Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) Share this | Hansard source

And the Labor Party brought vocational education in this country to its knees, and it is still trying hard to get back up from where the Labor government put it. There was $1.2 billion in cuts—almost irreparable damage to the vocational education sector—and those opposite sit there smugly, thinking that they have the authority to speak about a sector that they brought to its knees. So there was $1.2 billion in cuts to vocational education.

On this side of the House, we understand that vocational education is very important to this country. We train about 4½ million people in vocational education in Australia. We have a significant issue in this country, courtesy of the cuts that Labor made to employer incentives. That is particularly in relation to apprenticeships, where we are still fighting against the downturn that was inflicted on that sector by those cuts to employer incentives—$1.2 billion in cuts.

On this side of the House, we do not see education as isolated areas, whether that is child care, schools, vocational education or higher education. We look at education in its totality, all the way through from early childhood education to schools, vocational education and into higher education. The commitment from this side of the House is to make sure that we work with all of the key stakeholders and that we deliver a quality outcome. We understand that there is not a direct link between the amount of funding and the results that our students are getting at school. We are working hard to target the funding to make sure that our kids get the best education and perform at the highest possible level.

See this speech in context