Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the popularity of the Government's Fee-Free TAFE policy, demonstrated by the almost 150,000 enrolments in the first quarter of 2023;

(2) recognises that fee-free TAFE is:

(a) driving enrolments in sectors with recognised skills shortages and securing a domestic workforce to deliver on current and future priorities;

(b) providing training opportunities to priority groups including First Nations Australians, young people (between the ages of 17 to 24), people out of work or receiving income support, unpaid carers, certain categories of visa holders, women undertaking study in non-traditional fields, people with disabilities and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities;

(c) enabling greater opportunities for Australians to gain skills for rewarding employment and to obtain secure, well-paid jobs;

(d) investing in our greatest resource, our people, and ensuring that no Australians are held back or left behind as the Australian economy transitions; and

(e) providing important cost-of-living relief to Australian students;

(3) commends the Commonwealth and state and territory governments for jointly establishing a $1 billion 12-month National Skills Agreement in 2023, delivering 180,000 places this year; and

(4) welcomes budgeting for a further 300,000 places to be made fee-free from 2024, supporting TAFE's central role in the Vocational Education and Training sector.

Today I rise to present a motion in support of the Albanese Labor government's visionary decision to introduce fee-free TAFE. This transformative policy demonstrates this government's unwavering commitment to accessible education and its dedication to empowering Australians with the skills and opportunities they need to succeed. Upon taking office, the Albanese Labor government inherited not only $1 trillion of coalition debt but also a massive skills deficit. This situation is so dire that according to the OECD Australia is experiencing the second-most severe labour shortage in the developed world.

Education is a bedrock upon which we build a prosperous and equitable society. I mentioned in my first speech the difficulties my family and I had with accessing education. During my years at the William Angliss Institute, I struggled with the steep cost of my course and other study related materials. Education should be accessible to all, regardless of background or socioeconomic status. The introduction of fee-free TAFE by the Albanese Labor government is a significant step towards realising this vision. This landmark policy eliminates the financial barriers that have hindered many individuals from being able to skill themselves to meet this nation's needs. Fee-free TAFE opens doors, expands horizons and empowers individuals to unlock their potential and contribute to our nation's growth and prosperity.

The importance of vocational education and training cannot be overstated. As our society continues to evolve, we must equip our workforce with the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing economy. Recent projections show that nine of every 10 new jobs in the next five years will require a post-school qualification. Fee-free TAFE addresses this imperative by bridging the skills gap and aligning vocational education with the demands of the modern workforce. Training through fee-free TAFE is helping drive enrolments in sectors with recognised skill shortages, whether it's the care sector, agriculture, hospitality, tourism, construction, technology or the need to ensure our sovereign capability in defence and manufacturing. Fee-free TAFE delivers these skills during acute skills shortages.

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, the Albanese Labor government has supported almost 150,000 Australians to enrol in fee-free TAFE, including over 26,000 in my state of Victoria alone. Almost 35,000 of the 150,000 enrolments have been jobseekers. More than 12,000 of them are people with disability, 60 per cent of them are women, and nearly 30 per cent of them have been in courses related to the care sector, an area of high priority. This shows that fee-free TAFE is not just a policy that that will deliver dividends in the future; it is one that has already delivered for our country and our community.

Besides addressing our nation's skills deficit, fee-free TAFE also provides much-needed cost-of-living relief, with students saving thousands of dollars in course fees. For example, students undertaking a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care in Victoria are up to $8,700 better off. This is almost $8,700 they can save or spend on their families, homes and futures. The upcoming five-year national skills agreement, commencing in January 2024, builds on the success of fee-free TAFE. The agreement will also provide states and territories with access to additional Commonwealth investment of $3.7 billion over five years from 2024. The government's commitment to invest an additional $400 million to deliver 300,000 more fee-free TAFE places Australia-wide from next year is another testament to this policy's success. Fee-free TAFE is an investment in Australia's greatest resource: our people.

