Senator MINCHIN (Industry, Science and Resources) (4:24 PM) —I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard .

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

TELEVISION LICENCE FEES AMENDMENT BILL 1999

The Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill 1999 will amend the Television Licence Fees Act 1964 to impose a requirement on commercial television broadcasting licensees to pay an additional amount in licence fees of $1.21 million in 1999-2000, $1.21 million in 2000-2001 and $0.99 million in 2001-2002.

The bill gives effect to the Government's 1999 Budget decision to recover the costs of providing additional resources to enable the Australian Broadcasting Authority to undertake activities related to the conversion from analog to digital television transmission. This bill is accompanied by the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill (No.2) 1999, which makes complementary amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. The bills will help facilitate the introduction of digital television services in metropolitan licence areas on 1 January 2001 and in regional licence areas between 1 January 2001 and 1 January 2004.

Under Schedule 4 of the Broadcasting Services Act, the Authority is required to develop conversion schemes for commercial and national television broadcasters and deal with digital implementation plans. The legislation also gives the Authority the function of assessing the technical feasibility of access to transmission towers and sites by broadcasters for the installation of transmission equipment.

In view of the extra resources required by the Authority to undertake these additional tasks, the Government has decided to recover this cost from the commercial television broadcasters, who will be the major beneficiaries of the Authority's work in this area.

The extra funding of $3.41 million allocated to the Authority over the three years to 2001-2002 will be recovered through a three-year temporary surcharge on annual licence fees paid by commercial television broadcasters. In 1999-2000, this surcharge will amount to less than 0.7 per cent of the $194.5 million paid in licence fees by the commercial television broadcasters for the 1997-98 financial year.

BROADCASTING SERVICES AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1999

The Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill (No.2) 1999 will amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to suspend the cost recovery arrangement applying to expenses incurred by the Australian Broadcasting Authority under the commercial television conversion scheme over the next three years.

This bill complements measures contained in the Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill 1999 which will impose a surcharge on licence fees paid by commercial television broadcasters over the three years 1999-2000 to 2001-2002.

These two bills give effect to the Government's 1999 Budget decision to recover the costs of providing additional resources for the Australian Broadcasting Authority to undertake activities related to digital television conversion.

In recognition of the additional financial impost the surcharge will place on commercial television broadcasting licensees, the Government has decided to exempt these broadcasters from the Authority's current fee for service regime for the three year period of the surcharge.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING FUNDING AMENDMENT BILL 1999

The Vocational Education and Training Funding Act 1992 appropriates funds to support vocational education and training which are provided to the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) for distribution to the States and Territories and for National Projects.

This bill would increase the amount previously appropriated for 1999 by $14.208 million in line with normal price adjustments, taking total funding for 1999 to $918.352 million.

The bill would also appropriate the same level of funding for 2000, giving effect to the government's commitment to maintain funding in real terms for the three year duration of the Australian National Training Authority Agreement 1998 to 2000.

This Agreement is a recognition by both the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments that a strong national vocational education and training system is essential to develop the skills necessary to increase the productivity and competitiveness of Australian industry, and to enable individual Australians to optimise their potential.

Under the Agreement, the States and Territories have also undertaken to achieve growth in their vocational education and training systems through efficiencies.

This is already well under way. I am pleased to report that State and Territory Ministers have estimated that, by the end of 1999, there will be an additional 70,000 training places provided nationally over the 1997 level.

This is an excellent outcome, especially for young Australians, who will benefit from additional opportunities to undertake vocational education and training that will help them gain real jobs.

It will, of course, also benefit those already in the labour market by enabling them to maintain the competitive advantage that up-to-date skills provide.

The Commonwealth funding provided to the States and Territories through ANTA will promote higher standards, provide increased training opportunities and encourage greater choice and flexibility in vocational education and training.

It is a key element in the government's support of the sector and, like the recent budget, clearly reflects the Commonwealth's continuing commitment to strengthen Australia's vocational education and training system.

Overall, this year's budget provides a total of $1.6 billion for vocational education and training. This includes $354 million in 1999-2000 for New Apprenticeships.

There is a record number of New Apprentices in training; standing at an all time high of 206,400 as at December 1998.

The significant growth in the numbers in training is testament to the government's initiatives to modernise Apprenticeships and Traineeships. Through the government's reforms, New Apprenticeships have now expanded real work-based training into new industries and occupations such as information technology, business services, retailing, tourism and hospitality. In a flexible way, New Apprenticeships are delivering training which responds directly to the needs of businesses, and are opening up opportunities for unprecedented numbers of Australians, in high growth industries as well as in traditional trades.

To ensure that people in rural areas can share in these new training opportunities, an extra $51.4 million is being provided under the Rural and Regional New Apprenticeships program from 1 January 1999. This will help to boost opportunities for employment in emerging industries such as information technology, retail and hospitality for an estimated 30,000 New Apprenticeships in rural Australia.

The government has also maintained funding of about $13 million per year for the continuation of the Jobs Pathway Program which is an important way to help the seventy per cent of school leavers who do not go directly on to university to move successfully from school to work.

Together with the government's reforms to vocational training, this funding will provide a sound basis to meet the training challenges that the economy and community will face as we move into the next century.

I commend the bill to the Senate.

Debate (on motion by Senator Gibbs) adjourned.

Ordered that the Vocational Education and Training Funding Amendment Bill 1999 be listed on the Notice Paper as a separate order of the day.