Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today on National TAFE Day to stand up for public education in Australia and to place on record my unwavering support for TAFE as a vital national institution. For well over 100 years, TAFE has been providing students with the skills they need to prosper. In my electorate of Newcastle, Hunter TAFE is an exceptional provider that has been operating since 1936. In fact, it is the largest regional provider of vocational education and training in the country. It is a loved and trusted public institution that is deeply embedded in our community, but it has not been immune to the sustained attacks that have been waged in recent years by both state and federal Liberal governments. On this side of the chamber, we believe in TAFE because we understand the critical role it plays in ensuring that Australians have the skills they need to secure quality jobs. We understand how important this collective skillset will be to our national prosperity into the future and we see what an integral part TAFE plays in so many communities, especially regional communities like mine.

The world is changing rapidly. The World Economic Forum reports that 65 per cent of young people entering primary school today will end up working in jobs that do not yet exist. We must strive to ensure that, as a country, we have the skilled workforce we need to be ready to grasp the opportunities that lie ahead, but we will not be able to do this without a strong, agile and properly funded national TAFE network. You would think that in this environment of rapid change and opportunity the Turnbull government would be bolstering TAFE. Regretfully, nothing could be further from the truth. Over recent years we have seen conservative governments at both state and federal levels hell-bent on slashing funding for education across the board, on privatising our vocational education sector and on bringing TAFE to its knees. The federal Liberal government has cut $2.8 billion from skills, training and vocational education since coming to office. The Prime Minister likes to talk about the importance of a skilled and agile nation, but actions speak louder than words and the Prime Minister has revealed his true priorities by cutting a further $600 million from skills and apprenticeships to help subsidise his $65 billion worth of corporate tax cuts.

TAFE and vocational education funding and the number of supported students are now lower than they were a decade ago, despite the fact that more jobs today call for vocational skills. Nationally, the number of apprentices has fallen by almost 150,000 since the Liberal government came to power. In New South Wales, TAFE fees have skyrocketed, staff have been cut and restructures have been forced. As well as cutting vital funding for skills and vocational education, the federal government has actively pursued a damaging privatisation agenda. Millions of dollars of public money have been handed out to private companies and too often students have paid a heavy price. We have all seen the terrible rorts and exploitation. We have all heard the stories of private providers, driven by profit motives, who have prioritised shareholders over students and the quality of training they provide. This sort of shameless profiteering has ruined lives and severely damaged trust in our vocational education system.

In contrast to those opposite, Labor will turn around the trend of privatisation. We will put TAFE back in the centre of vocational education. A Labor government would reverse the Prime Minister's $600 million cuts to skills and training and we would guarantee that at least two-thirds of public vocational education training goes to TAFE. We will also create a $100 million building TAFE for the future fund to ensure that regional communities like Newcastle and the Hunter have high-quality facilities to give students the skills they need to meet the needs of local industry. A Labor government will have a target that one in 10 jobs on all Commonwealth priority projects will be apprenticeships. And we will also invest in pre-apprenticeship programs and establish an advanced entry adult apprenticeships program to fast-track apprentices for up to 20,000 people facing redundancy or who have lost their jobs. While the Liberals are hell-bent on tearing TAFE down, Labor will fight to protect it. We will back public TAFE, and it is time the Liberals dropped their cuts and joined Labor in this project. (Time expired)