Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The best thing you can do to improve social upward mobility and economic security for a person is to ensure that they receive a good education. In the 21st century, an evermore technological and technical age, the average minimum level of education and skill attainment required to enter and remain in the workforce is steadily increasing. In fact, we see that nine in 10 jobs will need post-school study over the next 10 years and half of those jobs will require vocational education and training. Our government recognises and understands this, so the Albanese Labor government is making free TAFE permanent.

Fee-free TAFE has been an absolute game changer for thousands of people in my community and more than 70,000 people across Western Australia. In February last year, I had the opportunity to welcome the Prime Minister to the Thornleigh TAFE campus, which is part of the South Metropolitan TAFE, in my community, where students were learning the skills they need in robotics and autonomous operations to support WA's mining sector, the powerhouse of the nation. That day, the Prime Minister and I had the opportunity to chat about those students and find out what compelled them to go to TAFE. The feedback was overwhelming. The course was free. They had always wanted to study at TAFE; they saw the benefits of being able to get a TAFE qualification, but they wouldn't have been able to afford a career change or that qualification if they had had to pay the fees. Thanks to fee-free TAFE, they were able to gain the skills in the areas they had previously only dreamed of participating in, setting up themselves and their families for greater economic security and new jobs.

In just the first 21 months of fee-free TAFE, there have been 568,000 enrolments. Fee-free TAFE has created so many opportunities for people in the electorate that I represent, the people of Burt, in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth. Indeed, 27 per cent of the members of my community hold a TAFE qualification. It is the main type of qualification for people in my community to be able to progress into the workforce—the importance of being as accessible to as many people as possible cannot be underestimated.

At the Thornlie campus of TAFE, which is the largest TAFE campus in the south metro area, there's a focus on things like ICT but also on trades and jobs that support our mining sector, like engineering, autonomous control, remote operations and mechanics. At the Armadale campus, the courses reflect some of the leading industries and employers in our south-eastern suburbs: the care sector, early childhood education and community services. I was very pleased to recently attend the opening of the brand-new TAFE facility in the heart of Armadale, which expanded even more the offerings that TAFE provides in our community.

Training people for these in-demand jobs and not charging fees will not only change their lives but also change the lives of the individuals who benefit from those industries. Making free TAFE permanent will give certainty to young Australians and older Australians looking for a career change and help us bridge the skills gap. Indeed, when I was attending the opening of the new Armadale TAFE campus, I spoke to some young women there. I spoke to some mums looking to re-enter the workforce as their children were about to enter compulsory schooling. The observation was made that they were prioritising other things with their families' finances. They couldn't access TAFE if they had to pay a fee. However, making TAFE free would fit within their family budget and enable them to retrain and go on to new careers.

As I mentioned before, a lot of these training opportunities in my community go into the care economy, where we are seeing a shortage of people working in aged care and child care and people that we need in our Armadale-Kelmscott Memorial Hospital. Making sure we're bridging that skills gap by giving the opportunity for locals to train in those areas is incredibly important not just for them but for our entire community. When we came into government, Australia had its worst skills shortage in 50 years and the second worst across every advanced economy. It is vital that we secure free TAFE today and into the future.

The opposition has confirmed, though, that they will oppose this legislation to make free TAFE enduring. They believe, apparently, that it's 'wasteful spending', and they're opposed to the policy on the grounds that, if you don't pay for something, you don't value it. I can tell them that, from everyone I've spoken to who has studied at TAFE, who has gained a qualification from TAFE, they very much do value it and see the benefits but the fees have stood in the way of them being able to progress through TAFE.

Unfortunately, though, the opposition don't see the value in getting Australians trained up for the jobs of now and the jobs of the future. They don't see the value in giving Australians the credentials they need not only to get by but also to allow them and their families to thrive. It's in their record. The last time the Liberals were in government, they ripped $3 billion from TAFE and training over a decade of calculated, systemic neglect.

Between 2014 and 2019, they cut $220 million from trade support loans, $201 million from apprenticeship centres, $160 million from adult migrant English programs, $125 million from apprenticeship incentives and $75 million from industry skills funds. It's only the Albanese government that will protect and deliver free TAFE around the country. Somewhat more concerningly, the Liberals' opposition to free TAFE is as much driven by their hatred of TAFE merely because it is a state government run entity as it is by their lack of support for training of the workforce of the future.

