Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You have a very shocking way of helping; I'll give you that!

How can you promise fee-free TAFE courses which may not be free? This is misleading, and students deserve better than making faith pledges on skills and training. How can the Albanese Labor government commit to permanently funding a program without even knowing if it's working effectively? This is wasting funding that could be used elsewhere—a very typical problem that occurs when you have a Labor government.

This one-term Labor government has no idea when it comes to making smart decisions for everyday people. As Australians continue to be hit hard by Labor's cost-of-living crisis, they deserve answers as to how Labor is using their money. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is trying to cash in on the TAFE brand to boost his bad polling numbers. But you can't claim you're permanently funding 100,000 fee-free TAFE places and then refuse to allocate any money. This comes in stark contrast to what happened earlier in the week with the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024—remember that? Those opposite had no value for tradies there. Under the misinformation bill, if you are an academic you can't be accused of misinformation but if you're a tradie or layperson you can. All of a sudden they come up with this bill—not very consistent but very typical.

Education has always been accessible to those who want to complete a certificate or a diploma. We need people who can enrol and finish their course to improve skills shortages across the country. Skills shortages have worsened under this current Labor government, and the Albanese approach is downright negligent. This legislation is bound to fail while it's not funded and there's no evaluation of how effective it is. This is why this side of the House will not support it. If it wasn't for the questioning of department officials at Senate estimates, the Labor government would have hidden the truth from everyday Australians. I know that taxpayers' money is not important to those opposite but it is important to me. How can we support this reckless legislation? It is totally irresponsible. This is not a good policy and not good value for our taxpayers. Labor's free-TAFE pledge is nothing but a big sham.

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