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

That was the last figure I saw, it could be less, I do not know Senator Sterle. That was their response when in fact there were examples there. In combination with ignoring practical examples of good training facilities in place, what did you also do as a government? You cut TAFE funding. You cut $240 million out of the TAFE budget. You reduced the capacity of the states to actually deliver the trade training programs that were capable of meeting the skills shortages. That was your response as a government—to cut the education funding. A lot of it had nothing to do with the fact that there were not the resources to provide to the states. It had nothing to do with whether TAFE had the capacity to actually deliver the training—everyone knew it had. A lot of it was predicated on forcing the TAFEs in the states to adopt your work practices legislation, your Work Choices, to force them to put the trainers onto AWAs.

I have to say, from the point of view of people on this side of the chamber, that the best piece of legislation you ever introduced, Senator Mason, was Work Choices because that is why you are sitting over there. You were wedded to an ideological position and not a practical position in dealing with the realities of industrial relations.