Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Education and Training (Senator Birmingham) to questions asked by opposition senators today.

I have never heard such a hapless defence of the rorting of public funds by any government as the pathetic defence put up by Senator Birmingham today. He is a minister who went to the North East Vocational College with Senator Day in May 2015. He met with Senator Day in June 2015 and received a presentation from Senator Day on his so-called alternative apprenticeship models. He then set up an advisory group and used that advisory group through the next minister, Minister Hartsuyker, to provide $1.84 million and GST on top of that—over $2 million of public funds—to Senator Day's pet project, the North East Vocational College.

Why was that done? That was done because former Senator Day provided many services to the coalition. It was a payment for services rendered to the coalition. It was a payment because Senator Day, at that time, was a reliable and consistent vote for the government. That is why a request for $1.4 million from Senator Day resulted in this minister and his government providing over $2 million to Senator Day's pet project—that is, to take employment rights and a contract of training away from apprentices in South Australia, because that is what the result of this is. It is not an alternative apprenticeship. These young people who will be undertaking this so-called training in the North East Vocational College under the guise of an alternative apprenticeship will never be classified as a tradesperson. It does not meet the law of the land. It does not meet what is required to be a tradesperson. What Senator Day was seeking to do was to have these young people engaged as students, so they would be paid no money from an employer. They would be forced to rely on VET FEE-HELP and student loans. This was the magical so-called program that was going to deliver benefits to the apprenticeship system. It was not even about a proper apprenticeship. This was simply a rort. This was a project put in place to award former Senator Day for his loyalty to the coalition government. That is what this was about. It was a reward for loyalty.

For Senator Birmingham to sit there and tell us that he may have met Senator Day is an absolute contempt of this place. All you have to do is go to the departmental advice to Mr Hartsuyker, the then minister, where it says, 'Senator Day presented his proposal to the former Assistant Minister for Education and Training, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, on 1 June 2015 and subsequently presented to the Apprenticeships Reform Advisory Group on 14 September.' There were no ifs or buts. The minister should have been honest. The minister should have been up-front and accepted that he did meet Senator Day, but what he did—