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

I thank the member for Lalor for her question. She understands, as well as anybody in this place, how important education and training are for people, and I think it's clear that, if we don't invest in education and training, we're not going to deliver what we need to. In less than two years, the Albanese Labor government has enacted big reforms and deepened its investment in education and training. We've created Jobs and Skills Australia, which is advising government and industry to supply skills to transition our energy sector, to build more homes and infrastructure, to rebuild manufacturing, to provide care for older Australians and to provide education to our preschool kids.

The fact is we're going to continue to do more. Last year alone, 355,000 Australians enrolled in fee-free TAFE, and a further 320,000 fee-free TAFE places are available from this year on, and that is absolutely vital. We've struck a national skills agreement with state and territories, the first national skills agreement in a decade, which is a $30 billion investment in the VET sector over five years. Centres of excellence will be created to bring TAFEs and universities together—more higher apprenticeships and improving foundation skills and more. In the university sector, Minister Clare, in response to the accord review, is implementing landmark reforms to ensure we have a more skilled and knowledgeable workforce.

The fact is the budget handed down by the Treasurer on Tuesday is going to provide much relief for people in this country, but we'll also be investing in skills needed by our workers, businesses and economy. Of course, starting on 1 July, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. Every household in this country will get $300 off their electricity bill. As for skills, we reversed the savage cuts made by those opposite when they removed the apprenticeship support exactly at the time you don't do that. We've actually increased support for apprentices as a result of this budget. We've added a further 20,000 fee-free TAFE places in the housing and construction sector to supply more housing, and we will invest a further $90 million—and I'll be working with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy on this—in the clean energy workforce to establish a national hydrogen skills training centre.

All of this is directed to ensure we have a future made in Australia. By contrast, those opposite cut apprenticeship support, spoke out against tax cuts and called fee-free TAFE 'wasteful spending'. Tonight, the opposition leader has a test: he will either outline a plan for Australia's future or make it perfectly clear he will play no part in it.

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