Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was interesting to listen to the comments from the member for Cunningham and, earlier, the member for Gorton. I can say there is much in those comments I agree with, having seen firsthand the benefits of TAFE education and skills education for my brother, who is a ceramic tiler, and for many others across my electorate of Forde who are tradespeople of great excellence, skill and talent and do a tremendous job in our community each and every day. If we don't have tradespeople, we don't have buildings like this. So a trades and vocational education training regime is critically important to the future of this country. None of us on this side of the House have an issue with that; we recognise the importance of that. We did much in our term of government to encourage and build on that.

We can go back to the Howard-Costello government and look at the industry skills training centres that the Howard-Costello government set up. One in particular, which is not quite in my patch but I know a number of students from my electorate of Forde certainly go to, is the Industry Trade College, formerly the Australian Industry Trade College, down at Robina. I know of students that travelled from the west of my electorate, from Park Ridge, to go down there not only to complete their education but also to start on their apprenticeships. I know a number of businesses that have taken the opportunity to engage with the Industry Trade College to train their workforce or find young, keen tradesmen and women who want to pursue a career in vocational education and the trades. The success rate of their graduates getting a job when they leave the college is extraordinary; it's somewhere in the order of 95 per cent.

What I find interesting with this bill—and many of the points have been well made by my colleagues in their contributions to this debate—is that the first and most important part of this bill is a complete and utter fiction. Why do I say that?

I say that because there is not a single dollar of funding attached to the bill—not a single dollar. And it doesn't start until 2027. This is purely a political bill, a bit like other bills we have discussed in this place recently. It's purely for political purposes in the lead-up to a federal election. It does nothing for those people graduating from the many schools across my electorate over the last couple of weeks who are maybe looking to pursue a career in the trades. It does nothing to assist them. Equally, it favours one side of the equation. Interestingly, I note, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research show in their research that generally the independent providers achieve higher qualification completion rates than the government-run providers. In 2023 the NCVER found that the RTOs outperformed public TAFE in completion and student satisfaction, with RTOs having a 54.2 per cent completion rate compared with a 43 per cent completion rate for TAFE for certificate diploma qualifications. These statistics affirm the superior outcomes offered by private RTOs in delivering quality education to those funded through TAFE.

If we want to base it on results, which is what we should be doing, we should be looking at the results of the various sectors of the vocational education training space. Why is this not being made available to those students who want to go and study at an RTO? Now, I agree with the comments from the member for Gorton that we want shonky providers removed from the system—100 per cent. You will get no argument from me whatsoever. But that does not mean you then favour entirely one side of the system at the expense of the other. That just distorts the environment. As we have seen with some of the figures that have already come out, the completion rates for some of these courses are in the order of 13 per cent. I know anecdotally of stories from the people I have spoken to in the training sector that many of the students will enrol in these TAFE courses, get a week or so in and go, 'No, that's not for me,' but the TAFE has already been paid on enrolment rather than on results. If we want to get the maximum value for taxpayer funds, we need to focus on funding the areas that actually do deliver the results.

If we look at this bill and its failures—well, the list is fairly long, and I have pointed out most of them already, but they probably bear repeating because those opposite don't seem to be listening particularly hard—the funding for these 100,000 places does not exist. The Prime Minister has misled the Australian people by saying that this is funded. It's not, because there's no money attached, so the question is: where will this funding come from, or what will be cut to fund this permanent commitment of an additional $500 million a year? Maybe he's going to use the new riding instructions for the Future Fund to tap into the Future Fund to fund his commitment. Who knows? Are they going to put it off budget and have it come out of some slush fund that we do not know about at this point in time? This is purely an election fiction.

The government's official documents submitted to parliament reveal that the government is yet to commit a single dollar. The explanatory memorandum says: 'There is no financial impact resulting from the Free TAFE Bill 2024.' Of course there's not! They haven't added any money to it! It's just a smoke-and-mirrors trick. And, for a government that in the lead-up to the last election promised openness, accountability, transparency and sound economic management—and all the other promises they made at the last election, which, as we go, day by day, are disappearing into the ether—this is just another one. It's purely for political purposes. It is the only reason I can see for this being done.

As I said earlier, we do back vocational education and training. But we don't just back one part of the sector; we back the whole sector. We have reason to back the whole sector, because the statistics from the Centre for Vocational Education Research bear that out.

As a coalition government, when we lost government in 2022, we handed the current government a skills and training system that was not just trending upwards but powering ahead on the back of record investments guaranteed by a strong economy. The coalition invested over $13 billion in skills over the final two years of government alone, representing the most significant reforms for Australian skills in over a decade. Trade apprentices in training hit record highs in the final months of the coalition government, and, as of June 2022, there were 429,000 apprentices and tradies in training, with another 277,000—nearly 278,000—commencements.

Data released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research confirms that Australia has lost almost 85,000 apprentices and trainees from the national training pipeline since this Albanese Labor government took office—a loss of one in five. The data shows that apprentices and trainees in training dropped to around 350,000 in March 2024. Over the same period, new training starts or commencements dropped to just 166,200, meaning there are over 100,000—bear that in mind—fewer apprentices and trainees starting a trade or a skill. There's been a drop of almost 40 per cent since the Albanese Labor government took office in May 2022. At a time when we have a skills crisis, we have a government that, under its watch, has seen a 40 per cent decline in apprentices and trainees starting a trade. Almost all the gains the coalition made in building up the skills pipeline have been squandered in just the last 2½ years.

As I asked earlier, should that surprise anyone, really? I've often said before in this place: don't look at what Labor say they're going to do; look at what they actually do—because nine times out of 10 they are two completely and utterly different things. We have seen under this Albanese Labor government that Australia is building fewer homes, that the skills shortages have worsened and that we are losing one in five apprentices and trainees across the country. This is all adding to increases in inflation and prices. If you've tried to get a tradie recently, you'll know exactly what I mean. You are paying top dollar. It's great for them—and good on them, because they deserve it—but when you're paying the bill it hurts a bit.

In summary, we support every student, not just some. We back every single student, regardless of whether they are training at TAFE or with an independent provider. The problem is the Anthony Albanese Labor government has undertaken a skills policy that directs funds to one part of the training sector rather than to all of it. The government has form in that space of trying to pick winners for its own political benefit. Once again, we've seen, in the lead-up to an election, the government roll out a half-baked policy. Overall, this bill requires greater thought and action to achieve its intended purpose to support all students in the vocational and educational training sector so that we build the skills that we need to continue to grow our economy for the future of this great country.

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