Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to wholeheartedly support this important bill. The Free TAFE Bill locks in fee-free TAFE as an enduring feature of Australia's vocational education and training system. The Albanese government is guided by a simple principle: no-one held back, no-one left behind. Whether you're a student in Nundah, a tradie in Boondall or a parent in Stafford, you deserve the opportunity to build a good life for yourself and your family.

Labor believes that opening the door to these opportunities starts with education. Education is the most powerful tool we have to overcome disadvantage or retrain for a better paid, more secure job. It is the best investment we can deliver to build a future made in Australia.

Over the next decade, nine out of 10 new jobs will require post-secondary qualifications and almost half of those qualifications will need to come through vocational education and training pathways like TAFE. Labor's fee-free TAFE ensures that Australians are developing the skills they need to pursue a career in the trades and sectors that we need them in—more tradies to build more homes; more fabricators to restore our sovereign manufacturing capability; more ICT experts to harness the potential of the booming global digital economy; and more skilled carers to look after our loved ones in aged care, early education and the disability sectors.

The Free TAFE Bill builds on Labor's extensive work to reverse a decade of coalition neglect and rebuild TAFE for communities across Australia. In the first two years of fee-free TAFE, we have seen almost 508,000 enrolments. Of those enrolments, 131,000 have been in aged care and disability support; 48,900 have been in digital and tech; 35,000 have been in construction; and 35,500 have been in early childhood education. Fee-free TAFE is particularly benefiting Australians in typically vulnerable cohorts, including 170,000 young Australians, 124,000 jobseekers and 30,000 First Nations Australians. Of all places, six in 10 have been taken up by women and one in three in regional and remote Australia.

This is what fee-free TAFE is about: removing financial barriers to education and training to deliver a more prosperous and equitable Australia. Removing the financial barriers to starting TAFE is providing real cost-of-living relief and saving Australians thousands of dollars. A student in Zillmere training in the Diploma of Nursing can save up to $16,000. A student studying a certificate III in early childhood education in Taigum can save up to $1,000. And a student in Chermside who is undergoing a certificate IV in cybersecurity can save up to $8,000. That is a significant amount of money that they can put into their savings account for a house deposit or a rainy day.

Fee-free TAFE is a proud Australian story. It's a story about aspiration, about the pursuit of passion, about the gratification of hard work and about the satisfaction that can be found in achieving your goals.

As the member for Lilley and the Minister for Aged Care, I have had the privilege of hearing these stories firsthand. Mackenzie, whom I first met at her school leadership ceremony at Earnshaw State College in 2020, is now doing a Diploma of Nursing at the South Bank TAFE, and I couldn't be prouder of her. Nahid was a software engineer but decided to go and do a certificate III at the Canberra Institute of Technology because she wants to work with people, not mechanics. Ylizbeth, one of the most passionate aged-care workers whom I have met so far, is upskilling through fee-free TAFE to become an enrolled nurse, with the goal of one day becoming a registered nurse and then a doctor. Good luck, Ylizbeth.

But, as the Albanese government makes strides towards building a world-class VET system that is high quality and that is accessible, the coalition wait with bated breath to tear it all down. Whether it's TAFE, university, schooling or early education, the coalition have made it very clear how they feel about affordable and accessible education: they're against fee-free TAFE, they're against student debt relief and they're against affordable early education. They believe education is a privilege that should be paid for. When they were in government, they exacerbated education inequality by cutting $3 billion from the VET sector and they made it more expensive to go to uni. Given half a chance, they will do it again.

By investing in fee-free TAFE, Labor is sending a clear message to each and every person who is unsure about their future: we trust your aspirations, we support your education, we back you and we will always work to ensure the doors of opportunity are open for you. That is what Labor governments do. We help people under pressure and we build for the future.

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