Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Chisholm for her question and for her strong support for TAFE and the VET sector, not only in her electorate but across the country. Upon election, it was clear that not only had we inherited a $1 trillion Liberal debt but also a massive skills deficit, so much so that the occupations on the skills shortage list grew from 153 occupations to 286 in 12 months. The OECD reported that we had the second-highest labour shortage per capita among OECD countries. We also know nine out of every 10 jobs require post-secondary school qualifications. For that reason, we convened the Jobs and Skills Summit, we enacted Jobs and Skills Australia, and we struck eight agreements with state and territory governments—Labor and Liberal—in order to invest in 183,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places for 2023.

I am happy to say that on Friday I accompanied the Prime Minister and Minister for Early Childhood Education and indeed the Labor candidate for Aston, Mary Doyle, to Swinburne University, a dual provider that is providing very important courses to fill the skills shortages in our economy. These students that we met at this campus are able to save up to $6,960 for these courses. So not only the likelihood of them enrolling in these courses has grown because of the fee-free TAFE approach by the government, but we are seeing these skills shortages filled as a result of the courses that are outlined.

On 1 July, the Albanese government's cheaper child care will become a reality, providing more cost-of-living relief for around 1.2 million Australian families. But to ensure that we have the staff required, we must invest in skills and that is what we're doing through this process. All across Australia, students are enrolling in early childhood education courses and other areas of demand to supply these skills.

But not everyone agrees with our approach to making skills and training more accessible. I am asked what is the response by others, and I'm afraid to say that those opposite have referred to fee-free TAFE as 'wasteful' spending. This is an opposition, a former government, that was happy to spend on sports rorts and car park rorts but they want to say investing in skills in areas of demand is a waste. Frankly, we will continue to invest in skills, invest in areas of demand, so that businesses are better off, so students are better off, and so the economy is better off. (Time expired)

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