Mr WALLACE (Fisher) (11:01): I'm grateful to the member for Cooper for giving me another opportunity to talk about an issue that is critical to businesses and young people in Fisher. But I must say to her that in proposing this motion she might have benefited from a little research into what happened before she was elected to this place. It's unfortunate she hasn't hung around to listen to this debate. In finding the causes of the crisis that the member for Cooper describes, she would do well to look around her at her colleagues on the Labor benches. Can I suggest that she have a chat with her friends the Leader of the Opposition, the member for McMahon and the member for Sydney? It was, after all, under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government that the decline in apprentice numbers began. It was on her colleagues' watch that Labor tore $1.2 billion of incentives from apprenticeships. It was while her colleagues did nothing that the single largest fall in apprenticeships on record happened. I know the member for McMahon had quite a few jobs in 2012-13, but among them were the minister for tertiary education and skills and Treasurer. The member for Cooper might like to ask him—while he did nothing in those critical two roles, we lost 85,000 apprenticeships in one single year. In contrast, this government has fixed Labor's mess, reformed their disastrous VET FEE-HELP system and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting vocational education. We have made $1.5 billion available in the Skilling Australians Fund to help create thousands more apprenticeships. We have expanded the Australian apprentice wage subsidy trial to help create another 80,000 places, invested $156.3 million for a new additional identified skills shortage payment and, in the most recent budget, committed another $525 million in a new skills package. However, what we really need, to turn around the decline in vocational education and training, in this country is not another government initiative but a genuine change in culture among parents and young Australians. I recently met with a constituent in Fisher: Dean Goode. Dean is the CEO of Kilcoy Global Foods, a $1.3 billion meat-processing business based in my electorate. In total, Kilcoy Global Foods have more than 1,300 employees, bringing in hundreds of millions in export dollars to Australia from Japan, South Korea, China, the US, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Middle East and South America. Kilcoy Global Foods wants to employ Australians and give them the skills they need in the business. This year alone, Dean tells me, they have spent millions of dollars in training. Kilcoy Global Foods offered their employees courses in certs II, III and IV. They are more than willing to invest the three years it takes to condition and train a young Australian to be a skilled meat-processing employee. To support this process, they've added extra people to their recruitment team, trying to source the employees they need and begin them on this vocational training journey. Yet, despite all of this, Kilcoy Global Foods constantly has dozens, even hundreds, of jobs unfilled in their business. We need a culture shift in this country to help fill them. When I speak to my electorate's fishing businesses, fruit producers and many others, the story is the same. Ultimately, we must change the belief that a university education is the only or the best way to get ahead. The QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research VET student outcome study dispel the myth that university graduates have an immediate advantage in the workplace. In their first year after graduating, the rates of full-time employment for VET and university graduates are almost identical. Their median salaries are, likewise, very similar. Most university students have to balance their education with a part-time job and finish with considerable debts. So I say to the member for Cooper and all members of the House: the government's support for vocational education is out there. What we need to do is get out and speak to young people and the mums and dads and make sure they know— (Time expired) The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Rob Mitchell ): I thank the member for Fisher. The question is that the motion be agreed to. I call the member for Gilmore.