Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Training, the Hon Karen Andrews, says
Australians should not be fooled by Bill Shorten’s speech to the National Press Club today.
“Labor is no friend of apprentices and they have the dismal record to show it,” Minister Andrews said.
“With Bill Shorten playing a lead role, Labor ripped $1.2 Billion dollars out of the sector in multiple cuts between 2011 and 2013,” Assistant Minister Andrews said.
“Labor’s cuts cost thousands of jobs and lost opportunities for young Australians and the Turnbull Government is focused on repairing the damage Labor caused.”
The number of Australians taking up an apprenticeship fell by more than 300 thousand as a result of Labor’s mismanagement and the sector is only now starting to recover under the new policy direction of the Coalition Government.
“Bill Shorten’s speech today is typical of Labor – all rhetoric but no substance,” Minister Andrews said.
“Just six months ago at the election, in its own so-called “Fiscal Policy”, Labor provided no new TAFE funding over the next four years,” Minister Andrews said.
“I am committed to restoring vocational education as a valued pathway to a job and career and am focused on increasing the opportunities available to Australians through an apprenticeship.
The Coalition is once again fixing a mess caused by Labor.
For the first time in a long time, commencements in traditional apprenticeships are beginning
to improve.
Latest figures show that in 2015, under the Turnbull Government, more people started a plumbing apprenticeship than in any year under Labor and construction trades worker commencements increased by 21.0 per cent.
