Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support my Labor colleagues who have spoken before me. Let me tell you about the role TAFE has played in my life. I am a proud TAFE graduate. I have been a TAFE teacher, curriculum designer, competency-based training project manager and RPL assessor. My working life started with an apprenticeship in hairdressing and that gave me the opportunity to commence as a small-business owner in partnership with my mother at the age of 18. It is very likely that I would not be standing here today without my background in TAFE. My son, who struggled through school and actually left school at 15 years of age, is now the manager of food services for a large metropolitan hospital, and that would not have happened without his ability to access vocational education and training. I have a deep understanding from a personal and professional perspective of the importance of vocational education and training in the lives of many Australians. That is why I'm appalled by the Turnbull government's severe cuts to this sector. Not everybody wants to study law at the University of Sydney like our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. Not everyone wants to study law at the University of Adelaide like the Leader of the House, Christopher Pyne. Studying law might be the norm for those on the other side, but it is certainly not the norm for the wider Australian population.

Thousands and thousands of Australian people have studied with vocational education and training providers. Vocational education and training graduates include Australian icons and celebrities. Former Prime Minister, the Hon. Paul Keating, attended Belmore and Sydney technical colleges for a couple of years after leaving school at the age of 15. Supermodel Jennifer Hawkins, champion Rugby League player Kurt Gidley, Michelin-star chef Brett Graham and Screaming Jets guitarist Grant Walmsley are all proud graduates of the Hunter TAFE in New South Wales. Curtis Stone is a proud graduate of Melbourne's Box Hill Institute of TAFE, as is AFL player turned commentator Matthew Richardson. Australia's favourite backyard guru, Don Burke, from Burke's Backyard, studied horticulture at Ryde TAFE. Internationally renowned Australian designer Alex Perry studied at East Sydney Technical College. He even called his acceptance into the college as his big break, as did costume designer and four-time Oscar winner Catherine Martin, who studied at Sydney Technical College. Catherine, a vocational education and training graduate, has won two Academy Awards for Moulin Rouge in 2002 and another two for The Great Gatsby in 2014. Having won four Oscars, she is the most awarded Australian in Oscar history.

These Australian legends are just a few of the faces of the thousands of Australians who have graduated from vocational education and training. I say to the Turnbull government that vocational education and training might not be the same as a law degree, but it is just as prestigious. The government's lack of understanding of the critical need for excellence in trade and other vocational skills continues to amaze me, as does the continual attacks the Turnbull government are making on this sector. Their severe cuts and attacks will do nothing to prepare this country for the jobs of the future. It seems as though the Turnbull government are hell-bent on preventing vocational progress. As much as they don't seem to want the industries of the future, and try as they may to send this country back to the Dark Ages, change is inevitable. Maybe this government could focus on the needs of a changing world and what that means for skill development in this great nation, and stop the massive cuts to vocational education and training. Growth and progression are the future for this nation, but that also means that we will need new skilled workers and workers with updated skills not only here in Australia; there will also be a need for our neighbours in the Asian countries.

The Prime Minister says he is a good leader. I suggest that he starts acting like one and develop policies to fund and enact what will prepare our country for the jobs of the future. This would go a long way to addressing some of the highest unemployment rates across the country. Maybe my home town would never have been named the jobless capital of the nation and Townsville would not have one of the highest insolvency rates in the nation. The simple fact is that only a Labor government has what it takes to get the right policy enacted to get vocational education and training up and running again in this country. Australia needs a plan and investment in jobs for the future, and vocational education and training will play a pivotal role in achieving that plan. The jobs of the future will require quality vocational education and training—not necessarily a law degree, like those opposite, but we will need a wide range of vocational skills that will create employment, including apprenticeships and traineeships. We could and should be a manufacturing nation. We could and should be the nation that creates and builds on the industries of the future. North Australia could be the solar manufacturing capital that connects to Indonesia, India and Asia more broadly. North Queensland could export not only beef but also solar panels. A law degree cannot teach trade and vocational skills that are needed to build jobs in this great nation. A trade qualification must be studied with a quality vocational education and training provider.

