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

I'd like to thank the member for Swan for her question. I look forward to joining the member at Bentley TAFE in her electorate later this month.

The Albanese government has been very focused on introducing, initiating and implementing fee-free TAFE, and it has been an extraordinary success. Over 150,000 Australians have enrolled in these fee-free TAFE courses, increasing access to training and skills that are in demand in our economy.

We've entered negotiations with states and territories to extend this approach into 2024 and beyond, because we know that nine out of every 10 future jobs rely upon post-secondary-school qualifications, whether they're in higher education—universities—or the VET sector.

We understand that. And the VET sector is indeed doing much of the heavy lifting.

That's why we're investing in TAFEs and students to ensure a pipeline of skills that are critical for this nation's future. It's critical in the areas of energy, sovereign capability, the care economy and many other sectors as well. The most popular courses to date have been in precisely these skill priority areas, whether that be early childhood education, nursing, cybersecurity, manufacturing, energy or construction. So we are continuing to work in these areas of demand. But fundamental to fee-free TAFE is the opportunity it provides Australians to get good, secure jobs in areas of high demand and also to supply those skills that businesses are crying out for. Our policy, of course, is also providing cost-of-living relief and removing cost barriers so that students and workers can access those much-needed skills.

But not everybody agrees with our plans to support students. According to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, fee-free TAFE is 'wasteful spending'. An initiative that is providing much-needed skills to students, workers, businesses and our economy is, according to those opposite, 'wasteful spending'. But what would you expect of the Liberal Party, the party of robodebt, a party that knowingly continued an illegal scheme that persecuted hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians?

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