Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to take stock of Australia's skills sector after two years of the Albanese government and ask a very—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16:59 to 17:05

I want to take stock of Australia's skills sector after two years of the Albanese government and ask a very simple question: are the skills of Aussies better today than when Labor took over? On almost every single metric and with every update, we can only conclude that the skills of Aussies are not better today but are actually getting worse under Anthony Albanese. Each day under Labor means the gap between promise and delivery widens further. Fewer Australians are taking up new skills, not more.

Labor's approach to skills at the last election was to make commitments to win votes, as if that were an end in itself. Labor sold us its dream that fee-free TAFE would be the silver bullet for Australia's skills and training needs. They told us fee-free TAFE was going to solve it all, promising almost 500,000 courses. What they didn't tell us was that on skills they would back bureaucrats instead of industry and that fee-free TAFE would amount to little more than a funding top-up scheme for state governments. We've seem them rebrand the National Skills Commission to Jobs and Skills Australia, we've seen them rebrand industry clusters to the Jobs and Skills Councils, and we've seen them sign up to a National Skills Agreement that provides the same amount of funding that was on the table under the coalition with less going to students and more going to state governments. And let's not forget the Jobs and Skills Summit—remember that? It was the summit that was going to solve all of our workforce shortages. Here we are, just over two years since Anthony Albanese got the keys to the Lodge and 18 months on from the Jobs and Skills Summit, after yet another budget which will fail to skill Australians.

So it is time to take stock. At the most basic level, the test Anthony Albanese set for himself was that Labor would fix skills shortages and skill more Australians. The data is in, and the trendlines show that Labor's going in the wrong direction. According to Jobs and Skills Australia, 36 per cent of occupations were assessed as 'in shortage' in 2023. That's up from 31 per cent in 2022. Sixty-six occupations were added to the 'in shortage' list in 2023, meaning that, on Labor's watch, over 330 occupations are in shortage across Australia. Shortly after the election, Labor described worsening skills shortages as something that 'reinforces the urgent need to tackle skills shortages', and they said:

After a decade of inaction, we have taken immediate steps … to plan for the future, address skills gaps and strengthen our VET sector.

Clearly, Labor's policies are not working. Skills shortages have got worse, not better.

The failures do not end with worsening skills shortages either. We know there are fewer Australians in training, not more. When the coalition left office, there were nearly 430,000 apprentices and trainees in training, and 280,000 Aussies commenced their courses over that year. In September 2023, the latest numbers we have, the number of apprentices and trainees in training has fallen to 370,000 and commencements have fallen to 170,000. This means that, after 18 months of Labor policies, the number of apprentices and trainees in training has dropped by 60,000. That's close to 15 per cent. New training starts have dropped by over 100,000, or 38 per cent. So skills shortages are worse, we have fewer Australian apprentices and trainees on the tools, and we have over 100,000 fewer Australians taking up a trade or a skill.

But it gets even worse. Even the much vaunted fee-free TAFE has not materially increased the number of students studying courses at TAFEs. We know that the number of government funded students at TAFE was over 400,000 between January and March 2023 under fee-free TAFE. This was the first quarter since the commencement of fee-free TAFE, a period in which the government saw fee-free TAFE enrolments hit over 100 per cent of the allocation. But the number of government funded students at TAFE institutes was lower in 2023, during fee-free TAFE, than over the same period in 2021, when the coalition's Job Trainer was in effect. So we have worsening skills shortages, fewer apprentices, fewer trainees, fewer new training starts and a lower number of students taking up government funded courses at TAFE. No matter which way you look at it, Labor's skills agenda is falling flat.

With the cost-of-living crisis getting worse not better, with prices staying higher for longer, and with a tripling of manufacturing and construction insolvencies, things will only get worse for young apprentices. Instead of stepping up, Labor is stepping back, with a refusal to extend the coalition's wage supports while they wait for yet another review to conclude.

While Anthony Albanese and Labor sit on their hands, the skills of Australians just continue to get worse. All we want to see is the skilling of young Australians back on track.

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