George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Vanstone, representing the Minister for Education, Science and Training. I note the minister’s response to the question asked by Senator Fielding, but I ask the minister whether she is aware of the Australian Industry Group’s comments on the budget:

... it is disappointing that more progress has not been made on the big nation-building goals of skills and innovation. Investment in skills, innovation and infrastructure are required to build the competitiveness of Australian business and to assist in rebalancing the economy as the current mineral boom begins to fade.

As the Australian Industry Group has been warning for some time, aren’t skills development and training the prime factors in building the competitive advantage that Australian industry needs on the world stage? Why then has the Howard government continued down the low-skills road with priority for funding of vocational education and training decreasing as a proportion of total Commonwealth expenditures from 0.75 per cent in the current financial year to 0.67 per cent in 2009-10?