Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is National TAFE Day. We on this side of the House are pleased to welcome TAFE teachers, and others who work in this sector, to the building today, because we've got a lot to celebrate—going forward, if this side of the House takes government. Let's face it, in the fifth year of this LNP government, there's just been bad news for TAFE, very bad news. We've had campuses closed all over the country.

Like most Australians, I'm appalled when I hear that Australia is importing tradespeople in traditional trades at the cost of our local Australian kids. I'm appalled when business says we've got a skills shortage in bricklaying. We haven't got a skills shortage in bricklaying; we've got a shortage in commitment from the other side. For five years, we've had a shortage of commitment.

Labor have great plans for TAFE. We're going to spend $100 million modernising TAFE facilities. Two of every three dollars of Commonwealth priority training dollars will be spent on TAFE filling Australian apprenticeships. One on 10 jobs in Commonwealth priority projects will be filled by Australian apprentices. There will be 10,000 pre-apprenticeships and 20,000 adult apprenticeships, and that's on top of the 100,000 training positions that we will pay for. It will be a great day for TAFE—sometime in the future when that government is gone from those benches.