Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

National Skills Week is upon us, and it gives us an opportunity to talk about where we're up to with skills and training in this nation and where we need to go. I think there needs to be some serious thinking about the tracks we're on, and I think we have the opportunity to look overseas, which I'll talk about in a minute, to see what other countries have done and how successful they've been in skills training, particularly in vocational skills training.

The area I'm from is one of the greatest food manufacturing regions in not only Australia but the world, supplied by the Goulburn-Murray irrigation system. Water flows out across the fertile soils of the Goulburn and Murray valleys. A great deal of produce is grown, and a lot of that produce is processed. There are a number of food manufacturing companies, such as, from the fruit industry, the iconic SPC with its processed fruit products. While I've got the time to talk about this, everyone is welcome to come to my office and take the peach challenge. I know the member for Hunter has taken the peach challenge—

See this speech in context