No substance, no policy detail and no funds

The Government's announcement of a "jobs plan" skills training and Year 12 retention is just another example of Julia Gillard delivering a headline with no substance, no policy detail, and no funds, according to Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training Christopher Pyne.

"Just like in the Hollowmen, Julia Gillard's approach to public policy seems to be to wait until an issue comes up, and then announce that you have a plan to deal with it," Mr Pyne said.

"This so-called 'jobs plan' is the plan you announce when you don't have a plan," he said.

It amounts to nothing more than a nebulous promise to 'target hundreds of thousands of young people' with incentives to stay at school - an easy promise to make, given that of course young people are likely to stay at school longer at times of high unemployment. There is no new education policy initiative in this 'plan' at all.

Julia Gillard has form when it comes to vacuous policy failure.

After a year of promises to the higher education sector, the Deputy Prime Minister's response to the Bradley Review set targets for Universities but provided no funding for the Universities to meet them.

After two separate announcements on Literacy and Numeracy standards last year, all we have seen in practice is the abolition of the effective Even Start $700 vouchers program for all students in Australia, and its replacement with a handful of pilot programs for a handful of schools.

"After nearly a year and a half, the Deputy Prime Minister has abjectly failed to deliver on the Government's promises to deliver Computers in Schools and Trades Training Centres to every high school student.

"At a time of recession and rising unemployment, now more than ever we need an Education Minister who can develop real policies and deliver on election promises.

"Australian students and job-seekers deserve better than the part-time Education Minister we have,"" Mr Pyne said.