Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Leader of the Opposition—I'm very sorry.

We know that if the Leader of the Opposition became Prime Minister, housing and energy projects would not get off the ground because of skill shortages. We know that businesses would need to look overseas for workers instead of employing Australians here at home. I suppose that's a quandary that the Leader of the Opposition needs to resolve, given his particular attitude to migration at this point in time.

We don't want education to be a privilege; we want education to be a right for all Australians. For the prosperity of our nation, we cannot afford to cut off the pathways, to close the doors of opportunity for people to access vocational education and training. So I am really proud to be a defender of TAFE. I'm really proud to support this bill to make free TAFE permanent, to provide more opportunities for more Australians to access the education that they want and that they deserve.

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