Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I said earlier, we are focused on income-contingent loans and the entitlement for all Australians to get a certificate III or higher qualification to try and drive up the skill level and meet the growing skill needs in the economy. But it is also about ensuring social equity. What we do know is that people who do not have higher skills earn less, are less likely to be in the workforce and have less life opportunities. What we know is that unskilled jobs are disappearing from the economy. People who do not have skills will be hard pressed to keep connected to employment and hard pressed to benefit from the economic growth that Australia is seeing. It is very much a question of social equity, as well as good economic sense, that we upskill Australians so that they can participate in the jobs of the future, because they are going to be increasingly high skilled jobs.