In fact, it seems that, when we look at the policy positions being put forward by the opposition right now, they are against free TAFE but they're pro free lunches for bosses. They're for the bosses, but they're against the workers, the workers that we need to deliver the essential services here in Australia. We're all about supporting free enterprise and we want to see industry flourish—indeed, that's where we see jobs being created—but it's a very interesting dichotomy that they are creating over there, those people in the opposition that say, 'If it's free, you won't value it.' They want to create free lunches for bosses—I wonder how much they'll value that?—but they don't support fee-free TAFE.

I am pleased to be able to join with my colleagues across the parliament today to ensure that students in my community and, indeed, the businesses across the nation will now have certainty, a pipeline of career opportunities and skilled workers in areas where they need them most. This bill will support the delivery of at least 100,000 free TAFE places across Australia each year and into the future. That is what building Australia's future really looks like. The Albanese government's primary focus is, of course, to ease the cost-of-living pressures on Australians. It's a work in progress, but this free TAFE initiative is just one of those that we've introduced to help with hip-pocket pain.

When we came into government, inflation was high and rising, real wages were falling, living standards were declining and people were going backwards. We had one of the largest skills shortages that we had ever faced. Under the Albanese government, inflation is almost a third of what it was when we took office, and it's continuing to fall. Real wages are growing again, and living standards are rising. We've recorded the lowest unemployment rate for a government in 50 years and we've overseen the creation of 1.1 million jobs—the most jobs created on record in a single parliamentary term.

We know that Australians are doing it tough, which is why we're doing everything that we can to help deal with the cost of living. That's why we made sure every taxpayer got a tax cut and every household got energy bill relief. It's why people have access to cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, a stronger Medicare and free TAFE. It's why we'll cut student debt by 20 per cent. It's also why we've announced a $10,000 incentive payment for Australians in construction apprenticeships. Labor's plan for a future made in Australia is very clear. We want Australian workers to make more things here. That includes building more homes to not only support those who need homes now but make sure that our economy is best placed to thrive in the future. That's also what is behind our production tax credit legislation, which is currently before the other place. And, of course, one of our biggest nation-building endeavours, central to our national defence—AUKUS—requires hundreds and thousands of skilled workers in existing and new career opportunities.

Last week the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence joined the Minister for Skills and Training and the Western Australian Premier in Western Australia to launch the new centre of excellence for defence training at the naval base TAFE, as part of the South Metro TAFE. And we're seeing across our South Metro TAFEs new courses and the expansion of courses to support the work of AUKUS and shipbuilding in Western Australia, because, unlike those opposite, we on the Labor side in government, the Albanese government, have actually delivered on a continuous shipbuilding plan for Western Australia.

When we look at the work of sustainment that will occur as part of the AUKUS plans and when we look at the continuous shipbuilding plan that we've launched for Western Australia, it will see the creation of intergenerational jobs. We see it in other countries in their submarine depots. We see it where they build submarines. We see it in their other shipbuilding endeavours, where you have generation after generation after generation working in those jobs. It's the sort of job security that we thought did not exist in the 21st century but, when it comes to naval defence, does provide that sort of job certainty and career opportunity for generations to come. So we need to make sure that we're providing the opportunities for Australians to be trained in those careers to take up those jobs that are so important for them as individuals, for their families, for our community and, indeed, for our national security.

What this will mean, through sustainment, maintenance and continuous shipbuilding in Western Australia, is that that will become the second biggest industry in Western Australia. It will be the major employer. That is a huge leap. It's a huge leap for Western Australia, but it means something else for our national economy. You'll be familiar, Deputy Speaker, with the idea of complexity in the economy. When we talk about a future made in Australia—this is it. We will be building these ships in Australia, in Western Australia. We'll be maintaining these submarines in Western Australia. This is advanced manufacturing and technology. This requires the new skills that people will be able to obtain through TAFE. That's why TAFE is such a critical enabler to see the advancement of our national security, economic security, financial and economic security for individuals and families and in growing new businesses that will be supporting this endeavour as well. This all goes to underline why free TAFE is such an important economic measure here in Australia, to not just ensure that we're giving people that pipeline to access a higher education, to be able to secure their own and their family's economic security, but make sure we have the necessary skills that we need in our nation for the challenges, sustainability and prosperity of our country into the future.

The bill before us today will make free TAFE permanent. This will continue to relieve cost-of-living pressures by removing financial barriers to education and training for people, many of whom live in communities like mine. For these reasons—as somebody who has attended TAFE myself and had the benefit of being able to use that learning not only in a career before I'd finished university but all the way through, the learning that I was able to undertake at TAFE has provided me with great benefit—I very much commend this bill to the House.

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