Ms RYAN (Lalor—Opposition Whip) (10:56): We are currently being hit with the biggest skills shortage in a decade and this government is cutting training for workers. Those opposite, as we've just heard, have a little bit of a memory problem. They remember everything that happened six years ago and nothing that has happened since. Let's have a look at the six years of this government—a government going into its seventh year. There are cuts of over $3 billion to skills, apprentices and vocational education and training; a loss of 150,000 apprentices across the country; plummeting TAFE enrolments; TAFE courses cut; TAFE fees skyrocketing; teachers sacked; and campuses closed. We only have to go back as far as 2014, when this Liberal government, in its first budget, slashed a billion dollars and demolished the Tools for Your Trade program. They slashed a further billion from investment in skills by cutting funding and axing other programs, including the National Workforce Development Fund, the Workplace English Language and Literacy program, the Australian Apprenticeships Access Program, the Accelerated Australian Apprenticeships program, the Australian apprenticeships Mentoring Program, the Apprentice to Business Owner program—all slashed. The government announced a much smaller program, the Industry Skills Fund, in the 2014 budget, which was $27 million in the first year and $49 million in the second year, before dwindling down to a paltry $1.9 million in the 2018-19 budget. This is not a government with a commitment to skills and training. In November 2014 they took the axe to the $12.5 million Joint Group Training Program, by 20 per cent, and axed the program completely in 2015-16. Remember, we're just in 2014 here. In December they cut $66 million from the direct adult apprenticeship assistance payment under the Adult Australian Apprentices program. Now we're faced with a skills shortage. Before their second budget, in anticipation of the Abbott government's contempt for skills and training, the peak bodies made a lot of statements. They raised concerns before the 2015 budget but the axe came out again, including a $1.6 million cut and abolishing the Industries Skills Councils. Now, we have a skills shortage. The Industries Skills Councils might have given us some forewarning of what was coming, if they had still existed. Later that year, in December's MYEFO, they cut $273 million over four years from the Industry Skills Fund and $122 million from the Skills for Education and Employment program. It goes on and on—six years of cuts, and now we find ourselves in this position. And what is this government offering? What is their answer to a skills shortage that we haven't seen the likes of for a decade, to the loss of 150,000 apprentices? They want to have a cultural debate. They want us to focus on the fact that TAFE might be seen as the poor cousin to universities. Six years under this government—and now they want to have a cultural debate instead of putting money into the public TAFE sector and building back our capacity to train, to meet the skills shortage. It's a really simple proposal. What we need here from this government is a commitment to public TAFE. That is where the answer lies. We on this side and those on that side know this. We all know this. There's a fascinating article today in The Canberra Times written by Joanne McCarthy. The headline is 'My family are all tradies—I know TAFE isn't what it used to be and I know why'. I'm not going to shy away from the fact that the registered training organisations in the private sector did the wrong thing, in this country, but to quote Joanne: The "cultural bias" towards university, or against TAFE, didn't exist in my neck of the woods before vocational training was disrespected and plundered, internally and externally, over a long period. The TAFE college in Gosford, where I grew up, was on the hill as a prominent and respected local institution. This government needs to get back to basics and realise that it's a public TAFE sector that has the answers they're seeking. All they need to do is make decisions about funding that sector and allow this country to rebuild that sector.