Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Our government is backing Australians to gain, in particular, new skills right across the economy. The Morrison government invested around $7 billion in skills last year to help Australia's pipeline of skilled workers. In this year's budget we have continued our support to back Australians to upskill and reskill. In particular, we have expanded our Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy, providing an additional $2.4 billion, which has now seen more than 157,000 apprentices come on board and find a place in around 60,000 businesses across Australia. That's a good thing—putting in place the right policy incentives so that businesses are able to take on a new apprentice and create new jobs for Australians. We're also expanding access for Australians to free or low-cost training by, again, working with the states and territories and increasing capacity in our JobTrainer fund. (Time expired)