Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

Liberal senators may want to make fun of this, but it is an important issue and it is certainly making a change to many people's lives. In the last budget we provided $50.7 million over four years to support 6,400 Indigenous school based traineeships. These traineeships will predominantly support students in years 11 and 12, providing them with real work experience, real mentoring and real support moving forward into employment. Students are working with employers and small business. At the same time as that, the program provides them with the opportunity to make that jump into employment, and that is exactly why this program is in place. The support for mentoring, though, does not start in year 11 and 12; it starts in year 7. Funding has been put forward to support students in year 7 so they can make progress— (Time expired)