their own, then obviously you would want to extend assistance to them so that they are able to secure a new opportunity in order to complete their apprenticeship. That is what our package that I announced last week is about. It devotes around $150 million of new resources to create new incentives to give those apprentices an opportunity.

In addition, as the Prime Minister has outlined to the House, we announced today some new measures for redundant workers to access employment services. We have also announced—and it is my pleasure to give the details to the House—10,000 new productivity places for redundant workers. These training places build on what is already a very successful program, and they bring the total of available productivity places to 711,000. These places are there to enable people to access training in areas where skills have been short. For those workers who do find themselves redundant, we believe that the employment services measures and access to training places—with the 10,000 new places announced today—will make a practical difference and that is what we seek to do. Clearly, with the global financial crisis and global recession bearing down on this nation, the government is taking decisive action to cushion our economy from its full effects. The measures announced today are part of that.