Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak on the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Data Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2023. The purpose of this bill is to better support data collection and other related measures being implemented as part of the Vocational Education and Training Data Streamlining program. This will make it much more efficient to assess how effective our investment in VET will be. Our investment in VET is, of course, so critical to our communities and to the nation.

The VDS program will modernise the VET data system and reduce the time delay between the collection, availability and use of activity data, which under the current 25-year-old data system can be up to 20 months old when released. This will enhance the government's ability to assess the effectiveness of their investment in VET. It makes sure we are tracking data in a much more up-to-date fashion and modernises the systems we use. If we want our skills sector and our industries fit for the future our data regime needs to be too, and that's why it is so important that we introduce this bill to support the skills and workforce needs of the nation now and well into the future.

This bill will mean that Australia is more agile to respond to what we need for skills, jobs and industries for the future—again, another demonstration of the forward thinking, optimistic government that we have in this country. Currently, the information needs of students, training providers and decision-makers in much of the VET sector are not being met. We can do better than this and that's what this bill does. It commits to doing better for the entire VET sector. And as an extension, all of our communities across the nation who rely on skilled workforces and VET institutions will be better off.

In my own electorate of Chisholm we have several TAFE campuses, including Holmesglen—and many of my constituents attend the Box Hill Institute. The VET sector is incredibly important to me. TAFE is very important to me. I know I've raised this on several occasions, but I do so because it is a great source of honour to me that the first visit Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made to Melbourne after the election 10 months ago was to Chisholm. It was to a TAFE campus in my electorate. It was to the Holmesglen Drummond Street campus, which is home to the world-leading Victorian Tunnelling Centre. It is a vital institution ensuring that we have a local skilled workforce to do the incredibly important infrastructure work that is underway now in Victoria and that will continue thanks to the critical investment our government is making in the big projects that are truly transformative for our nation, such as the Suburban Rail Loop project. The first part of this project, the Suburban Rail Loop East, will in the most part be in my electorate. As a long-time resident and commuter across the south-eastern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne that this project will connect, I know just how valuable this project is.

A skilled workforce is central to ensuring this important job and many other jobs done across the nation. Labor's always invested in skills. We have always seen the value of vocational education and training and TAFE, and supporting the modernisation of data collection in the sector is another example of this. The care sector, of course, is very important to our nation. It was wonderful to be able to visit the Glen Waverley campus of Holmesglen and meet with early childhood education students who had already, while still studying, been snapped up with great, well-paying, secure jobs because the work that they do is in such high demand at the moment. Also on my visit to Holmesglen in Glen Waverley I visited some floristry students, who very kindly made me a lovely bouquet that really brightened up my office in Burwood.

I also visited the Box Hill Institute recently with Minister O'Connor and the state vocational education and training minister, Minister Tierney, to meet with culinary and electrical students. What was really interesting about our conversations with a number of the students was that they had started their education pathways post secondary school at university. They had then found that that wasn't quite for them so, instead, they decided to embark on an educational journey in the vocational education and training sector studying electrical engineering which, I think, is a really great story, demonstrating the importance of TAFE and of vocational education and training to progressing careers for so many in our communities.

Our government is delivering on our promise to elevate the sector, and TAFE is at the centre of the sector. We are determined for Australia to maintain our position as a global leader in VET. We are delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, upgrading essential TAFE infrastructure through the $50 million TAFE technology fund, and supporting new energy apprenticeships for a modern economy. For these innovations to succeed it is really critical that we can respond rapidly to emerging challenges, address skill gaps and take advantage of market opportunities. The ability to harness the power of information through modern systems and a new information standard will be key to achieving this goal. We can't track things properly if we don't have the best information and data. It is in the national interest that we modernise the way that we collect data, the way we use data and the way we make decisions about the kind of country and workforce that we are going to support in the future. I am really proud to be able to be part of the government to bring this bill to the House. I commend the bill to the House.

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