I will always be the member who stands up and fights for jobs. Since being elected, jobs have been my primary focus: jobs for Townsville, jobs for veterans, jobs for our youth, jobs for our first nation people, jobs for our refugees and migrants. I have met with many national and international business leaders and CEOs. They have all complimented Townsville on our capacity and enormous opportunities, but all have said there is one thing holding them back. All have said that they are holding off any potential future investment because the Turnbull government has been unable to provide certainty regarding growing industries like energy. The Turnbull government is holding back jobs and growth in my electorate because there is no energy plan for our country. Certainty needs to be provided. Under the Turnbull government, we have seen no certainty for a plan to address our national energy crisis, we have no certainty regarding jobs, we have seen no certainty regarding training and education for the jobs of the future, and we have seen no certainty regarding the position of the Deputy Prime Minister. The only thing the country knows for certain is that the Turnbull government does not seem to have a clue about these issues. The jobs of the future will require vocational education and training. I keep reiterating that because it is a fact.

The Turnbull government's track record on apprenticeships and training is dismal. Since coming to government, the Abbott-Turnbull governments have cut over $3 billion in apprenticeship support and funding for TAFE, including a cut of $637 million in the last budget. With funding cuts comes the decline in apprenticeships and traineeships across the country. There are 148,000 fewer apprentices and trainees now than when the coalition government entered as the government of the country. There are now only 265,000 apprentices and trainees compared to 413,400 in September 2013. Latest figures from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research confirmed once again that apprenticeship and trainee numbers have fallen. There was a 4.5 per cent decline in the number of apprentices and trainees at 31 December 2016 compared to 31 December 2015. In 2016, compared with 2015, commencements continued the downward spiral since the government came to office, with a decrease of 2.9 per cent following drops of close to 10 per cent to 20 per cent, respectively, over the preceding two years. Trade commencements decreased by 12.4 per cent. Apprenticeship and traineeship completions decreased by 16.1 per cent to 99,000. Trade completions decreased by 13.6 per cent and non-trade completions decreased by 18 per cent. The training rate—the percentage of workers employed as an apprentice or trainee—is down again from 2.3 per cent to 2.2 per cent. The training rate for trade apprentices and trainees fell below 10 per cent for the first time in over a decade to 9.9 per cent, meaning less than 10 per cent of trade workers are currently apprentices.

The Turnbull government cannot be trusted with jobs and apprenticeship and traineeship numbers. The Turnbull government cannot be trusted with training and apprenticeships, and the Turnbull government cannot be trusted to assist North Queensland. If you are an unemployed youth, if you are an unemployed apprentice, if you are one of the nearly 10 per cent of unemployed people in the Herbert electorate, then it is the Turnbull government that needs to hear your anger. Know that Labor has your back.

Labor has a real plan and a real direction for jobs, training and apprenticeships. Since the beginning of the year, Labor has made numerous announcements for our plan for skills and apprenticeships, which include: investing an additional $637.6 million in TAFE and vocational education—reversing the Turnbull government's 2017 budget cuts in full; guaranteeing at least two-thirds of public funding for vocational education will go to TAFE; investing in a new Building TAFE for the Future Fund to revitalise TAFE campuses and facilities in regional and other metropolitan areas; and setting a target of one in 10 jobs for apprentices on Commonwealth priority projects, including major government business enterprise projects.

Labor's Apprentice Ready plan will expand pre-apprenticeship programs for young jobseekers. This program will smooth the transition of 10,000 young jobseekers into workplaces by providing them with nationally recognised, industry endorsed training and preparation for an apprenticeship. Training will be delivered through TAFEs in areas where job demand is demonstrated and local employers are onboard. Labor's plan for advanced-entry adult apprenticeships will invest in workers who are making decisions. This program will fast-track quality apprenticeships for up to 20,000 adults who are facing redundancies or who are already displaced in their jobs. Workers will be given advanced standing for their existing skills and provided with gap training at TAFE in shorter-duration apprenticeships to fill skilled jobs in areas of demand.

Labor knows that you cannot have a plan for Australian jobs without a plan for Australian apprentices and trainees. Labor's announcements and commitments, as mentioned above, will do just that. With the destruction of our vocational education and training sector by the Abbott-Turnbull governments, there will be a lot more tidying up to do into the future. Labor will deliver because Labor is ready to do so.

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