Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Free TAFE Bill 2024 because Labor is, of course, the party of skills and training. We are the party of education for all, and we absolutely understand the power of education and how it can change someone's life. What has become very clear through the debate and the discussion in this place around this bill is that the Liberals do not understand this. They do not understand that fundamental to governing this country is helping people to get the skills and training they need to build a good career to provide workers for those industries that our country needs for the future. The actions and the words we are seeing from those on the other side show that they do not value this work. They do not value our education and our training system. They certainly do not value free TAFE. They've been very upfront about that. In fact, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has said:

… if you don't pay for something, you don't value it.

The apprentices and trainees that I have met in local TAFEs in my community would disagree strongly with that statement. They do know that what they are doing at the moment is investing in their future and that what free TAFE gives them is the opportunity to do that—the opportunity to take up a career or a skillset that will last them for their lifetime. It is very clear this week that Labor is for helping Australians to get the skills to build their careers and our country. Of course, those opposite, the Liberals, are for taxpayers paying for bosses' lunch. It is a very clear contrast.

We have seen this contrast directly in my community in the past. My local community knows all too well what the Liberal Party thinks about TAFE. Locals remember that it was the Liberals in Victoria who oversaw the closure of the Greensborough TAFE in 2013. The impact of that was huge in our local community. It took away this longstanding local training institution for people in the northern end of my electorate. It took the return of a Labor government to see the Greensborough campus reopen in 2017, followed by the opening on the same site of the Banyule Nillumbik Tech School in 2018. Once again, the work of the Labor government has meant that countless people in Jagajaga, whether it be young people or older people retraining for new skills, have had the opportunity to take up education and training through TAFE. That is a really practical demonstration in my community of the value that Labor governments put on this work and the complete disregard that those opposite have.

I was very pleased last week to visit Melbourne Polytechnic in Heidelberg West in my community. I visited with the Minister for Skills and Training. I have been there a number of times, and I always enjoy talking with the apprentices, the students and the staff training them about the work they are undertaking. There is a big focus at that campus on building trades in particular. I was really pleased to be visiting last week because the minister was making a very exciting announcement, which is that this government will deliver a $50 million future-of-housing-construction centre of excellence at Heidelberg West. I'm really proud that this centre will be located in Jagajaga and that we will be home to the first dedicated training facility in Australia that's focused exclusively on advanced construction courses. What that will mean is that those people training at this centre will get the most up-to-date training in the construction of houses, looking at things like how we build more houses more quickly with less environmental impact and new models like prefab and modular. It is really exciting work. So those people will get training and cutting-edge skills at the same time that we are helping to push along the construction of new houses, which we most desperately need in this country.

Again, this is an example of how our government sees this investment in TAFE, this investment in helping people get the skills and training they need to build their future, as part of how we build our nation and do the work we need to do to build things like new houses and have people working in clean energy industries. This is nation-building work. I know in my electorate they are skills that in housing will be put to work locally in Heidelberg West, at places like Bell-Bardia, which is just up the road from Melbourne Polytechnic, where together with the Victorian government we're constructing 104 social and affordable homes with an investment of $27.5 million. That will be a big investment for my community.

I encourage all local students to have a look at the work that is happening at Melbourne Polytechnic—have a look at the opportunities that are there. It was fantastic speaking with a lot of the local students there about the experiences they are having through their apprenticeships and through their training. In the main, they were positive experiences, where they had found the blend of the practical work they were getting through their apprenticeships and of the training was really useful, and they could see how that was setting them up for an excellent career to come.

While I was at Melbourne Polytechnic I was also really pleased to meet Adam, a local who's been teaching plumbing to students there. Adam has a long history of working as a plumber, and he told me he had come to be teaching the profession so that he could give back to the next generation and help build that generation of workers we will need to continue to do this work. It was really great to talk to Adam about what he's getting out of teaching these skills, and as a government we absolutely want to encourage people to look at the option of teaching skills training and being part of the training workforce. We recognise, particularly in these types of construction trades, there may be older people who have worked for some time in the industry and are now perhaps looking to not to be on the tools all day every day, for the other opportunities that teaching provides and, as I said, to be able to give back the community. With teachers like Adam working in our local community I am confident that our local plumbing industry, our local plumbing apprentices and the future of construction in our local area are in good hands. I'm very pleased to see that.

Another area that I'm really pleased and encouraged to see growth in through the investment this government has been making in free TAFE is the opportunities it is providing for Australian women. Free TAFE has allowed women to take up opportunities that otherwise are hard to come by. We do know that six in 10 learners in free TAFE are women, and they're doing courses like nursing, cybersecurity, carpentry, mental health and early childhood education. I have spoken with a number of these women, including some who are taking some of the different pathways into construction apprenticeships, and they all talk about how much they appreciate the opportunity, how they really understand that this is setting them up to further their career and how they really value the skills that they have been able to gain as a result of free TAFE. These are all opportunities that would be taken away from Australian women under those opposite, who do not support free TAFE. These women would not have the opportunity to study, to grow their skill set and to grow their future prosperity and the prosperity of their families and our country under those opposite, who, for ideological reasons, are standing against this government's work to make free TAFE permanent in this country.

In terms of the flow-ons from Australian women being able to take up those training opportunities, we know we are already seeing positive results for women in the workforce. The latest data from the ABS tells us we are fast approaching seven million Australian women having jobs. The December 2024 data tells we've got more than six million Australian women with jobs. The vast majority of growth in women's jobs has been in full-time work—84 per cent of all new women's jobs—with the number of women in full-time work now reaching a record high of almost four million. That is impressive growth in that time, and we will see that continue as we see Australian women able to take up the opportunities that free TAFE provides.

None of this is a given. This is the work of Labor governments—to provide people with the opportunity that comes from education and to broaden that opportunity so that all Australians have the opportunity to take up a training, a skill and a career in an area that both works for them and contributes to our national prosperity and our national growth. Whether it is through a construction trade at Melbourne Polytechnic in Heidelberg West, where they're studying carpentry and plumbing and where they will be building the houses that we need to overcome our housing shortage in Australia, or it's studying a healthcare science or early childhood education, providing the workforce we need in those care industries, these are the opportunities that Labor is providing from free TAFE.

Of course, all we get from those opposite, once again, is an attempt to shut down these opportunities for Australians. Those opposite have very clearly said that they do not support this bill. They have suggested that, in fact, those who are taking up this opportunity do not value the opportunity. I really would encourage those opposite to get out and meet some of these apprentices and students who are doing this training. I can assure you that every single one I have met really appreciates the opportunity they are getting to set themselves up for the future, and that includes young people who are training for the first time. It includes older people who are retraining to extend their time in the workforce. It includes Australian women who are getting opportunities that they have not had before.

When we contrast the approach of this government, which is investing in these people to build their skills. to build their future and to have a career that is lasting and meaningful, with the approach of those opposite, which is both to deny that opportunity—to be very clear that they do not support that opportunity for people to get ahead in Australia—and, at the same time, to say that what they do support is Australian taxpayers funding a long lunch for bosses, which is actually outrageous, we get a very clear indication of the choice that will be before the Australian people when we go to ask them to support this government at an election. It is a very clear indication of this government's priorities: building Australia's future, making sure that all Australians can access that prosperity and giving young people and older people in my community the opportunity to gain the skills that will set them up for their future.

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