Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the reaction to the government’s plan to increase investment in training?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for his question. I would note his particular interest in education and training and his passionate interest in adult literacy, having taught himself to read as an adult—a fantastic story. Yesterday, as part of the government’s Economic Security Strategy to see Australia through these tough times, the government announced a new investment of $187 million in training places for job seekers—these training places to be in areas of skills shortage. This new investment, announced yesterday, will provide 56,000 new places—almost doubling the number of places in the Productivity Places Program, which began in April. The new investment is there to provide support for individuals who lose their job and need to retrain. We know that in our economy there are businesses and industries that are crying out for skilled workers; so, if someone has lost a job, these productivity places are there to provide them with skills in areas where there is still strong demand.

I am pleased to say that the government’s policy has been welcomed almost across the board—by industry, training providers, support agencies and the not-for-profit sector. Jim Barron, the CEO of Group Training Australia, said this about the package:

The injection of funds into skills development and training will have an expansionary impact on the economy while quickening the pace of re-skilling in critical areas of labour shortage.

The Australian Industry Group welcomed the new training places in the following terms:

It is encouraging that the take up of the productivity places has been so positive and very encouraging that the government has acted to meet this demand. The 10,000 new structural adjustment places to be made available to help displaced workers in the automotive and manufacturing industries are also most welcome.

Then the CEO of the Australian Mines and Metals Association, Steve Knott, said:

Productivity initiatives, including increasing the skill pool available to the resources sector, is a sound economic decision.

Mission Australia said:

In a time of financial turmoil it is the people at the margins who suffer first. For many, this training program is a pathway not only towards sustainable employment but also social re-engagement. For training providers like Mission Australia, the increased places mean we can provide more assistance to more people, and we can do it this year.

Finally, the National Employment Services Association said:

The increase in places from 57,000 to 113,000 is welcomed by all agencies working to increase the economic and social participation of Australians, particularly those who are facing particular disadvantage.

There was even an endorsement from a young apprentice, a carpentry apprentice, Brodie Chambers, who was in today’s Adelaide Advertiser. He said:

At school it’s drummed into you to go to uni, but there’s a big need for trades and this shows that it is just as good to have a trade certificate as going to university …

That was the message from young Brodie, and he is right. I said that our package was welcomed almost across the board because, of course, the vote quibbling, the voice of dissent, the voice that is not sure whether it is in support of or against the package is of course the voice of the Liberal Party, the voice of the opposition. So the shadow minister for employment participation, the member for Boothby, is there expressing concerns about this package, despite the fact that he has never apologised to the Australian people for the more than a decade of neglect engaged in by the Liberal Party in government of skills and training needs. This is a shadow minister who has expressed concern about a program that has already delivered more than 50,000 training places to Australians who needed them and is now expressing concern about a program where we are adding 56,000 more training places. It falls straight into a pattern from the opposition, where they talk out of one side of their mouth and say they support the package; they talk out of the other side of their mouth and they oppose the package. You have got to make a decision: are you for it or against it? This is an opposition with no idea, no plans and certainly no strategy in education and training.