House debates

Monday, 9 November 2020

Bills

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2020-2021; Consideration in Detail

6:25 pm

Photo of Karen AndrewsKaren Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to comment on the contributions of both the member for Bonner and the member for Moncrieff in this debate. Both of those members have strongly demonstrated, particularly over this year, when their electorates have been affected, as has all of Australia and in fact the world, by the COVID pandemic, how committed they are to making sure that the people of their electorates have employment wherever possible, and that, if they don't, they are supported. They are both very much committed to making sure that we as a government work with them to support businesses in their electorates to employ more apprentices and to retain the apprentices that they need now. Specifically, the member for Moncrieff has done a fantastic job on the Gold Coast, I would have to say. Our electorates actually neighbour each other. She has done, quite frankly, an outstanding job working with the small businesses in her electorate on the central part of the Gold Coast, understanding that the Gold Coast, as a tourism destination, has been savaged by what has happened with COVID-19. So congratulations to the member for Moncrieff for her work, and also to the member for Bonner.

I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to further discuss the Morrison Government's plan to create jobs by investing in skills training, supporting small and family businesses, and helping jobseekers so that they have the best chance of finding work. That's exactly what the 2020-21 budget is all about. It is all about jobs. The member for Bonner asked about specific support programs to help small businesses. Since the onset of COVID-19 the government has committed an unprecedented $507 billion in overall economic support. This includes the JobKeeper payment, the boosting cash flow measure, the SME guarantee scheme, the instant asset write-off, help for hiring apprentices and trainees, extended and accelerated income support, early release of superannuation, and tax support.

Throughout this debate our speakers shared stories of hope and recovery. In contrast, the Labor speakers tried to score cheap political points. They try to make mileage of the fact that our JobKeeper payments were always designed to be an interim lifeline to help businesses through the worst impacts of this pandemic. Businesses aren't interested in becoming permanently dependent on government. They are all about enterprise and having a go. We're backing that in so many ways with this budget, especially the more than $7 billion that we are investing to support skills training. I know that one of the speakers opposite spoke about training. But it was very selective commentary by the member, because she spoke specifically about TAFE. Firstly, funding TAFE is actually a state and territory government's responsibility; it's not the federal government's responsibility at all. But one of the biggest impacts on TAFE was a direct result of the national partnership agreement of 2012-17, which in fact was negotiated by the previous Labor government. That national partnership agreement made sure that contestability was introduced into the market. Because of that, TAFE's market share declined under the terms of that agreement.

Interestingly, that national partnership agreement was worth $1.75 billion over a five-year period. Of that, $1.15 billion or thereabouts went towards supporting the states so that they could harmonise a lot of the training that takes place—which has clearly not happened—but only $600 million or thereabouts went to direct training outcomes. Contrast that with what this government has done. We have directly supported apprentices. We have supported those that were engaged prior to COVID-19 so that they had support to continue, and we provided additional support so that more apprentices could be engaged.

This government has made sure that we are providing support as and when it is needed. We ae providing an opportunity for small businesses to remain afloat during the COVID-19 crisis and, importantly, to develop and prosper.

Expenditure agreed to.

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