Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Vocational and Further Education. Would the minister inform the House how the government has continued to invest substantially in vocational and further education? Minister, are there any alternative policies and what is the government’s response?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Vocational and Further Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman for his question and for his very genuine interest in this area. I might begin with the alternative policies, because there I can be brief. In Labor’s much touted Education Revolution document, on skills needs, the so-called skills crisis, and vocational and technical education the sum total of discussion was four lonely paragraphs—and not one idea amongst them. Yet the member for Lilley last night was out asserting that Labor had set the agenda on vocational and technical education. Fortunately, we have not waited for Labor to tell us what to do, and I can report for the benefit of the member for Lilley that in 1996 there were 1,500 people doing apprenticeships in his electorate. He can now go back and report to his electorate that today there are 4,280 people doing apprenticeships—nearly a threefold increase in the last 11 years. So we have done a lot. We have now spent around $3 billion a year compared with $1 billion 10 years ago when we took over office. That is a 99 per cent real increase in spending on vocational and technical education in the last 11 years.

Yet we have a rapidly ageing population and the experience of well over a decade of uninterrupted economic growth. This means that we have further challenges. That is why last night we made a further substantial investment of $668 million in vocational and further education. That adds to the $837 million that we announced last November, just six months ago, for the Skills for the Future package. So, in total, in the last six months the government has announced $1.5 billion for technical and further education.

Last night’s announced initiatives were aimed at three things: improving the status, improving the opportunity, and raising the level of vocational and technical education across our workforce. Specifically the measures included, in the trades areas facing a skills shortage, a tax-free $1,000 wage top-up to every first- and second-year apprentice under 30 years of age. On top of that, every first- and second-year apprentice, without age restriction, will get a fee voucher worth up to $500 a go towards their TAFE or other training fees. When you put that together with a trade scholarship, each first- and second-year apprentice across the country in areas of trade skill shortage will get a total of $1,500 a year as a tax-free top-up for their wages and a $500 contribution towards their TAFE fees—nearly $2,000, or up to $2,000, for every first- and second-year apprentice.

The government also announced the establishment of three more Australian technical colleges, one in southern Brisbane, one in Western Sydney and one in northern Perth. This means that in the five largest cities we will have two technical colleges across the country to combine with the other 18 technical colleges in regional and other cities in Australia. Furthermore, we announced nearly $60 million to develop fast track apprenticeships. We have extended fee help to full fee paying students pursuing diploma and advanced diploma courses through the VET system and we have provided further assistance for our Indigenous community and for people with disabilities to enter the workforce. So, along with the tax cuts and the childcare and the superannuation initiatives last night, these new measures will further expand our productive capacity at a time when the economy is at full stretch.