Senator TCHEN —My question is to the Special Minister of State, Senator Ellison, representing the Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Would the minister advise the Senate of the measures this government has undertaken over the past year to promote apprenticeships in Australia? What have been the results—

Senator Carr —Is this part of the Christmas spirit?

The PRESIDENT —Order! That sort of comment is not relevant to what is going on and it is disorderly.

Senator TCHEN —What have been the results of these initiatives and how do they compare with the previous government's initiatives? How have these initiatives helped young Australians and people in rural and regional Australia?

Senator ELLISON (Special Minister of State) —Our initiatives in training have done a great deal for young people in Australia both in the metropolitan areas and in regional Australia. When this government came to power we had to do a great deal about training because it was not in a good state. I am glad that Senator Tchen asked what we have done this year. In June 1999 there were an estimated 244,000 people involved in a contract of training. That is an increase of 26 per cent on last year. In bringing about this result we have done many things. Firstly, we have the flagship of our training programs: New Apprenticeships. This has provided unparalleled choice and opportunity for those young people—

Opposition senators interjecting—

The PRESIDENT —Order! Senator Murphy and Senator Faulkner, you are behaving in a disorderly fashion.

Senator ELLISON —The opposition might laugh, but there are a lot of people in Australia who are interested in this question because it relates to training, particularly of young Australians. They might want to take note of the new unemployment figure: 6.7 per cent. That is the best figure we have had since June 1990, and part of that is an increase in youth employment. Why? Because of our training programs. We are training young Australians, which is meeting the demand for skills—unlike when we came to power, when there was a shortage of skills. We have been addressing that. We have spent $1.6 billion on VET funding in the last financial year. We have provided $918 million to the states in relation to VET funding, and that has given them certainty in the programs that they have.

Senator Carr —So why is the quality falling?

The PRESIDENT —Senator Carr, I have already called you to order several times this question time.

Senator ELLISON —I hear Senator Carr. Senator Carr comes from Victoria, where the Labor state government is reneging on the national training program.

Senator Carr —Why is quality falling?

The PRESIDENT —Senator Carr, persistently ignoring remarks from the chair is also disorderly and has its own consequences.

Senator ELLISON —Madam President, the state Labor government in Victoria is winding back the training program in that state and taking it back years to that inflexible regime which existed before and denying opportunity and choice for employers and those people who are seeking training opportunities.

We have also brought about VET in schools. For the first time we are seeing a great uptake of those young students who want to engage in training and also further themselves whilst at school. In fact, we have some 130,000 Australian students in just under 2,000 schools across this country who are taking up the opportunity of engaging in part-time training. We also have 300 sites for our New Apprenticeships scheme. The New Apprenticeships scheme provides centres which provide information not only for employers who want to take on someone for training purposes but also for those people who want to engage in some form of training. This scheme enhances the number of people we have in training and gives information and incentives to employers.

While I am on the subject of incentives, I might just point out the $1,000 incentive that we brought in in regional Australia for those employers who are willing to take on someone to meet a specific identified skills shortage. That spells good news for regional Australia. It provides the incentive for employers to take on people who want to engage in training in regional Australia. And we are going to do more. We are going to see that record number of people in training improve and we are going to fix the situation which we found when we took over from the Labor government back in 1996.