Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I was giving context for Senator Cameron, who seems to have forgotten that policy decisions taken in 2012 by the previous government saw a 38 per cent decline in apprenticeship commencements in Australia—a decline we are still feeling the effect of today as those apprenticeship numbers flow through the system. That is why our government has sought to act in terms of trying to look at ways to recover apprenticeship numbers, has backed the idea that there might be alternative innovative models for delivery—