Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief. I am going to say a few words on the Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Assistance) Bill 2008 only because of the debate regarding the Skills Australia Bill yesterday. In a sense, I feel provoked to say a few words. There was much discussion yesterday about what the coalition did in office to help with the skill shortage and to train people in vocational and educational training. As you will know, Mr Acting Deputy President Watson, what the substantive act originally did was extend FEE-HELP to students in vocational and educational training. So when the government yesterday were talking on the Skills Australia Bill about the fact that the coalition government was asleep at the wheel, how wrong they were, because the act extended substantively FEE-HELP to students in vocational and educational training. This is non-controversial legislation and this is a technical amendment, in a sense, to bring rigour back to the act. I know there are some amendments that have to be made to streamline the process. I understand that. I just wanted to make the point about how much the Howard government did to reskill Australia and that the substantive act, by extending FEE-HELP to students in vocational and educational training, is a very good example of that.