Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Free TAFE Bill 2024, an important bill. It's important because of the skills shortages we have in this country. If you have a look at the number skills shortages right across the nation, fee-free TAFE will assist the next generation to get the skills that they require to learn the trades to fill those positions. Currently, we are bringing people in from overseas for traditional trades that we always did ourselves—electricians, plumbers, mechanics et cetera. When you add onto that the high-tech jobs that are being created and, in my own home state, the Defence build that's taking place, including the AUKUS submarines that will eventually start being built down there, we are looking at thousands and thousands of jobs that will have to be filled. And they're not just blue-collar jobs; they're jobs that will require trades, skills and high-tech skills as well. So I'm very proud of this bill and what it's committed to.

Many years ago, TAFEs started off as technical colleges around the country, certifying different trades. They were trades colleges, trades schools et cetera. More courses were introduced in the seventies and eighties. Why was that? There were more courses introduced to give people the skills and foundations to better their lives using the skills that they learnt at TAFE and the experiences that they had at TAFE. This system has assisted thousands of people across our nation for many years.

I'm a product of TAFE. I finished high school and enrolled into higher education for accounting, which I absolute disliked. I couldn't fathom it for some reason—and that's not to discourage anyone else who wants to do it or the wonderful accountants out there—so I dropped out and went into the workforce. I did a whole range of things: I worked in factories and drove taxis for a number of years. And then I enrolled in TAFE. I picked up some skills; I did some business courses including accounting, bookkeeping, business law I, business law II, contract law—a whole range of things. TAFE assisted me.

Back then—I was in my mid to late 20s when I was studying—the fees were $30 a semester. That allowed me to pay that very small fee to do these courses and to enter the next period of my life with better skills. If, for whatever reason, those fees had been much higher—at that time I had a mortgage as well—I perhaps wouldn't have been able to achieve what I have achieved and be where I am today.

It's very important that we go back to the basics, back to the core, of those original TAFE beliefs. What were they there for? They were there to encourage people to pick up skills, to take the next step in their life, to learn things and perhaps to get a better job—or just a job in itself. It's very important, so I'm very pleased that this particular bill will allow many, many people to pick up skills and fill positions that we're going to need.

I will go back to my own home state. Last week I had the Deputy Prime Minister in my electorate at the TAFE SA Regency campus. Regency TAFE, for those who are not from South Australia, is our old trades school. It's where apprentices go to learn everything from plumbing or electrical to mechanics or engineering—a whole range of things. The courses that will be offered there will work in conjunction with our defence building industries. Courses will be created to fill the positions that we're going to require as a state and as a nation to build our submarines, defence ships and a whole range of other things.

It's already estimated that we will require approximately 30,000 skilled positions. It's a pretty good problem to have as a state, I think. But, unless we train them today, where are we going to find these skilled people to fill those 30,000 positions within the next 10 years. That is what this is all about. It's about training people to ensure that we have the skills for the future. It's about ensuring that we give them the opportunity to train so we're not burdening them and having them walk away from training and trades but encouraging them.

I've been listening to the other side. Because it's a publicly funded proposal that we're putting forward, it's totally disliked and opposed. It's like anything else that's public, whether it be Medicare, public education or a whole range of other things. I'm quite surprised that the opposition will be opposing this bill, because this gives the next generation a future. People who, for whatever reason, perhaps haven't got that future right now will have an opportunity to attend TAFE and do courses. Also, this will ensure that we have those skills that are going to be required into the future.

Many years ago, in the fifties—I've told this story many times here—the Premier at the time in South Australia, Mr Playford, who was a Liberal Premier, had the vision of creating a car-manufacturing state. He achieved it. At the time an industrial manufacturing revolution took place in South Australia. Many migrants came. They migrated to South Australia. My parents were a part of that cohort, and my father worked at General Motors-Holden for years afterwards.

We're seeing a second manufacturing revolution in South Australia through the AUKUS build and the defence build that's taking place down there. The difference this time is that we need highly skilled workers. It won't just be welders and electricians. I visited Osbourne, where the Collins class boats were built and other defence ships are being built. Yes, we need to train welders, but specifically for those industries—for example, to work in very tight spots, unlike a normal welder in a big workshop. Electricians will work in a very confined space. These skills are all being taught, and will be taught, at the Regency TAFE in my electorate.

