Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (11:11): Those opposite are making out that we on this side of the House don't care about vocational education and training and that we don't care about apprentices and traineeships. I can tell you that there is nothing further from the truth, as far as I'm concerned. In recent decades, we've been brought up to think that the only way to make a name for yourself in life, the only way to get a good job and to earn a decent living, is to go to university and get a degree. That certainly wasn't the case for me, and now I have the privilege of standing as the member for Herbert in this House. I am a strong supporter of the VET sector and everything you can learn in the sector. Plumbers, tradies, chippies and people from all sorts of trades are the people who go on to create small businesses, which, as we know, are so important to our economy. Small and medium businesses are the engine room of our economy. But I'll tell you who doesn't support the VET sector, apart from those opposite: the Queensland state Labor government, who are responsible for TAFEs in my electorate of Herbert—which won't help us, will it? Whenever Queensland state Labor is in control, everything is out of control. Let me tell you about some findings from the Queensland Audit Office back in May. That revealed that TAFE Queensland's financial performance is at risk because of declining student numbers. Why would that be? It is because of mismanagement of Queensland TAFE under state Labor. Let me give you a few examples from the report. TAFE spent $390,000 on a golden handshake for the ex-CEO, who was reported to have resigned. TAFE spent more than $100,000 on brand research. TAFE spent $230,000 on undisclosed Commonwealth Games tickets. TAFE's hospitality expenses have doubled in the last three years. In the last three years, TAFE has spent over $2 million on international travel. As the LNP's shadow minister for training and skills development, Fiona Simpson, said at the time: Under Annastacia Palaszczuk, TAFE Queensland has spent millions on international travel, Commonwealth Games tickets and hospitality expenses. Instead of training our next generation of Queenslanders, Labor are using TAFE funds to splurge on focus groups and golden handshakes for ex-CEOs. Apprenticeship and training completion rates have dropped by nearly 40 per cent across four years under the Palaszczuk Labor government. Desperate intervention is needed to get TAFE Queensland back to basics and end this training crisis. Annastacia Palaszczuk also recently refused $245 million in desperately-needed vocational training funding from the Federal Government under a new national partnership. That $245 million of vocational training funds could have been used to help young Queenslanders make a start in their careers. So if those opposite think there's a crisis in the skills and vocational sector, they need only look at themselves. It was the Labor Party that left the country in the thralls of debt. The government has spent six years fixing the mess Labor left behind. Let's not forget that the crisis began in the midst of the turbulent time that was the Rudd-Gillard government. It was then, in 2012-13, that we saw the number of apprentices and trainees starting courses drop by 85,000 in a single year. More than $1.2 billion was chopped from the sector and the employer incentives to take on apprentices. Nine times in two years, the Labor Party wielded the knife against apprenticeship incentives. Every time they needed a cut they went straight for the apprentices. This was the consequence of a Labor government that could not control a budget. Because we know how to control a budget, we know there are some situations in which spending needs to be reined in. Don't let Labor's deception get in the way of the truth here. Where we have taken money out of the vocational system, it has been to rein in programs that have been exploited or poorly targeted. The greatest example of this is Labor's VET FEE-HELP policy. Under this scheme, dodgy providers flourished and student exploitation was high. Students were systematically exploited, signed up to accumulate huge debts for training packages that were never delivered. (Time expired)