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

I thank Senator Fawcett for his question and his interest in the Skilling Australians Fund, which is indeed structured in a way to create greater opportunities for Australians, particularly young Australians, to secure training opportunities for their future. It's about ensuring that we provide training in areas of economic growth: priority areas such as hospitality, tourism, health, manufacturing, building and construction, agriculture and digital technologies. All together it's around a $1½ billion commitment from the federal government to work with the states and territories on creating more opportunities by re-engineering the partnership in skilling in vocational and educational training between the Commonwealth and the states and territories so that we get improved outcomes, particularly in relation to apprenticeships.

I'm pleased to say that already there has been significant interest from states. In particular, last week we saw the Hodgman Liberal government promise that, if re-elected, they would help address the increasing demand for skilled workers across a number of sectors by investing some $7 million to establish a trades and water centre of excellence. I know that the Hodgman government has achieved great results in lifting the number of apprentices in training in Tasmania since they came to office. Through commitments like this and their commitment to working with us in relation to the Skilling Australians Fund, we would see even more opportunity for Tasmanians.

Equally, Senator Fawcett, in our home state of South Australia the Marshall Liberal opposition committed that, if elected, they would invest $100 million to partner with the Skilling Australians Fund to create 20,000 new places in vocational education and training, creating 20,000 new opportunities for young South Australians to secure apprenticeships and traineeships in areas of economic growth, creating job opportunities for them into the future.