Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

What the Turnbull government has already done is show leadership in the terms we have struck for our Skilling Australians Fund—in the terms we have struck to make sure that no longer, when the federal government hands money over to the states and territories, can they simply then cut an equal amount out of vocational education and training. That's what happened under previous deals that were struck by the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments. You went and did deals with the states and territories to fund vocational education and you provided money, but during those years we saw federal contributions increase and state investment in vocational education and training decrease. There was no net benefit to students, there was no net benefit to TAFE and there was no net benefit at all to vocational education and training. All that happened was that there was a cost shift from state and territory budgets onto the federal budget.

The Turnbull government has taken a far more responsible approach through the Skilling Australians Fund, which we are pleased five jurisdictions have signed up to already—a $1.5 billion fund. We are guaranteeing that every dollar we put in has to be matched by a state and territory dollar, that the cost shift comes to an end and that, when the federal government says there will be real investment in creating more apprenticeship opportunities for more young Australians, that actually is matched by the states and territories—that it results in more apprenticeships and in more investment in, we hope, around 300,000 additional apprenticeship opportunities.