Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot understand for the life of me why you would object to fee-free TAFE. It seems to me that the statement by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that you don't value anything unless you pay for it makes absolutely no sense. What the Free TAFE Bill 2024 will provide is opportunity, and it will provide the workforce and the skills that this country needs. It will also mean that people who are from backgrounds that aren't flush with money will be able to access education at the TAFE level. That's what it actually means. I think it is mean-spirited and short-sighted to not support this bill. There is nothing to not support. I join with my colleagues here today in supporting this bill.

Education has been a running theme in my whole life. I was a school teacher, and I led the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group in New South Wales. I also was a board member of the Board of Vocational Education and Training in New South Wales and a board member of the accrediting authority in New South Wales for curriculum—the Board of Studies, as it was called back then. All of those positions give me a very thorough background in all aspects of education, from early childhood through to university. I well remember the work that I did on the Board of Vocational Education and Training around the VET sector, both private and public providers. I also understood that many people saw VET as a poor cousin to university. That is no longer the case in Australia. TAFE has come into its own. It provides courses that are varied, but, importantly, it also provides basic educational courses, and these are critical for people who are looking at second-chance education. My own son struggled with the HSC. He went back to TAFE and did the HSC qualifier again and did brilliantly. So I have a great deal to commend, and my family owes a great deal to TAFE.

Right now, it seems to me that this is one of the most exciting, far-reaching and equitable things that could possibly happen to the TAFE sector, and yet we have an opposition that says, 'You don't value anything if you don't pay for it.' This bill is about opportunity. This bill is about the future. This bill will provide opportunity and a future for thousands and thousands of people. The hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for second-chance education, like my son, are also seeing this as an opportunity and as an equitable measure as well. Children from families that are doing it tough—we talk about that a lot. We have in front of this parliament a bill that will provide precisely to those children of families that are doing it tough. And a cost-of-living measure, in many ways, is what this is. Yet, as I say, we have an opposition that cannot be generous enough, that cannot be forward-thinking enough, to see this bill in those terms. This will mean, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, a spoke in the wheel of that terrible cycle of poverty. It will change lives, it will change families, and it will change communities. Older adults who have never got the chance earlier in their lives will now have that chance. They will be able to adopt those economic changes. Each of them will be able to get ahead with a good education, if that's what people choose. The Labor government, through this bill of fee-free TAFE, is providing that opportunity.

This government believes TAFE is an essential part of the education system, not an add-on. Since coming to government, we have made the landmark $30 billion National Skills Agreement. The agreement included $214 million of investment to close the gap in educational outcomes for Indigenous people. We're going after dodgy providers, and, like the Minister for Skills and Training said, there are many good providers but there is nothing as broad, nothing as nationally significant and nothing as geographically spread as TAFE in Australia. There is nothing like it. That is why this will be the envy of the world. The investment in a country's future is what this is about—fee-free TAFE. In the first 20 months, there have been 568 enrolments. That's half a million enrolments. Those courses are providing a pathway to well-paid and secure employment for hundreds and thousands of people. How on earth could you object to that? How could you not see the value in that?

There are many stories that we have heard about people who were able to access TAFE and therefore save enough money to go on to university, to go on to better lives. The National Indigenous Australians Agency has highlighted that this policy is contributing to closing that stubborn gap. Fee-free TAFE is an important initiative to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's participation in VET by helping to overcome financial barriers. There are stories like Christy's—I think we've heard her story—who accessed fee-free TAFE and was able to go on to do a nursing degree. It will provide long-term cost-of-living relief by removing financial barriers to education and training. I have often heard in this House how education is the great equaliser. That is the way in which, if the opposition had any generosity of heart, they would see this. Yesterday, a member opposite joked about Labor's commitment to TAFE. Labor wouldn't need to be rebuilding TAFE every time we came to government if there hadn't been neglect by the Liberals. Facilities were run down, you cut $3 billion nationally from the VET system, and teacher numbers were left to dwindle. We all remember those days. All of this happened during major skills shortages in construction and the care economy.

I think it is not wasteful spending. I think it is an investment in this country's future. I think it is an investment in a system that has proven itself, and that's the TAFE system in New South Wales. I would say to those opposite: hundreds of thousands of TAFE students know the value of education. They know good education means a pathway to a good job, a well-paying job that gives them a future. Jobs and Skills Australia research has found TAFE and VET graduates boost their median income by almost $12,000 and are more likely to be employed after completing their qualification—by 15 per cent. Those figures are the real figures that need to be concentrated on.

The cost of living is biting many family budgets. Financial barriers often stop people from entering further education. This is about addressing that issue. This is about benefiting students right now while they build skills for the future—students like the ones we have heard about during this debate. Students in early childhood education are saving over $4,000 in South Australia and the Northern Territory. This is not small change. Free TAFE is taking pressure off Australians. It is breaking down the financial barriers stopping them from furthering their education. And it is helping to fill the skills gaps in our workforce.

This bill, to me, epitomises what the Labor Party is about. It is about providing opportunity. It is about thinking about the future. I commend the bill to the House.

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