Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment (Governance and Other Matters) Bill 2020, and I say upfront that Labor supports this bill. Despite the attempts by the Prime Minister in question time today to say that Labor plays political games, I would point out that most of the time Labor will support good pieces of legislation, and this one is a good, commonsense incremental improvement in what we can do. It's interesting that the Prime Minister, with a background in advertising, seems to be able to put a spin on everything without actually addressing the reality of how Labor has addressed legislation in this parliament.

This bill makes some changes to the governance structure of the Australian Skills Quality Authority, or ASQA, and enhances information-sharing arrangements between ASQA and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. The measures to be implemented by this bill are in response to findings from a rapid review of ASQA's governance, culture and processes that was conducted by external consultants. The proposed changes to the governance structure include replacing the chief commissioner and two commissioners with a single independent statutory office holder—a CEO—and establishing a national vocational education and training regulator advisory council. It is intended that the advisory council will provide ASQA with expert advice regarding the functions of the regulator.

It is important that such an advisory council is balanced. Concerns have been raised by TAFE and union representatives that if the advisory body is unduly weighted to representation of private providers it would undermine the regulatory framework. At the moment in Australia we have a balance between TAFE, which is trusted and true, I would suggest, and a section of training that actually spends a lot of time investing in capital for the bits of training that require more than a room with a whiteboard. This legislation does not indicate who would be represented on the advisory body. However, Labor would expect that TAFE Directors Australia, the Australian Education Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions should be represented on the council.

It is crucial that our public provider of VET is heard. Labor will seek to move amendments in the Senate to ensure that TAFE has a seat at this table. I do take some heart from the speeches provided by both sides of the chamber, but particularly by government members, talking about the great work that their TAFEs do in their electorates. Hopefully those words would be a guide for the composition of the council.

As I've said already, Labor does not oppose this bill. What we actually need from this third-term government in its seventh year is genuine reform to this sector. Skills and vocational training has been neglected by the coalition for seven years. Australia had a serious skills shortage way before we ever heard of COVID-19. The number of apprenticeships advertised has dropped not by five per cent and not by 10 per cent but by 73 per cent. The coalition has cut $3 billion out of TAFE and training. Think of the opportunities being denied young Australians because of the $3 billion worth of cuts that have been rolled out. We've heard individual government members talk about their TAFEs and the great work they do; imagine what work could be done if they hadn't cut $3 billion from this TAFE and training sector. I know how important TAFE is, I know how important training and apprenticeships are, and I certainly know how hard it is to find a tradesperson to fix a leaky pipe or a dodgy light switch. We have a skills shortage in this country and cutting $3 billion out of TAFE is not the way to fix it. It is short-sighted.

To make matters worse, the government has failed to spend $919 million of their own TAFE and training budget over the past five years. $919 million is sitting in a bank account, when the VET sector is in crisis and when Australians are experiencing a skills shortage. Employers are crying out for skilled workers, but, under the Liberals, there are 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees and a shortage of workers in critical services, including plumbing, carpentry, hairdressing and motor mechanics. It is hard to believe, but, in the midst of a skills shortage, the number of Australians doing an apprenticeship or traineeship is lower today than it was a decade ago. In Queensland, the number of people undertaking training is down 4.7 per cent. More people are dropping out of vocational training courses than finishing them.

The Liberal government must shoulder the blame for the appalling state of the vocational education and training sector. Not only have they stripped $3 billion out of that sector but there is a $1 billion underspend in the funding that they promised. This seems to be very, very common behaviour for this government: promising big and then underdelivering. That's $1 billion that hasn't been spent, which was targeted for services such as incentives for businesses to take on apprentices, support to help people finish their apprenticeships and a fund designed to train Australians in areas of need.

Such measures, if actually implemented, would at least go some way to addressing the current skills crisis, because Australia is facing a crisis like we haven't experienced before. The coronavirus is obviously a serious health crisis but it is also a serious economic crisis, and Australians are already feeling the pain. Sadly, we've seen queues at Centrelink that stretch down entire streets. The unemployment rate has increased to 6.2 per cent and we all know it's going higher. What does education do? It helps create jobs. Education means higher wages and better quality of life for all Australians. This government does not understand the critical role of TAFE as a public provider, the value in skills and apprenticeships or the value in hardworking and passionate public TAFE teachers.

