Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a real privilege to be able to speak about the incredible TAFEs that I have in my electorate of Macquarie. From Katoomba and Wentworth Falls, up the top of the mountains, through to the Richmond TAFE in the Hawkesbury, they offer a wide range of skills and training for people young and older. There are so many things to be grateful for that the TAFE system has survived a really tough decade and is still standing. It's standing thanks to the integrity of the TAFE teachers that we have and the support of employers who continue to want to see their workers being trained by TAFE. Of course, it's also thanks to the students, who, over and over again, put their hands up to develop their skills, boost their career prospects and improve and move higher in the profession that they're in.

I want to talk a bit about the incredible work that is being done in my TAFEs, and I don't think I can do that without noting the real boost that we've given TAFE by working with the states to ensure that there are fee-free TAFE places. That has led to more than 214,000 Australians enrolling in a fee-free TAFE course. That is about 35,000 more than the target we set for the year, which was 180,000. So it just shows that, when price isn't a barrier, there is a real desire from people to improve their skills.

In my community, we've seen that happen all over the place. I had the great privilege of meeting with Ayla, who works at Hazelwood Early Childhood Centre. She is one of many Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury early learning educators who are either entering the profession, by doing a fee-free TAFE course, or boosting their skills. Ayla is so typical of the wonderful men and women who come into that early learning sector, loving working with the kids, loving learning about how their brains develop and loving putting what she learns at TAFE into practice in her work almost immediately.

If we talk about the top of the mountains, in Katoomba and Wentworth Falls, there is a real focus on those sorts of caring skills that you can learn.

We also have a very strong hospitality and commercial cooking section, with an industry standard commercial kitchen and an incredible restaurant at Wentworth Falls TAFE. I know that my mum and her friends take any opportunity they can to enjoy the lunches that are served there. It not only gives them a great feed but also helps the students in hospitality and cooking really hone their skills.

There are beauty and hairdressing courses. There are landscape gardening and nursery courses. There are also courses that really fit with our local economy around tourism, like outdoor education training. That's helped by an indoor climbing wall within the facilities at TAFE. So we have an extraordinarily well-supported campus there, but it's fair to say that it has been a really tough decade. There have been many attacks on TAFE. With a change at the federal level to a government with a deep commitment to TAFE and with a change of government at the state level, I look forward to seeing our TAFEs in the region go from strength to strength.

There is a particular course offered at Katoomba around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural arts that I know is working to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to build successful careers through their art. Again, this is something focused very much on the needs of our community, and that's what TAFE should be. It should be about looking at the businesses, the industries and the sectors that are within an environment and at the skills that the community wants to see expanded and offering those. I think we all know that there has been some centralisation in the past, and that means that there's a real opportunity to bring back some courses to local areas. I will certainly be advocating for that. Of course, I'll also be advocating to see more of our arts and cultural courses given higher prominence at TAFE. We've got an arts sector, and, as Special Envoy for the Arts, I've travelled the country and heard the concerns about the lack of technicians in lighting and sound, and there are real opportunities there for TAFE to be able to step in.

I want to talk about the really special campus we have in the Hawkesbury: the Richmond TAFE campus. This is a real hub of agriculture and agribusiness, horticulture and landscaping, livestock and animal care, from wildlife care through to learning how to groom show animals. We've also got courses in IT and programming, providing fundamental skills to so many of our young people. I want to talk about farrowing and equine courses. We used to have an extraordinary range of equine courses, and it continues to be a real scar that some of the really fundamental equine courses were taken from the Richmond campus. It should never have happened. In this area, the horse sector is one of our largest economic drivers, yet the courses where you learn the fundamentals of safety around working with horses aren't available at Richmond anymore.

So there is room for improvement in what we offer, but the fact that TAFE is standing and delivering the quality of courses that it is is a testament to TAFE teachers. This year it's been lovely to see my TAFEs reaching out to people in the agricultural and horticultural sectors and seeking more teachers, because we know that, with the increasing demand—particularly through fee-free TAFE, which applies to so many of our agriculture areas—we could do with a whole lot more teachers. National TAFE Day is a perfect opportunity to call out to people who have high levels of skill and have worked in an industry for a long time. I ask you to put your hand out to TAFE and see if there is a role for you to share the skills you have and help mentor that next generation.

I want to look at some of the data we've got that shows who is picking up our fee-free TAFE places. In New South Wales, it's been tens of thousands of students. We're not talking a small number. This has been one of the most effective ways to inspire people to step up to TAFE.

What I'm very proud to see is that women, in particular, have stepped forward. They represent around 60 per cent of all enrolments in the fee-free TAFE courses. There are also tens of thousands of students who are from households that speak a language other than English at home. That is also a really significant thing to see.

Around 30 per cent of all enrolments have been in courses related to the care sector, which is obviously a high area of priority for us. There have also been more than 12,000 people with disabilities who've enrolled, so opening the access up to more people is a real achievement.

I commend the federal Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O'Connor, for the work he has done in working really hard with the states. This is not something we, at a federal level, do on our own—we work closely with the states, and I look forward to us being able to work particularly in New South Wales as we really broaden access to education. We are using TAFE to help us fix skills shortages in the coming months and years.

The last thing I want to say is that people who are training for vital jobs would do well to look at TAFE. It is a place that transforms lives. It can boost people's careers and their earning capacity. It's a fantastic place for people to reinvent themselves, and I think we should be very proud in this country of the public TAFE system that we have. To all of those involved—the students, teachers, the administrators and the employers who support our apprentices as they go through TAFEs or internships—I say happy National TAFE Day.

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