Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

can now access a Commonwealth supported place at university. This is what this government cares about. We want to see better maintained schools; we want to see better training opportunities; we want to make sure that eligible students can access a place at university.

I ask the Australian people to compare the legacy of the Labor Party. When Labor were in power, they left schools to run down. There was no Investing in Our Schools Program under Labor. Labor governments around the country closed technical colleges, and apprenticeships declined to record lows. In the last three years of the Labor government, 300,000 eligible young students were turned away from university because there were not enough Commonwealth supported places. This was at a time when Labor reigned over record unemployment. You could not get a job; you could not get an apprenticeship; you could not get a place at university. This government has not only cleaned up the economic mess left by Labor’s $96 billion debt; it is cleaning up the mess they left in education when they failed to support education and training opportunities to meet the skills needs of this country.

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