Unfortunately, the assistant minister hasn't learnt from his previous mistake, just as the solution to homelessness is not to put a positive spin on it, nor is the solution for the economy is to put a positive spin on it. It's a pretty sad day when a journalist's first response to a mistakenly sent talking points cheat sheet is to fact check it—not only that, but for there to be significant discrepancies between what the Prime Minister's office is telling members opposite to say and what the hard facts are actually telling us. It's like people don't trust him, and that may be what happens when you put out media releases that claim to be 50-50 funding for a dam, when in fact, when it boils down to it, it's 25-75 per cent. I say this as someone who spent their 20s testing the voracity of governments and oppositions as a journalist. It strikes me that perhaps the Prime Minister's visit to President Trump has rubbed off on him just a little bit too much.

Let's turn to one of the things that actually matter most to people—one of the things where we do need to have some action. People want a decent, steady, fairly paid job, and they want the means to get the skills so they can get one. It's pretty fundamental. This is the basis of knowing that, if you work hard, you will be rewarded, you'll get ahead of the bills and you'll have some sense of financial security.
But working hard is no guarantee of anything under this Prime Minister. Just getting the skills in the first place is an ever-growing challenge. This Prime Minister promised 80,000 new apprentices, but in fact there are 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees today than when the Liberals first took office. There's a systemic problem when we have more people dropping out of apprenticeships today than completing them. I'm not going to assign blame to the apprentices or their employers or teachers, but clearly there is an absolute flaw in the system that those opposite are refusing to address. It sees us with fewer apprentices and trainees today than 10 years ago, and all that while we've got 1.9 million Australians looking for work or extra work hours, and three-quarters of businesses saying that they can't find the trained and skilled staff they need.

If you've tried to hire a brickie or a carpenter lately, as I have, you'll know the challenge. The shortages go across a range of skills and trades, from pastry chefs to hairdressers to aircraft maintenance workers. I can't help but think that the $3 billion cut from TAFE and training by those opposite has something to do with the problem, yet the government's solution is a PR one. I like a good celebrity as much as the next person, but how is that a policy solution? We are not in the business of marketing here; we are in the business of solving problems with genuine solutions. It's not just this arrogant Prime Minister doing it; that whole side believe that there's nothing that a marketing, advertising or PR campaign can't fix. How wrong they are! As someone who spent 25 years in that industry, I know it has a role—but not here.

As for jobs, over a million Australians want and need extra work—on average, an additional 23 hours—but they can't get it. Then there are the million who've given up looking and don't even get counted in the figures, because they can see no employment options open to them. I have men and women in their 50s with a lifetime of work skills telling me that no-one will look at them in spite of the experience that they have. I speak to young people juggling multiple jobs to put together a portfolio that just pays the bills but rarely provides paid sick leave or holiday leave. Even full-time workers can see their pay isn't growing at the same pace that costs are rising. These are real problems that need real solutions, not papering over by marketing campaigns.

I want to turn to that other huge problem the government's failing to tackle, and that's the response to climate change. I'm a mum, so I am not for scaring the children unnecessarily. But, sadly for the Prime Minister, kids these days have access to information—the same information that those opposite should be able to access—that tells us the climate is changing, whether we like it or not, and that we need to respond accordingly. The cause of anxiety is not just that things are changing but that the government is failing to act. This government fails to acknowledge that emissions across the economy are rising and have risen every year since it came to power. There are steps we can take, but the Prime Minister won't find them in a McDonald's