Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Campbell has clearly not read the budget papers, and I direct him to those to look at the extra investment in training. I also remind him that the Australian government has not turned anybody away from TAFE. Each state and territory has responsibility for managing its TAFEs, and the government will provide record funding of $5 billion to the states and territories through the Commonwealth-state agreement for skilling Australia’s workforce 2005-08 to support their training systems. That represents a real increase of 4.1 percent compared to 2004.

We have committed, as I said, $10.1 billion over four years for training. Our election commitments include initiatives to attract and retain people in new apprenticeships. This is the emperor with no clothes. It is this government that has poured money into training for vocational skills. (Time expired)