ELECTION 2010: Gillard and Abbott focus on education, but Work Choices debate refuses to die

In the Sydney suburb of Blacktown, Gillard built on yesterday’s announcement of a new $2.5 billion national cadetship program by announcing the Labor Party would spend $25 million to fund 50,000 work experience placements for secondary school students who enter the cadetship scheme.

Students who are taking part in the trade cadetships will be able to do two weeks of work experience.

“If you want to be a plumber or a carpenter or a motor mechanic, then at the moment your pathway isn’t clear,” Gillard told reporters.

“Our nation needs skilled tradespeople.”

However, Gillard was forced to defend the need to fund work experience places, given many schools run work experience programs that are free or funded by employers.

In Brisbane, Tony Abbott announced that if the Coalition wins government it would extend and increased Labor’s current education tax rebate program for school students from January 2011.

The 50% tax rebate is currently $390 for primary school students and $779 for secondary students, but would be lifted to $500 a year for each primary school student and $1,000 for each high school student.

The Coalition would also increase the spending limit for the rebate to $1,000 for primary schools students and $2,000 for high school students.

“At the moment, basically this is a laptop rebate,” he told reporters.

“We are expanding the rebate so it can be claimed for school fees and also for other educational costs such as tuition and special educational costs for children with, for instance, dyslexia.”

The rebate would start on January 1, 2011 so it is in place for the beginning of the school year.

“We’ll pay more, it will cover more, and it will start sooner than is the case with the Government’s rebate.”

The Opposition has also criticised the Government’s plan to extend the rebate to cover school uniforms, saying this part of the rebate will not start for two years.

Despite the focus on education, Abbott has been unable to completely dodge questions about the Howard Government’s Work Choices industrial relations regime.

While Abbott has promised not to revise Work Choices and leave Labor’s Fair Work regime as it is, reports this morning suggested he would need to make changes to the laws if he was to follow through on a promise to cut government funding for union elections.