Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Macarthur spoke rather eloquently, I might say, at the beginning of this adjournment debate regarding issues for youth and issues for young people. He spoke about housing and access to housing as social determinant for the quality of life and for health. A dedicated and well-respected health professional, I know that the member for Macarthur knows what he's talking about when he talks about social determinants. I would also add that a social determinant for health and quality of life is access to training and education, not just for young people but also for women and for people who, later in life, are perhaps looking to retrain and return to work.

It's on that topic that I'd like to speak today, because while I was out doorknocking during the 2016 election, I met a single mother and her son. He desperately wanted to get into TAFE and to study at TAFE. But he couldn't, because his mother couldn't afford the up-front fees that were required. It took me back to my days teaching at TAFE—which was many, many years ago, I might add. I coordinated a pathways program which was designed to help migrants who had completed their Adult Migrant English Program entitlements—most of them women—to successfully attain a Certificate III in Aged Care.

I resolved to help this mother and her son. I accompanied them to TAFE, helped him to enrol in TAFE and to find the course that he wanted to do. But since then I have met many parents and their children who also face challenges enrolling in the TAFE course of their choice, either because they couldn't afford the up-front fees or because the courses that they wanted simply weren't available. I've also talked to various stakeholders about the state of TAFE in Western Australia, and I have come to the conclusion that our once first-class training system has been decimated.

In the last five years, in fact, more than $3 billion has been cut from TAFE and training, and Australia has about 140,000 fewer apprenticeships today than it did when this government was first elected. TAFE courses have been cut, TAFE campuses have been closed and TAFE teachers have lost their jobs. This is a sad indictment on our once world-class training system.

In Western Australia, there are 9,615 fewer apprentices and trainees in training since 2013. That's a drop of 25 per cent. In my electorate of Cowan, there are 702 fewer apprentices and trainees, a drop of 25 per cent, and this is not attributable to natural attrition. It is not because fewer people want to go to TAFE. In fact, most people in Cowan are employed in construction, retail, manufacturing, health care and social assistance. These are the kinds of professions catered for by the TAFE system, so the decline in apprentices and trainees in Cowan is not reflected in the employment profile of my community. It is a direct result of this government's progressive decimation of the TAFE system.

Labor recognises the importance of a strong TAFE system to provide employment opportunities for middle- and working-class people, for women, for young people and for workers retraining in later life. We recognise that a strong TAFE system is needed to meet demand in growing occupations in the disability, aged-care and technology focused sectors. We know that good quality training and a well-funded public-training system is necessary to develop a quality workforce for future jobs. And that's why we're committed to scrapping up-front fees for 100,000 TAFE students. That's why we're committed to ensuring that trades like carpentry and bricklaying, and skills like aged care, are not going to face skills shortages because people who want to learn and who want to work can't access the courses they need.

In addition to our commitment to waiving fees we're also going to invest $100 million in modernising TAFE facilities around the country, guarantee that at least two out of three Commonwealth training dollars goes to TAFE, ensure that one in every 10 jobs on Commonwealth priority projects are filled by Australian apprentices and provide 10,000 pre-apprentice programs for young people and 20,000 adult apprentice programs for older workers. Only a Labor government can be relied on to deliver the training needs for a future workforce. (Time expired)