We already know that nine out of 10 jobs created in the future will need a post-secondary school education, either TAFE or university, so we need to increase participation in both universities and our vocational education sector to make sure our young people are prepared for the world of work, which is changing so very quickly. An appropriately funded VET sector will be vital in driving the economy and enhancing industry. Training skills and apprenticeships don't just magically happen; they are the result of a well-supported sector. They are the result of a leadership that values education and skills and actually uses its mouth to articulate that support.

It's not just the VET sector that this government is neglecting. The coalition government is sitting by and watching as universities shed jobs, close campuses—particularly in regional areas; where are the Nationals?— and cut back on courses and degrees. This coalition government has gone out of its way to exclude universities from COVID support by repeatedly changing its policy to stop university staff from accessing wage subsidies, and it's putting thousands of jobs at risk. We already know of job losses at Deakin University, at Central Queensland University based in Rockhampton—and some of their other campuses—and at La Trobe University. We already know that Central Queensland University are closing three of their campuses. This is a sectorwide crisis and the impact on regional communities will be particular devastating. Universities support 14,000 jobs in country Australia, not just academics but tutors, admin staff, library staff, catering staff, ground staff, cleaners, security and many others—many with families—all with bills to pay and commitments to meet. Across the board we're looking at tens of thousands of livelihoods being destroyed.

The coalition government is in its third term. It's time for them to take responsibility for their decisions, not just blame a Labor government from a couple of parliaments ago. They've failed to deliver a genuine reform package that overhauls the higher educational sector and that properly funds both vocational training providers and universities to deliver the services that their students need. In the middle of this coronavirus crisis, they have abandoned them. Young Australians who are in their last years of school will have less of an opportunity to go to university, if that's what they want, and less of an opportunity to get a trade, if that's what they want.

Even before the coronavirus crisis businesses were crying out for skilled workers. They couldn't grow their businesses because they couldn't find the skilled staff they needed. Australia's economy will get back on its feet but when it does so it will need a skilled workforce. It's so short-sighted to neglect this sector now.

Labor understands the importance of education. In government we continued that great Labor tradition by ensuring that a university education never remained out of reach for our brightest Australians. We invested in education. We opened up a system with demand driven funding in 2012, which saw an additional 190,000 Australians able to get a place at university before the government ended demand driven funding. In his 'Jobs and the future of work' speech, delivered on 29 October last year, the Labor leader announced our intention in government to establish jobs and skills Australia. 'Jobs and skills Australia' would be an independent statutory authority providing a genuine partnership with business leaders both large and small; state and territory governments; unions; education providers; and those who understand particular regions and cohorts.

The COVID pandemic has changed the way we think about ourselves, the way we work and our interaction with the world around us. We are now experiencing one of greatest economic transformations of our lifetimes. Reskilling and upskilling will be a big part of the post-COVID economy. We need quality providers such as TAFE and some of the top quality private providers. We are faced with choices about how to go forward. If we continue down the road being laid out by the Liberal government, with its track record of cuts and neglect of vocational education, TAFEs and apprenticeships, the effects will be devastating. Labor has a vision for a future with good jobs that are done using quality skills, setting working people up for satisfying and prosperous careers and lives. Sadly, on the other side of the chamber we see a government that lacks action and has no ambition for working people. They're happy to use them in advertisements, happy to put their arm around a tradie and happy to stand alongside a high-vis jacket and a hard hat. They're great at advertising, but hopeless at delivering. They put out the budget cup, but don't actually deliver the jobs that are needed or the funding that is needed. Unlike the Liberals and Nationals, the Labor Party believes that funding education is an investment in our nation's future prosperity, not a short-term cost burden. A government without a plan for education and training has no vision and no plan for Australia's future.

The reforms in this bill are welcome. The reforms in this bill are simply a tweak to a system that is in dire need of genuine reform. As usual, it is too late. I take you back to the fact that a $3 billion cut to our TAFE system under this government means that the Prime Minister can put out advertisements with tradies, that the Prime Minister can stand next to tradies, put his arm around them and pretend to the world that he supports trades, but we have a skills crisis brought on by the fact that this government hasn't been investing in apprentices and hasn't been investing in tradies. The Prime Minister is happy to talk about the Canberra bubble, but he needs to take his head out of that bubble and actually look at what he has done to the training sector, because it is a disgrace. He needs to stop embracing tradies and start investing in Australia's great educational system, in TAFE.

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