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

I can assure Senator Watt and all senators that the Turnbull government will continue to work hard to undo the damage caused by the Labor Party to Australia's vocational education system; that we will continue to work hard to ensure that the VET Student Loans program is a success; and that we will absolutely be open, as we have been, to ensure that we continue to look at areas to grow apprenticeships and to pilot or trial different programs. Indeed, as this government has demonstrated, we are also willing to work cooperatively with the crossbench—indeed, with anybody in this chamber. What we would welcome is an opposition who wanted, once in a while, to work constructively, but, of course, that is far too much to wish for, that those opposite could ever work in the national interest rather than their own political interest.