Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about policy measures that the government claims as evidence of its success in the employment, education and training space.

The numbers in this motion sound like impressive achievements. Without any context, they sound convincing. They are easily tweetable, shareable and likeable, and—if they're read in isolation—they are misleading. Some of the key points read as follows: 1.2 million jobs created since the government was elected; $525 million for a skills ambassador and other measures; 140,000 young Australians securing employment since the election; and, finally, the government welcoming the prospect of creating a further 80,000 apprenticeships over the coming five years.

Maybe that's like the 100 dams that the current coalition government was going to build. But—wait a minute—how many dams have been built? I think it's none! I, for one, welcome the prospect of the government solving the skills crisis that is of its own making. But my welcoming of that remote prospect won't make it happen. What's needed is serious and sustained funding, not pious wishes.

The magical effect of these context-free figures and these remote prospects evaporates when we put them against another set of cold, hard facts that don't appear in this motion. We have two million unemployed or underemployed people; we have 140,000 fewer apprentices than we did when the coalition took government in 2013; and we know that the Liberals have failed to spend $919 million of their own TAFE and training budget over the past five years, which is criminal, and that's on top of the over $3 billion—that's with a 'b'—ripped out of the overall system. So forgive my incredulity at reading the government's self-congratulatory motion about its wonderful achievements.

To spend even a fraction of the $525 million for a skills ambassador and other marketing measures to sell the message and to frame the narrative when underfunding TAFE by over $3 billion is an absolute dereliction of duty. It is a failure of leadership. I might say it's a bit typical of a government that loves the marketing and the politics whilst our kids haven't got the opportunities provided by VET. When it is so underfunded, it is very difficult to reconcile the previous speaker's words with the reality on the ground.

Let's have a look at the broader context, which is missing from the government's portrayal of reality in the motion. For more than seven years the Liberal government has left Australia facing a crisis in skills and vocation training. It has neglected our TAFE and training system for seven years. It has spent seven years ignoring the vital role that TAFE plays in the growth of our young people—young Australians—and the vital role it plays in the growth of our economy. It has spent seven years cutting that $3 billion while also underspending the meagre amount it did promise the sector. Over the past five years, we know that the government has actively decided not to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TAFE and training that it had allocated. It's a bit like the NDIS: underspending which makes Australians worse off, whether it's people with a disability or our young kids trying to get a trade. Don't take this just on my authority. These facts weren't produced by Labor; they're from the federal education department's own data. It's important that we have the context around which the government is trumpeting $525 million for its so-called skills package.

I am concerned that the federal government is keener on spinning and deflecting, bringing in marketing teams and celebrity ambassadors to distract Australians from the real issue: the underfunding of the VET sector by this coalition government. It must stop.

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