Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. She said in this place it was 'wasteful' spending. That's their kind of ideological view of education. That mob—the opposition—think spending on Australians who want to get by, get a quality education and get equality of opportunity to make a contribution to fulfil their potential is wasteful spending.

In my community of Wills there are a number of incredible TAFE and vocational education campuses offering vital skills to support students and build the resilience and capacity of our nation. The electorate of Wills is also home to many staff and students in the VET sector, who have shared with me how important their vocational training has been. I had the privilege of meeting one of them this week in parliament. His name is Oisin. He was a Skillaroo recently, one of a group of remarkable young Australians who were selected to represent Australia at the WorldSkills international competition in Lyon, France. The WorldSkills international competition is the equivalent of the Olympics for skilled occupations. This year's competition hosted 1,400 competitors, from over 70 countries, competing in 59 skills in front of 250,000 visitors. Oisin was one of the 32 Australian Skillaroos and a recipient of the Cloud Computing Participation Award. Oisin went to TAFE and completed diplomas—I hope those opposite are listening—and with those diplomas went on to a bachelor's degree. One of his areas of study is information technology, specialising in cloud computing, which he was recognised for as a Skillaroo.

Oisin is about to start his career as a public servant and will no doubt continue to contribute his skills and passion to our country.

While Oisin's success in competing as a Skillaroo is a unique and remarkable achievement, Labor is committed to making his story, a story of education and equality of opportunity, an unremarkable tale. We want it to be the norm. They might bleat about it being wasteful spending to have 500,000 enrolments in TAFE, but it makes such a difference for the life of every one of those students. It could be a platform to go on to further education. It could be a platform to go on to do things like those that Oisin has done and make great achievements and a contribution to this country. We're introducing this bill so that more people can have opportunities and stories like Oisin's.

We've partnered with states and territories through the Fee-Free TAFE Skills Agreement to deliver over $1.5 billion in funding for 500,000 free TAFE and VET places across Australia over the period 2023 to 2026. Half a million Australians will benefit from this. That's not wasteful spending in my book. That's an investment in the future of Australians. That's putting our trust in Australians to fulfil their potential through their educational journey. What makes a difference to this country is the vision to actually commit to Australians.

Fee-free TAFE supports all these training places in the skills that we need in areas of high demand. It provides access to priority cohorts, including the most vulnerable, and it supports students by removing the financial barriers to study. That's not wasteful spending; that's an investment. Nine in 10 new jobs over the next 10 years will need postschool study, and half of those jobs will need vocational education and training. That's an investment in jobs for Australians as well. This bill ensures that free TAFE continues to deliver a coordinated response to workforce shortages in industries of local and national priority, helping build the pipeline of skilled workers that Australia needs now and into the future. That's not wasteful spending; it is an investment in Australia's future.

While the bill sets out broad parameters, specific details will continue to be agreed through negotiations between the Commonwealth and the states. This legislation does not lock states into a fixed mode of delivering free TAFE. That's based on the flexibility of the Commonwealth and the states negotiating.

Those opposite have made a few heckles during this speech. It's been a bit limited because they know that 500,000 Australians are going to get an opportunity to get an education, and that is a good thing—for them, for Australia's future, for the jobs market and for the skill shortages that we're facing. When the coalition and the Greens vote together to block legislation like this, they seem to be more concerned with their political skins or about making a point with some sort of short-term political hit or with their ideological agenda than about the future of this country.

Rather than actually making an investment in Australians and their future through education, they've refused to back our additional fee-free TAFE and VET places for construction, which would expand access to new energy apprenticeships, expand capacity for training facilities and a trainer workforce, support women's careers in VET and increase financial support to priority apprentices and employees. What have you got against that? What possibly could be their opposition to investing in apprenticeships for women's careers and the training of a workforce to address skills shortage? I want to hear from those opposite what reason there could possibly be for them blocking this, apart from their political game playing, their voting with the Greens or whatever they're trying to do and whatever games are going on. They're not worried about the future of Australians, and they're not concerned about investment in Australians and their potential. They just want to play political games with this.

When they were in government, the Liberals and Nationals actually cut $3 billion of funding from the VET system and from TAFE. That tells you that there's an ideological motivation: they just don't want to support and invest in Australia's education. They're not interested in that. They want to make it harder for Australians to access education, get the skills they want—and the skills Australia needs—so they can make the contribution to the country that comes from the equality of opportunity to getting an education. Education lifts people up and empowers them and gives them an opportunity to make a difference in their lives and in their communities.

There's nothing that could be more impactful and more important than education. As I said, it is the key that opens the door to opportunity. It was the key that opened the door to my opportunity to actually make a contribution.

If there's an ideological antagonism towards TAFEs or public TAFEs by the opposition, it's an ideological position. I get that. But I would say to the coalition, 'Don't you understand the value or the importance that strong TAFEs make to our local communities?' For all the reasons that I've just outlined, surely some of those opposite who have high levels of intelligence, and there are some—I'm looking at one right now, Member for Casey.

See this speech in context