Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is true that Australia faces almost the worst skills shortage that we have faced in our history. But that of course is because the Australian economy is going through a period of unprecedented growth and boom. That has all occurred not under the administration of the Hawke and Keating government but under the administration of the Howard-Costello government. It is a tribute, as perhaps nothing else could be, to the great success in terms of economic management, promotion of business and development of industry and trade which has occurred under the Howard government that we face this skills shortage.

The point Senator O’Brien has sought to make—that this government has somehow been slow in addressing this skills shortage—is quite nonsensical when one looks at some of the statistics involved. The cumulative expenditure for vocational and technical education since the Howard government came into office, up to the last year, is $18.1 billion. The Australian government funding in the years from 2004 to the present time has gone up by a factor of 34 per cent. Over the whole period since the Howard government has been in office, there has been an 88.3 per cent real increase in funding for vocational and technical education. That is hardly a government neglecting this area.

It is very interesting, too, to look at some of the figures of student numbers. Today we have 1,641,300 students, to be fairly exact about it, in new apprenticeships. That is a 220 per cent increase since 1996. Senator Carr might recall that 1996 was a very important year because that was the year that the Howard government came into office. So, far from neglecting apprenticeships and far from neglecting technical training, this government has in fact put an enormous effort into both, spent record amounts of money and greatly increased the number of students undergoing apprenticeships and technical training.

Furthermore, in the last federal election, if you recall, the Howard government announced that there would be 29 new technical colleges placed around Australia to enable more young people to be trained in trades and other technical areas to address the skills shortage which our country is facing. Most recently—only two weeks ago—when we were sitting at the Minerals Council of Australia dinner, the Prime Minister announced that the latest of these technical colleges would be located in the Pilbara in Western Australia and would become the Pilbara technical college, taking under its wing the Karratha and Hedland TAFE colleges, as they are now. That is going to be a very important boost to technical and trade training in the Pilbara, which is where the skills shortage is perhaps more obvious than in many other parts of Australia.

It is a great initiative too because it is going to mean that Indigenous people will be able to access that kind of training. The mining industry’s plan will be to provide trade training and education to Indigenous Australians so that they can not only take their place in the workforce but also take their place in part of the broader Australian community. Needless to say, this has all happened under the Howard government. Far from being deficient in these areas, the Howard government has had very successful policies.