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

I don't know quite what to make of the member for Chisholm's contribution just then. We do have very different values and priorities. I put my name down to speak on this motion because it's incredibly important. We often hear the catchcry that Liberal and Labor are both the same. There's that bloke that keeps putting those ads on the front of the newspapers saying that we're the same. But I'm sure those opposite would agree that we're not the same. We have different values when it comes to different policy settings. I think it's just become the catchcry of opportunists, the cynical, the disengaged or others who have different motives altogether. But it is true—and I tell people this when I'm in my electorate—that we work together across the aisle most of the time, but from time to time we have differences in policy because we attach a different value to things. I'm proud that, when it comes to education, it is really important in our mob, and that's what I'll talk about. I won't be like the member for Chisholm, just having a crack at the Leader of the Opposition, with some ridiculous stats she's plucked from somewhere. But I agree with the member for Dunkley. I think she was completely right when she said, in her motion:

… the inequity in education, skills and training opportunities has been exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government's decisions to, amongst other things, increase the cost of higher education, refuse to fund free access to public TAFE and neglect of the needs of the school system …

The facts are that the universities weren't supported, there has been a disregard for the building of skills among young Australians and the opportunities that they need—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:25 t o 17:36

I was just saying how committed federal Labor is to education and I was painting a picture of what had happened prior to the COVID pandemic arriving. I guess the dangers were there for all to see. Before the pandemic we had an overreliance on international students. We assumed that they would always be travelling here. Once the pandemic hit, the federal government excluded higher education from its JobKeeper package, providing a further and completely unnecessary hit to the bottom line of universities. We all know that some companies and organisations with rising revenue—they were doing well and didn't need JobKeeper—got it. The unis really struggled.

The federal government did drop the ball when it came to supporting unis. We on this side will not and have not. We have a series of plans that will put the sector back on track, with real benefits for every level of education in this country. We'll start by rebuilding the tertiary education sector, which was so badly hit during the pandemic, by creating up to 20,000 new university places across the country, including at Charles Darwin University in my electorate. We're also going to stop the rort in the skills and training being provided, by providing a massive 465,000 free TAFE places, which will give every Aussie kid an opportunity to learn at TAFE or a VET training provider. We will take advantage of the opportunity presented by the climate crisis and will support 10,000 new energy apprenticeships. All of this is underpinned by the Australian Skills Guarantee.

Younger Australians in primary and high schools have faced so much disruption. We'll invest $440 million to improve ventilation in classrooms and to provide more counselling and psychological support. I have a couple of young kids at primary school. All the staff have been fantastic. Up in the Northern Territory we've done better than most with the pandemic in terms of having the kids at school for longer, but I want to give a shout-out to all of our educators, principals and staff, who have done such a wonderful job. We'll keep backing them. (Time expired)

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