Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

It is the last day of session and we have a few things to do, so I will not have another one of my long arguments with Senator Abetz. I make just two points. One is that we believe there is a very strong case for work-focused education and training that, in fact, gives people the chance to get the skills they need to get a job. We have a skills shortage in this country. If you look at any economic analysis of the profile of people who are not in the workforce, clearly their skills acquisition or attainment is the most significant factor for most groups.

I just indicate, in the interests of expediting this bill being dealt with in the relevant time frame, that I am not going to call a division in relation to this aspect of our amendments. We will be calling a division in relation to one of the three and I suggest probably it is most appropriate for the set moved by both the Australian Labor Party and the Greens. I do not want anyone to believe that there are any reasons other than technical ones for not calling a division in respect of the other two. I want to re-emphasise very strongly that Labor believe the approach being put forward by the government is short-sighted. We see no policy justification for it. We want to emphasise also that this is inconsistent with the announcements that were made in the Welfare to Work budget.