Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill 2023 and the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Amendment Bill 2023. I advise the Senate that the coalition will be supporting these bills, and the reason we will be supporting these bills is that they actually implement sensible reforms which the former coalition government developed whilst in office.

The Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill 2023 causes the Trade Support Loans Priority List to lapse; it amends the act to empower the minister by legislative instrument to determine, having had regard to any relevant advice given to the minister by Jobs and Skills Australia, a new Australian Apprenticeships Priority List; and it also amends the act to provide that a qualifying apprenticeship is, amongst other things, an apprenticeship through which a person is undertaking a qualification that leads to an occupation or qualifications specified on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List. What these changes actually mean is that the skills minister can then expand the program's access to people who, through their apprenticeship or traineeship, are undertaking qualifications that lead to occupations experiencing skills shortages, such as occupations in the aged-care, disability care and childcare sectors.

We know that apprentices and trainees are doing it tough right now. Why are they doing it tough? Well, there is a cost-of-living crisis, and, as such, we see their groceries, fuel and electricity all going up. The reality is also, unfortunately, that under the Albanese government their real wages are not keeping pace.

In terms of the main bill that we have before us, as I said, it actually picks up a very good policy that the coalition government had developed while in government. It enables more students to access this support, and this will be critical to more apprentices completing their studies. That's what we want to see. We don't just want to see apprentices commencing; we also want to see apprentices who actually complete their studies.

In terms of the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Amendment Bill 2023, it updates references in the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Act 2015 to 'Trade Support Loans Act 2014' with 'Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans Act 2014'. What it does here is align with the broadening of trade support loans to Australian apprenticeships support loans. As I said, these are sensible reforms which improve the operation of the scheme. The coalition commenced this scheme when we were last in government, and we also commenced these important reforms. That is why, as a former minister in this area, with the help of very dedicated team who were in my office at the time, I'm very pleased that we are seeing these reforms come through the Senate today.

Some stakeholders, unfortunately, have raised concerns about the consultation process which the relevant minister's office conducted in relation to this bill. The stakeholders themselves remain broadly supportive of the amendments, and they want the passage of the legislation. However, they did comment that, in so many areas, this particular minister's office did no external consultation at all and, indeed, the government's own explanatory memorandum seems to admit that they did no further consultation and that they have broadly accepted the coalition's reforms without amendment.

Again, I am very pleased that the bill that we have before us and that, as I said, the coalition will be supporting implements work that we had already commenced whilst we were in government. In fact, to look at the record of the former coalition government: we had committed more than $13 billion to the skills sector, including a record $7.8 billion in our final financial year in office. This was obviously also post the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, we also protected more than 530,000 apprentices and trainees through our wage subsidies, announced since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia, with total pandemic apprenticeship wage subsidy support reaching more than $7.9 billion. More importantly, we delivered a record 240,000 trade apprentices in training. That number was actually the highest number since 1963.

We are very proud of our record in the skills space. It is a proud record to stand on. Again, as I said, the coalition will be supporting the bill that we have before us today because very much it does pick up sensible reforms which the coalition developed whilst in government, and I therefore do commenced the bill to the Senate.