QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr GILES (Scullin—Minister for Skills and Training) (14:45): Thank you to my friend the member for Canberra for her question. Like everyone on this side of the House, she understands just how critical it is that we pull on the full range of levers to ensure that more homes are being built for Australians. This morning, the member for Canberra and I were with the Minister for Housing in the northern suburbs of Canberra to meet Caitlin.
Caitlin is an electrician, and she's a small-business owner. Caitlin this year has taken on an apprentice, an amazing young woman called Poppy. Poppy's just 16, but she always knew that she wanted to undertake a trade.
Caitlin and Poppy are both benefiting from the Albanese government's Key Apprenticeship Program: $10,000 for an apprentice, paid in instalments, backing apprentices like Poppy to start and, most importantly, to finish their apprenticeship. Caitlin benefits too, because she's amongst the thousands of small-business owners backed by an employer incentive as well.
We now have 25,000 new housing construction apprentices who've signed up to the Key Apprenticeship Program in just the first 10 months. That's 25,000 Australian apprentices who we are backing to build more homes in every corner of this country, including 9,300 more chippies, 5,300 more plumbers and 4,800 more sparkies like Poppy—and the member for Moore as well.
More are signing up every week. We are providing targeted support through this program to businesses like Caitlin's to take on apprentices and to apprentices just like Poppy to become qualified tradies. On this side of the House, in the Albanese Labor government, we're helping Australians get trained to build more homes—building homes, not hamburgers, as was the case under the former government's BAC and CAC schemes.
The Leader of the Opposition has a lot to say when it comes to talking Australians down and seeking to divide— The SPEAKER: The minister will pause. The member for Riverina on a point of order? Mr McCormack: The member for Canberra's question was admirably tight, and he wasn't asked about opposition policies.
He wasn't asked about the opposition. He was just asked about Labor's own policies. Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Alright.
I'll deal with this. The minister was asked about what has been the response to the program, so I assume he's going to talk about what the opposition's response to the program was. So he is— Mr Taylor interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order!
The Leader of the Opposition can please just assist the House and me at the moment while I deal with this matter. The minister was being relevant because he was asked about what's the response, and he's going to tell the House what the response was. Mr GILES: I was telling the House about Caitlin's response and Poppy's response and the response of 25,000 Australians.
Your response, Leader of the Opposition, is always to talk Australians down and always to divide communities. You can't even say the word 'TAFE'. You don't support free TAFE, which has seen 742,000 enrolments in just the three years.
But tell us, Leader of the Opposition: do you support the Key Apprenticeship Program and what it is delivering to Australian apprentices, or do you agree with your shadow minister, who said the program is 'wrong' and 'throwing good money after bad money'? Small businesses and Australians deserve to know. The Albanese government backs small businesses, and we back apprentices like Poppy, whereas all of the right-wing parties over there are always talking Australians down while we're backing Australians to get a trade to build more homes for Australians.