Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My apologies. As I say, I withdraw any reflection on Mr Beazley. I thought it would be worthwhile going through the people who are associated with the Bendigo ATC. As I said, we have got Mr Don Erskine, who is the chairperson; Mr Michael McKern, who is the managing director of McKern Building Products and chair of the regional Australian Industry Group; Mr Coulter, CEO, Flowserve Pump Division; Terry Hurford, director of Morey and Hurford Builders; Graeme Sloan, CEO and director of Perseverance Corporation, a mining company; Ron Poyser, managing director of Poyser Motors; John McLean, CEO of the City of Greater Bendigo; Dr Louise Harvey, director of the Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE—the TAFE is a partner in this; Elsie L’Huillier, executive officer of the Goldfields Local Learning and Employment Network; John Lynch, general manager of the Central Victorian Group Training Company; Darren McGregor, principal of the Catholic College Bendigo; and Helen Wee Hee, training manager of the Bendigo Sports and Entertainment Group. This very broad cross-section of people in Bendigo is committed to supporting the ATC and the Bendigo district’s young people.

The college will establish its central campus and administration centre at a high-profile site in the youth precinct of the Bendigo CBD. The programs will be delivered across the region—Bendigo, Echuca, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Rochester, Kyabram, Wedderburn, Boort and Charlton—and through subcontracting arrangements with existing schools, TAFEs, RTOs and other appropriate institutions. The college proposes to negotiate with the BRIT to extend existing hospitality facilities to the Bendigo campus. It comes at a cost of about $725,000. The TAFE has agreed in principle to enter into these negotiations, and the finalisation of that arrangement will require agreement with the Victorian government. Let us hope that they are a lot quicker in reaching those agreements than the Australian Labor Party was in the Senate in enabling this initial legislation to get through.

The college will also negotiate with the Central Victorian Group Training Company to develop a training facility for plasterers at a cost of about $125,000. Up to $455,000 has been requested for a mobile classroom, a prime mover and a trailer to enable on-site teaching and learning resources in some trades and utilising state-of-the-art technologies.

There will be the establishment of 29 centres of excellence. MOUs will be developed with employers in two industries in each of the 10 trade areas located in Bendigo and the three in Echuca, Maryborough and Castlemaine. An amount of $1,000 per rural student per year has been included to offset the cost of travel for students in outlying areas to attend work and vocational training placements. An amount of $1,000 per rural student per year is included in the cost of outsourcing delivery of the academic curriculum to small rural schools, reflecting the additional cost and limited flexibility in those schools where extra classes may need to be conducted to fit in with the student school based New Apprenticeships commitments. That is nearly $11 million of hope in the future for these kids in Bendigo.

Those 25 ATCs are about making sure that as a nation we are prepared to back the undoubted ability of our kids and young people. It is not rocket science. Why would the opportunity be taken in this place to play cheap, domestic politics with such an important issue? Why would this nation’s young people be subjected to the Australian Labor Party’s view that anything is worth a crack at? It does not matter what it is; it will be opposed.

At the end of Senator Wong’s contribution, almost as a throwaway line, she said, ‘Oh well, we’re going to support it.’ Of course they have to support it, because it is bringing money forward from out years to enable these schools to be set up now. If she thinks she will get any credit for supporting something that is quite logical, then I think she is going to be unpleasantly surprised. She will not get any support for it. Why she will not get support is the fact that these schools could have been up and running even earlier if it had not been for the intransigence of the Labor Party about allowing this initial bill to go through.

This bill is exciting because it provides opportunities. It is in the very truest sense of the word one of those great Australian partnerships. It is a partnership with Australia’s young people, who want to carve out a career for themselves and who want to make a contribution to this great nation of ours. While they are pilloried in some quarters, we should be proud of these kids. We should be proud of their ambitions and we should be supporting them at every single turn. Part of our contribution to them is to make sure they have the very best skills to ensure that their contribution can be maximised. I commend this bill to the Senate. I commend what underpins this bill to the Senate, because a nation built on skills is a nation that, in my view, is making the single biggest contribution it can make—that is, to the future of our young people.