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

I thank Senator McDonald for the question. In the last two years, the Morrison government has made an unprecedented investment in skills and training. We've done this, in particular, to secure the pipeline of skilled workers that Australia needs. In fact, the Morrison government has delivered the highest number of Australians in trade apprenticeships on record.

We now have new department program data which demonstrates that the number of Australian in-training trade apprentices reached 217,400 in July 2021. That is the highest number since records began in 1963: 217,400 in July 2021, the highest on record since they actually began collecting the data in 1963. Evidence of the positive impacts of the investment being made by the Morrison government's record funding of skills and training is the number of Australians undertaking skills and training. That has now surged, with total in-training apprenticeships and traineeships for June 2021 at 347,266. This is up from 268,435 in June 2020.

Again, this is a direct result of the policies that the government has implemented. We understood that we needed to make the investments to secure that necessary pipeline of skilled workers. We have supported tradies across the board, whether by tax cuts or by the full-expensing measures. These have now seen order books for tools, machinery et cetera fill up across the country. We are supporting our skilled workforce, and the numbers that we now have are proof of that. (Time expired)