Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Minister for Education and Training and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:45): What the Turnbull government has already done is show leadership in the terms we have struck for our Skilling Australians Fund—in the terms we have struck to make sure that no longer, when the federal government hands money over to the states and territories, can they simply then cut an equal amount out of vocational education and training. That's what happened under previous deals that were struck by the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments. You went and did deals with the states and territories to fund vocational education and you provided money, but during those years we saw federal contributions increase and state investment in vocational education and training decrease. There was no net benefit to students, there was no net benefit to TAFE and there was no net benefit at all to vocational education and training. All that happened was that there was a cost shift from state and territory budgets onto the federal budget. The Turnbull government has taken a far more responsible approach through the Skilling Australians Fund, which we are pleased five jurisdictions have signed up to already—a $1.5 billion fund. We are guaranteeing that every dollar we put in has to be matched by a state and territory dollar, that the cost shift comes to an end and that, when the federal government says there will be real investment in creating more apprenticeship opportunities for more young Australians, that actually is matched by the states and territories—that it results in more apprenticeships and in more investment in, we hope, around 300,000 additional apprenticeship opportunities. The PRESIDENT: Senator Cameron on a point of order. Senator Cameron: The point of order is that I asked a question about TAFE and whether the government will match Labor's promise that two-thirds of government funding for vocational education will go to the TAFE system. That's the question. The PRESIDENT: You have restated part of the question. The minister was being directly relevant. Senator BIRMINGHAM: We are not going to fall into the trap of Labor's bad policies. Under Labor's bad policies we saw a cost shift happening before—a cost shift which meant that when the federal government provided more money for vocational education and training the states ripped it out. Then we saw under the previous Labor government the disaster that was VET FEE-HELP. Billions of dollars were wasted because the Labor Party never thought that when setting up such a loan scheme it was necessary to have a strong check on who could offer the loans on the courses they offered or on the prices that were charged. The Turnbull government has fixed all of that. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Cameron, a supplementary question.