Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Oh yes, here he goes. The state of New South Wales, the biggest state and the biggest economy but, as the Prime Minister rightly acknowledged last week, the state with the most lethargic economy in Australia, has the worst set of circumstances when it comes to school based apprenticeships. It is disgraceful to think that, in the state of New South Wales, no student is studying in the trades at certificate level I, II, III or IV in years 11 and 12. There are no school based apprenticeships.

I noticed that the member for Rankin hopped on the bandwagon for school based apprenticeships a few weeks ago. About eight weeks ago he was mouthing the words of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, bagging Australian school based apprenticeships through the Australian technical college program. Last week he was on the bandwagon promoting them. We welcome his latter-day conversion on the road to wherever it was, but what I want him, the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to do is to get onto the Western Australian government and, particularly, the New South Wales government to allow school based apprenticeships across all trades for year 11 and 12 students in those states. Without that it is a disgrace.

See this speech in context