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

I thank Senator Brockman for the question. Indeed, skills and training are at the centre of the Morrison government's economic recovery plan for Australia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And indeed, as our Prime Minister has said, 'This will be a year of generational change in our skills and vocational education sector.' As we emerge from COVID-19, the Morrison government will invest almost $7 billion—$7 billion—to keep apprentices and trainees on the job. Not only that but it will also actually create opportunities for 100,000 new apprentices and trainees to come on into the system to help our fellow Australians who are in need of upskilling or reskilling so that they can move back into the labour market.

The Morrison government is creating and transforming vocational education and training in Australia. Of course, critical to this is the work that we are doing through the national cabinet for our new skills funding agreement to not only provide more transparency but also to better link the funding that the Australian taxpayer ultimately provides to actual skills needs across Australia. This new funding agreement will build on the work that we have already done as a government in relation to ensuring we have a strong skills system. Of course, the first thing we had to do when we were elected to office was clean up the mess created by those opposite in relation to Labor's VET FEE-HELP system.

The problem with Labor is their policies linger. I have to inform the Senate that, to date, in relation to Labor's disastrous VET FEE-HELP system, the taxpayer has spent over $2 billion recrediting the victims of this disastrous policy. So the Morrison government cleaned up Labor's mess, and we are ensuring we are putting skills and training at the forefront of the economic recovery.