Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Speaker. I did go to that. What we are focused on is ensuring that Australians, through free TAFE, get the skills they want and our economy needs. We've been through the issues about how the data is collected by the independent data custodian. We know that free TAFE works because of the Victorian experience, where many more people are completing their courses than university students—many more people than across the VET sector broadly. Around 54 per cent, for those who aren't listening, in the Victorian experience are those who are completing. This is why we have put in a bill to make free TAFE enduring. The question for members opposite is: are they going to support it, or are they going to walk away from public TAFE and all of those students?

See this speech in context