The Deputy Prime Minister and I had the Minister for Skills and Training with us, and Stephen Mullighan the South Australian Treasurer and Minister for Defence and Space Industries, and Blair Boyer, the Minister for Education Training and Skills, came along with us. Of course, this announcement was made in South Australia specifically because, for us, it is of massive benefit to be able to train people to fill these positions.

At the Regency campus last week in my electorate, the Deputy Prime Minister announced again the enduring feature of Australia's vocational educational training system: the funding of 100,000 fee-free TAFE places a year from 2027. This will yield significant benefits, particularly for my home state. Again, I go back to those skills that we're going to require and the 30,000 positions that are being envisaged at this point for the AUKUS build over the next 10 to 20 years. If we don't start training people now—if we don't give younger people the opportunity to take on these particular skills—then we'll still be in the same position, looking at 457 visas and trying to bring people in from overseas to fill these positions, when many of our young people, given the opportunity, would embrace it with open arms.

Again, it's not just the trades. There are many other areas where we see our current employment changing for service industries. One would be the care industry, for a population that's ageing fairly rapidly. Many people are choosing to stay home with carers who visit them, ensuring that they're okay and looking after their health—taking them out shopping. It's a very important part. Of course, we have a duty as a government to look after those people who, in their retirement, need care at home for whatever reason. And of course many of these positions will be training a lot of our carers to look after our elderly Australians.

Another example of work being done between the federal government and the South Australian government is that they're investing in more than 20 initiatives, including the Skills and Training Academy, the Skills Pathway Program and the Commonwealth supported STEM places at the University of Adelaide and Flinders University. And all the skills that will be required for the sub build and the defence build won't be just from TAFE. We will also need nuclear engineers, architects et cetera. This announcement has been a significant step in respect of the build of our AUKUS submarines, with the signing of the tripartite agreement between the Commonwealth government, ASC and BAE Systems to commence preparatory work. Part of this preparatory work is the fee-free TAFE bill, which will ensure that we get those skills that we're going to require in order to fill those positions in the very near future.

The AUKUS agreement with two of our key allies, the US and the UK, and the AUKUS nuclear submarine pathway through which Australia will acquire the conventionally armed nuclear powered submarine capability is very much front of mind for all South Australians. For us it is one of the biggest projects we have endeavoured to bring to fruition. And of course we know that this government is creating jobs. We're creating jobs across Australia. We're building services and upgrading facilities, especially in my state, as I said, for the AUKUS submarines to keep Australians safe while, at the same time, building and supporting a future made in Australia.

We can create those positions, get the economic environment perfect for getting the manufacturing going, but without those skills we aren't going to get there. We need those skills. That's why we need this fee-free TAFE for people who want to upskill, to fill those positions that will be part of the future made in Australia, plus the high-tech jobs in defence: the AUKUS build, defence shipbuilding in Perth and in South Australia and other places around the country—with added manufacturing spin-off jobs as well, which will be high-tech and very important.

Some of these trainees from the announcement the other day will commence training programs supported by this particular academy in the 2024-25 financial year. A further 4,000 to 5,500 direct shipyard jobs will be created to build those submarines in South Australia through those high skills, not to mention the other jobs that will be created—almost double the workforce forecast by the coalition government for the Attack-class program.

The government is investing at least $2 billion in South Australia to support this infrastructure. Part of that investment—again, I go back to the fee-free TAFE bill—is to be able to skill these people. As I said, many years ago we had a manufacturing revolution in South Australia because of Premier Playford, who brought GMH to Adelaide, and Chrysler followed soon after—thousands of manufacturing jobs. People would apply for a job and start the next day. When Holden shut down in 2013 or 2014, you had to do a six-week course at TAFE before you could actually start. That's how these positions and these jobs are changing. The submarine build and the defence build will be much higher tech than Holden was 10 years ago. So it's very important that TAFE opens doors for people across Australia who are looking to gain well-paid and secure work, and this government is delivering the training that Australians want and the skills they need to get ahead.

There would be many people out there who, for whatever reason, didn't continue on to university or who aren't working for whatever reason. Their being able to enrol at TAFE and pick up some basic skills to get them to that first step is so important. It is so important to give those people an opportunity. In my own case, who knows where I would be today if it weren't for TAFE and those very low fees at the time? It was around $30 a semester to do two to three subjects every semester. Had the prices been the equivalent of what they are today, I don't think I would have been able to go onto that next step in my life journey.

We need to offer the opportunities that were offered to me to the next generation of Australians who want to carry on and better their lives or get jobs where they can contribute. We need to give them those opportunities.

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