Labor leader Bill Shorten says making STEM subjects mandatory in schools key to creating jobs

BILL Shorten tonight launched Labor’s plan to harness technological innovation through specialist training to create the jobs of the coming two decades.

BILL Shorten tonight launched Labor’s plan to harness technological innovation through specialist training to create the jobs of the coming two decades.

The Opposition Leader’s formal Budget Reply speech to Parliament proposed funding of broader training in computer programming - or coding - and millions of dollars in seed money for micro-enterprises using those skills.

And he upped the magnitude of the policy contest over small business by proposing it receive a five per cent tax cut to 25 per cent against the Budget’s 1.5 per cent reduction.

Mr Shorten derided Budget measures meant to stimulate small business: “A giveaway to start a fire sale at second-hand car yards and Australian retailers beleaguered by the internet and low confidence, is good ... as far as it goes ... but it doesn’t go very far.”

And he said: “A 1.5 per cent cut for small businesses might be enough to generate a headline, but it is not enough to generate the confidence and long-term growth our economy needs for jobs.

“So tonight I say, let’s go further. Let’s give small businesses the sustainable boost to confidence they deserve. Confidence to create jobs.”

The Opposition Leader also proposed a powerful, independent authority to drive the major capital works projects Australia needed.

The ideas came with attacks on the Government’s economic direction.

“The test for this Budget was to plan for the future: to lift productivity, to create jobs, to boost investment, to turbocharge confidence for the years and decades ahead,” Mr Shorten told Parliament.

“To restore hope. But this Budget fails every test. It is a hoax, a mirage, a smokescreen.”

He also attacked the Abbott Government’s backflip on paid parental leave.

The speech was Mr Shorten’s answer to Government taunts the Opposition has few policies, and no means of paying for the ones it has produced.

The second Abbott Government Budget delivered on Tuesday night was seen as the unofficial deadline for the Opposition to end what the Prime Minister has labelled negativity and submit its own proposals to the policy debate.

Tonight Mr Shorten took up that challenge with policies including:

* The introduction of computer coding into the national education curriculum so that by 2020 it is taught in all secondary schools. Industry would help develop a National Coding in Schools scheme to promote science, technology, engineering and maths course, at a cost of $25 million over five years;

* Enhancing the ability of teachers with 25,000 scholarships over five years for new graduates with STEM degrees to encourage them to teach the subjects, and a five-year STEM training fund to promote professional development;

* Work with banks and other lenders to provide seed money for micro-business entrepreneurs; Create a $500 million Smart Investment Fund to invest up to 50 per cent of start-up capital needed by innovation companies, a scheme similar to the 1998 scheme introduced by the John Howard government but abandoned in Tuesday’s Budget;

* Giving the advisory body Infrastructure Australia the independence enjoyed by the Reserve Bank, allowing it to take a central role in selecting and brokering finance for major public building projects.

But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann attacked Labor’s Reply Budget saying it failed to reduce spending and asked him to “show us the money”.

Labor deficit still at least $52 billion worse than the Government's. Not a single proposal to reduce spending & more spending. #budget2015

— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) May 14, 2015

Show us the money Bill. #budget2015

— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) May 14, 2015

Labor’s plan to scrap the HECS debt of science, maths, engineering and technology students was overwhelmningly welcomed by those on social media.

"Labor will abolish the HECS fees of 100,000 science & engineering students." Now THAT'S a zinger. #BudgetReply #Budget2015 #auspol #Shorten

— Mike Fitzsimon (@MikeFitzAU) May 14, 2015

Yes! Incentivise the careers of the future. Writing off the HECS debt is a brave idea. #BudgetReply

— Tony Lee (@leetspeaker) May 14, 2015

However it was immediately criticised by Education and Training Minister Christopher Pyne who accused Labor of not only introducing a policy they scrapped when in power, but also of not crunching the numbers.

Labor proposes the same failed HECS discount policy they abolished themselves when they were in government adding $1.35b to student's debts.

— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) May 14, 2015

Labor's costings for their HECS discount is $353m but our estimate is more like $2.25b. That's Labor for you - totally innumerate.

— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) May 14, 2015

“Above all, Australians want to know where the new jobs are coming from ... what their kids will do for a living ... what the jobs of the next generation will be,” said Mr Shorten.

“Nothing matters more to Labor than securing the jobs of the future.

Jobs that help Australians aim high, raise families and lift their standard of living. And the new jobs of the future will require new skills.”

The Shorten proposals would, he said, be funded in part by two measures totalling $21bn over four years already announced - a $7 billion crackdown on tax minimisation by multinationals; $14 billion in superannuation taxes on “those who already have millions in their accounts”.

The Opposition is also understood to be close to supporting at least two spending cuts in the Budget totalling about $900 million. They involved tougher concessions on zonal allowances and on backpacker earnings.