Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy President. I was actually coming back because this bill is a part of the many things that we're doing in the Morrison government to get education back on track in this country so that our children, when they graduate from tertiary education, whether it be from university or TAFE, can get a job. At the end of the day, higher education is a means to an end; it is not an end in itself. It is not about propping up academics to write research publications that basically create alarmist theories about the Great Barrier Reef and all that stuff. No, no, no. It is about delivering outcomes—that is, a higher standard of living for our children to make sure that they can stand on their own two feet. I want to acknowledge the great work that Senator Cash has been doing in giving a 50 per cent incentive to the apprenticeship scheme. That's been totally booked out, I understand, totally filled; I think we're extending that. It's great to see that the Morrison government are trying to get people back into apprenticeships. We openly acknowledge we don't want to rely on too much immigration for the sake of filling jobs.

I'm glad to commend this bill to the Senate because I know that this bill is another step that the Morrison government has been taking to clean up higher education in this country. The mess left behind by prior Labor governments, we're still cleaning up, after those horrid neoliberal years under the Hawke-Keating government that left our country desolate. A lot of this stuff, we're only seeing it now, of course. It's very important that we stand up to that. I will leave it at that. Senator Farrell, any time you want me to go off script, you just let me know. I'm happy to talk to you in here about this or about any topic, any time, any place.