Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Could I just take this opportunity to congratulate all of those people who are running the VTECs. These are really passionate people who come from a background which I suspect was not engaging with employers all the time. But they have made that leap. There are people like Deb Nelson from Yarn'n in Sydney who have just done an absolutely remarkable job.

Many of the traditional areas where we have not had entry, we now have entry into: the health, transport and retail industries. What I think is the most exciting thing about not only Yarn'n but many of these processes is that they do not get paid until they deliver six months of work. They do not get a single government dollar! I think that was the challenge which those opposite understood to be the case when they started this policy off.

We now have, in terms of Yarn'n, a 91 per cent retention rate. Yes, there are some, but the churn has gone from the system. So I would like again to commend this excellent policy to this place. (Time expired)