Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

My answer to the question is this: senators will understand—as I am sure the questioner understands—that, basically, apprenticeship and traineeship training is primarily a responsibility of the states. They have not been doing very well at it, which is why, of course, we have had to move in and do some of the work that the states in fact should have done. We have increased the number of Australians in training by 141 per cent to 389,000 since 1996, when it was 161,000. We are doing our own work to get vocational education in schools. We are providing $10.8 billion over the next four years for that and we have, of course, increased New Apprenticeships. There is no doubt we are doing our share. (Time expired)