5 years ago
HOW CAN ANYONE TRUST THE LIBERALS ON SKILLS AND TRAINING?
SENATOR THE HON DOUG CAMERON
After cutting $3 billion from vocational education and training, and presiding over a drop in 150,000 apprentices, the Liberals cannot be trusted to fix Australia’s skills and training crisis.
The Liberals claim today’s announcement will be funded from their $525 million skills package announced in the Budget. However, last week’s Senate Estimates confirmed only $54.5 million of this is new money.
Last week’s Budget also confirmed the Liberals’ ever diminishing Skilling Australians Fund has been cut by a further $649 million.
Labor has committed to providing additional incentives for 150,000 apprenticeships, 70,000 more than the Liberals.
Under the Liberals, TAFE enrolments have plummeted by 24.5 per cent, dodgy for-profit training providers have flourished and thousands of students have accrued bad debts for courses they never undertook.
The Productivity Commission has described Australia’s vocational education system as “a mess”.
Only Labor has the policies to increase the capacity of the vocational education system and the skills of the Australian workforce.
If elected, a Shorten Labor government will guarantee at least two out of three public VET dollars go to TAFE.
Labor has also committed to more than $1 billion in additional investment in TAFE, including:
The Liberals claim today’s announcement will be funded from their $525 million skills package announced in the Budget. However, last week’s Senate Estimates confirmed only $54.5 million of this is new money.
Last week’s Budget also confirmed the Liberals’ ever diminishing Skilling Australians Fund has been cut by a further $649 million.
Labor has committed to providing additional incentives for 150,000 apprenticeships, 70,000 more than the Liberals.
Under the Liberals, TAFE enrolments have plummeted by 24.5 per cent, dodgy for-profit training providers have flourished and thousands of students have accrued bad debts for courses they never undertook.
The Productivity Commission has described Australia’s vocational education system as “a mess”.
Only Labor has the policies to increase the capacity of the vocational education system and the skills of the Australian workforce.
If elected, a Shorten Labor government will guarantee at least two out of three public VET dollars go to TAFE.
Labor has also committed to more than $1 billion in additional investment in TAFE, including:
- $50 million for 10,000 Pre-apprenticeship Programs
- $83 million to support 20,000 Adult Apprentices
- $200 million Building TAFE for the Future Fund
- $380 million for 100,000 fee-free TAFE Places
- $334 million for 150,000 Additional Apprentice Incentives
- $12 million for the Women into Trade Program
Labor will also ensure 1 in every 10 jobs on Commonwealth priority projects are filled by Australian apprentices, and we will conduct a once in a generation inquiry into the post-secondary education system to identify and fix the problems created by the Liberals.