Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The previous member was really proud of his achievements, and he should be. He is one of tens of thousands of people of his generation who got access to an apprenticeship because, back then, the federal government used to fund apprenticeships. Back then, the federal government owned railway yards and built things. Back then, the federal government owned the Australian defence industries and employed apprentices. That is why Labor is committed to going some way to restoring that by guaranteeing that one in 10 of the employees on government projects will be an apprentice.

I know hundreds and hundreds of people of the same generation who started out at the old ordnance factory in Bendigo. They got their apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. They're proud of that. They've done well. Some have gone on to be local councillors. Some continued to work there and were acknowledged not that long ago for their 45 or 50 years of service at Bendigo Thales. Do you know what's heartbreaking? This government signed the new Hawkei contract out at Bendigo Thales, but guess what? It didn't lock in any apprentice ratios. So guess what happened—$1.6 billion for the Hawkei contract and not one new apprentice, because this government did a contract with a for-profit, private enterprise and didn't lock in a commitment to apprentices. That is the track record of this government. It has cut so much money from apprenticeships and TAFE that it is now hard to find a decent apprenticeship which is well funded and which people can do.

The government also said that, somehow, Victoria is underfunding TAFE or not funding it. Maybe they should have read the Herald Sun last week or actually seen the commitments that the state Labor government made for the people of Victoria. They actually announced free TAFE. Maybe that's why the government didn't understand it! It was because we had a state Labor government offer free TAFE. That is $172 million towards free TAFE because we have a state Labor government putting TAFE first. That's maybe what the government have a problem with. Labor invests in TAFE. Labor believes in TAFE and will always be the party that stands up for TAFE. There was $60 million also announced last week for a new TAFE campus in Bendigo. It's another chunk of money from a state Labor government in TAFE.

Victorian Labor is not the only Labor state government that is doing that. We've seen significant investments in Queensland and in WA. Labor puts TAFE first, so you can imagine the anger on this side of the House when we learnt on budget night that the government have yet again taken the axe to TAFE. This time they've cut $270 million from TAFE, from the Skilling Australians Fund, in their budget. Last year they said that in the budget there'd be $1.47 billion over four years. In this budget, it is $1.2 billion. They're cutting funding. This fund is about seeing where we have skills gaps in this country, where we have 457 visa workers in this country, and charging the employers a fee—and that goes into training. If we're going to close the gap, if we want to reduce the number of temporary skilled migrants that we have coming into this country, then we have to invest in TAFE. We have to offer those apprenticeships, and we have to make sure that there are courses available.

It's really concerning that the government doesn't understand that connection. It's really concerning that they're not backing Labor's plan to guarantee that two-thirds of all vocational education funding will go into TAFE. It's really concerning that they're not backing our commitment to one-in-10 apprenticeship ratios in all government contracts, guaranteeing that we do have that next generation of skilled people going forward.

I've lost count of the number of employers in regional Australia that I've met who are struggling to find fitters and turners, who are struggling to find people with the traditional trades, whether they be mechanics or people involved in any form of automation or in our building trades. We are struggling as a country. This funding that the government has cut would have gone some way to bridging the gap. It wasn't the only thing, but it was helping. It says a lot about a government when they cut TAFE funding and say loudly and clearly to the rest of the economy, 'That's okay, just keep bringing in temporary skilled workers.' They have no commitment to giving young people a go. They've got no commitment to ensuring that our TAFEs stand up as the trusted, publicly funded way of delivering vocational education in this country. (Time expired)

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