Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): In addition to investing a record $6.5 billion in our skills system, what Senator Watt does not appreciate is that the greatest fall in apprentice numbers on record occurred in 2012-13 when they fell by 110,000 or 22 per cent. That was under the former Labor government. In addition, Senator Watt, over two years the former Labor government gutted $1.2 billion from employer incentives. They were not incentivised to take on apprentices, because you gutted the system. Since we have been in office, we have progressively reformed vocational education and training in Australia. As I said, we are now investing a record $6.5 billion in our skills system, and that includes getting rid of Labor's NASWD, the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development, and replacing it with a new funding agreement— (Time expired).