Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

My apologies, Mr Deputy Speaker. This government has not let down young Australians. On the contrary, the Howard government’s performance has restored a sense of hope and opportunity to the young people of Australia, as witnessed at the ballot box at the last election. There was a strong move by young Australians to vote for the Howard government. Why? Because we have restored a sense of hope. Youth unemployment has dropped by nearly 40 per cent, from 15.1 per cent to 10.9 per cent, at a time when real wages have gone up by nearly 17 per cent. That is performance over a protracted period of time. There has been a 122 per cent increase in the number of young people under the age of 19 commencing new apprenticeships since 1996, and they now account for 41 per cent of all apprenticeship starts.

This government has not let down young Australians. On the contrary, we have restored a sense of hope and opportunity. The number of school students getting a head start in the VET program has increased by 253 per cent since 1996, so approximately half of all senior secondary school students are now getting a head start in life. The government is providing funds to the states and territories to support an additional 167,000 vocational education and training places by 2008. We have 24 technical colleges in the pipeline. These are all substantive initiatives. This is a record we can be proud of, and it is one that we have to build on.

This government has not let down young Australians. In the recent budget we added to all this an additional $106 million over four years for new apprenticeship centres, $10 million for the Australian Lifesaver Training Academy to provide high-quality training and education programs, and a raft of other measures. We are not going to rest on our laurels when it comes to ensuring that there are skilled job opportunities for young Australians. We must confront the challenge I mentioned earlier of an ageing population, a challenge which dictates that we must do all that is possible on a whole range of fronts.

So why are Labor banging on about this? What is their motive? Against all that background—against that urgent need—even when these apprenticeship visas reach full penetration, in terms of young people coming from overseas to be trained, we are looking at an estimated 3½ thousand visa holders in any one year. There are 390,000 apprentices now, with many more opportunities being created, and we are talking about 3½ thousand coming in. Doesn’t it make you wonder about the context in which these arguments are being put? This is just a grubby attempt to lie and scaremonger—

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