Training will drive recovery: Swan

Education will continue to be the engine room of prosperity and training will be the
driving force behind Australia's economic recovery, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.
Mr Swan told an audience in Canberra on Wednesday the government, through its
stimulus measures, had fought the permanent destruction of skills that usually comes
with a sharp economic downturn.
"We didn't let people swing in the breeze. Over 200,000 Australians kept their
jobs," Mr Swan said in a prepared speech for his Mick Young Oration - named after a
former minister of the Hawke government.
"This is important because nothing is more debilitating to a country and to an
economy than prolonged and high unemployment, because it brings with it an
accompanying social and economic cost."
He says it means Australia is better placed than any other country to take advantage
of the recovery.
The Henry Tax Review will consider ways to increase workforce participation and
productivity levels, the treasurer says.
This could be done through the elimination of high effective marginal tax rates,
improving parental leave and providing additional child care.
"But the evidence suggests that the biggest gains will come from improved education
and training provision," he said.
"People with a post-school qualification are less likely to be unemployed than their
less-qualified counterparts."
Post-school qualification levels are a more effective and much fairer way to get
people back into work than the alternatives of reducing minimum wages and income
support.
He says that is why the government embarked on the stimulus measures that improved
the skills of Australians in vulnerable communities.
These included compacts with young Australians, retrenched workers and local
communities.
There was also support for apprentices with the $100 million Apprentice Kickstart
package that provides incentives for employers to take on new apprentices.
The government also asked states and territories to ensure 10 per cent of all
contract labour hours in infrastructure stimulus measures are undertaken by
apprentices.
"The lesson of previous recessions is clear - unemployment takes a lot longer to go
down than to go up," he said.
He said parts of the country were still feeling the social impacts of the recessions
of the early 1980s and early 1990s.
"We've learned that lesson, and when the global financial crisis occurred we were
determined to prevent history repeating."