Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Griff, for that very relevant question. You are correct in saying that the government is providing significant support to help young Australians get into apprenticeships. It is a significant challenge to do that in our economy at the moment. While apprenticeship numbers have been down for some time, youth unemployment is also down over the past few years. The government is investing to help support new apprenticeships through our $60 million investment in the Australian apprenticeship wage subsidy trial. That builds on other initiatives the government has in place, which include an additional identified skills shortage payment of $156 million and the incentives for the Australian Apprenticeships program of $44 million. These are new initiatives that build on the Skilling Australians Fund, which was established in the last couple of years.

The government has announced a request-for-tender process associated with the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network. That was announced in June by Minister Andrews. The process will ultimately lead to an RFT which will outline the kinds of services and support that service providers would provide to help apprenticeships, not just to fill those positions but also to make sure they have the requisite training and, as the senator outlined, make sure they continue in their apprenticeship and ultimately to get support. That is in the process of being developed with service providers and those interested in this space.