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

What those on the other side fail to remember is that they actually decimated vocational education and training in Australia. There was the greatest drop in apprenticeships ever under the former Labor government: 110,000 people left apprenticeships in one year. The former Labor government pulled out $1.2 billion in employer subsidies that correlated with the drop. But who can forget—Senator Birmingham in particular—VET FEE-HELP? Seriously, VET FEE-HELP totally, completely and utterly decimated the reputation of vocational education and training. To date, taxpayers have invested or paid out in excess of $2 billion—$2 billion!—to students who were signed up by dodgy providers for courses that didn't exist: given a laptop and told to sign up.

And guess what? There are still more students out there who are still suffering because of the failure of the former Labor government. In this financial year alone, the government will now invest $7 billion. (Time expired)