2019-10-23
Australian Greens Spokesperson for Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has said that the Liberal/National Government is failing on skills and training. The Department of Education’s Annual Report shows a number of skills programs that have come in seriously under budget, including the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network ($51m under budget); Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program ($35m under budget); Industry Specialist Mentoring for Australian Apprentices ($11m under budget).[1]
Senator Faruqi said:
“Looking at these chronic underspends, it is clear that the Liberal/National Government is intent on letting vocational training wither through underfunding.
“On vocational training, the Government says one thing and does another. They say they want to encourage people into trades, but then they underfund skills training by tens of millions of dollars.
“Labor and Liberal just recently teamed up to strip four billion from TAFEs and universities by abolishing the Education Infrastructure Fund. Combined with this chronic underspend in skills funding, TAFE and their students are being starved of resources.
“Skills and training are incredibly important for a sustainable future and failing to fund them properly is incredibly short sighted and destructive,” she concluded.
[1] Page 125, https://docs-edu.govcms.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/de_2018-19_ar_basi...