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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. It was great to be at Tonsley TAFE in her electorate recently. She's doing a magnificent job and she's quite right to ask this question.

Establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament is about giving the world's oldest continuing culture a legitimate stake in the policies that directly affect their communities. In particular there's no doubt—and I think everyone, if they were genuine, would agree—that if you engage with communities you get better results. That is the truth.

It's fair to say that never has it been more true than when it comes to education and training. Because of its transformative power, education actually changes individuals and communities. That is why state and territory skills ministers, as a part of the negotiation of the National Skills Agreement, will ensure that we aim to close the gap in educational attainment under that National Skills Agreement. It's also true to say that we have had some positive progress. I'm asked: are we doing things already? We've got 4,000 fee-free TAFE places with Indigenous Australians enrolled in those courses, but there's more to be done.

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