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

I thank Senator Antic for his question, and, as Senator Antic knows, the Prime Minister has made it very clear: Australia's economic recovery from COVID-19 will be a skills led recovery. That is why, as a government, we have put vocational education and training at the forefront of our economic agenda. In fact, this year alone, we will invest almost $7 billion in vocational education and training. That's right—almost $7 billion.

When COVID-19 first impacted us earlier this year, the government understood that trainees and apprentices are the first to go in an economic downturn and that we needed to put in place the policies to ensure that employers, and in particular our small businesses, were able to keep their apprentices and trainees on the job, where we needed them. We did this through our Supporting Apprentices and Trainees wage subsidy. It commenced in April this year and it runs through until March next year.

Senator Antic, as at 27 November 2020, the wage subsidy has now assisted 56,000 businesses—98 per cent of which are small businesses in Australia—to keep, now, over 103,000 apprentices and trainees on the job, and we do this by covering 50 per cent of their wages. This now includes over 20,000 bricklayers who've been kept on the job because of the wage subsidy; 15,000 electricians, kept on the job because of the wage subsidy; 10,000 plumbers, kept on the job because of the wage subsidy; 5,000 hairdressers, again, kept on the job because of the wage subsidy; and 8,000 automotive mechanics and electricians. For those from rural and regional Australia, over 35,000 of the apprentices and trainees and over 20,500 small and medium businesses have utilised the wage subsidy. (Time expired)