Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Antic for the question.

Senator Ayres interjecting—

I will take that interjection from Senator Ayres. Senator Ayres, it is a fact that the federal government does not fund TAFE. So every time someone on the Labor side opens their mouth and says, 'The federal government has cut TAFE,' you are actually wrong. You may want to speak to your own state government because they are responsible.

This week is the 10th National Skills Week. It is a week in which we celebrate vocational education and training in Australia. Certainly, as Australia recovers from the economic effects of COVID-19, a skilled workforce has never been more important. That is why the Morrison government has made such a large investment in making our skills system more responsive to the labour market demands of this country and more attractive to potential students from all walks of life.

As part of our economic response to COVID-19, we have committed $2.8 billion across 2019-20 and 2021 to support small and medium business across Australia to retain their apprentices. That is of course through our Supporting Apprentices and Trainees measure. This subsidy will support around 90,000 businesses across Australia employing around 180,000 apprentices. It will ensure that they are allowed to continue in their jobs despite COVID-19. In fact, since we launched this subsidy on 2 April, as at 13 August this measure has already supported 87,570 apprentices across 50,260 employers and has resulted in $462 million in payments that have been paid out to employers so that they can keep on their apprentices and trainees.