I want to conclude by commending the tireless efforts of the Albanese Labor government, particularly the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O'Connor, in bringing about this transformative change. I thank the House.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take this opportunity to talk about our training needs in the vocational education category. I'll start by commending some of the great registered training organisations that we have in this country. I certainly reflect on those that currently exist, and have existed in the past, in my home state of South Australia. They tend to be established by some of the industry bodies. The Motor Trade Association is a good example, as are the Civil Contractors Federation and the Australian Hotels Association. These are good examples of industry groups that have taken the initiative to form registered training organisations because they know the workforce needs for their industry sector.

It was really disappointing eight years ago when the then Labor government in South Australia ripped funding away from those registered training organisations. That government effectively had a policy that said: 'TAFE can't compete with registered training organisations in South Australia. The RTOs are too efficient. They're too responsive to industry needs and employment needs, so we're going to shut them down. We're not going to fund them anymore, and we're going to funnel all of the funding to only one organisation.' That was a great tragedy for those great registered training organisations run by people like the AHA, the MTA and civil contractors. That was a Labor government saying, 'We don't want business and industry involved in identifying training needs in their sector and providing that training, which is obviously in their best interest to do because they're the ones with the most to gain from making sure they have an efficient supply of a trained workforce.'

Regrettably, ever since then in South Australia—I think this is probably a problem nationwide, but it's been acute in South Australia—we've lost that connection, where industry is in true partnership with government to ensure that the training needs for their workforce are provided. When it comes to TAFE, VET or even other forms of higher education, like tertiary education, we need to make sure that we're training people for jobs that actually exist, that we don't have major labour shortages and that young people are trained for genuine opportunities that lie ahead for them.

Now we have some very significant labour workforce challenges in a variety of sectors, like the agriculture sector. In the care sector it is dramatic, particularly with the dramatic challenges happening into the future. It's really regrettable that we don't have a deeper sense of partnership between government and industry groups to provide that training, provide that trained workforce and ensure that the current and—even more importantly—future workforce shortages never eventuate. It shouldn't be that difficult for government and industry to work together and say: 'These are the forward projections of what we think we'll need in a sector, and this is the sort of training that's required. Let's work together to provide it. We in industry in particular can make sure not only that we're advising government on what the genuine opportunities in workforce are but that we're also providing pathways and connections between that training and actual jobs out there in the business communities that make up those industry sectors.'

I'm a great supporter of RTOs, and particularly industry led RTOs that are, of course, providing training for workforces that they actually know exist—they are the industry. And so, when the AHA form an RTO because they want to make sure they're training people in cooking and chef related skills, it's because they absolutely need that workforce trained for the future growth of their sector. While previous Labor governments have not been interested in working with these industry groups, and in fact have actively frustrated those efforts, which disgraceful and appalling, the reverse dividend of that is being felt in a lot of workforce shortages in my home state of South Australia right now.

I hope that governments, particularly Labor governments, change their attitude about that and recognise the value of working with industry groups to identify the training that is needed for future workforce requirements, provide it together and see that outcome that's in the interests of everyone, particularly those young people who will be given a strong future workforce pathway with those partnerships.

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

I'd like to thank the member for Holt for bringing forward this motion this morning, and I'm pleased to join the list of people to debate this motion. And I'd note for the member for Sturt's interest that under the previous government the number of occupations on the skills shortage list jumped from 153 to 286. I'd also like him to note that, since taking office, this government has seen the biggest job creation ever in Australia's history with over 465,000 jobs created in our first 12 months in office.

When we took government, when the Australian people gave us that responsibility and put their trust in our government, the first thing we did was check what were the challenges we were facing as a government. The poor economic management of the previous Liberal government left us not only with $1 trillion in debt but also a massive skills shortage. What did we do? We looked at those challenges and we put an action plan into place.

The first thing we did as a government was a Jobs and Skills Summit, where the member for Sturt might like to note industry were invited, and attended, alongside people across our civil community. They came together to talk about these challenges and how we might act on them. And what did we see there? We knew that we had a critical skills shortage in the care economy. That was raised. We had a problem in terms of women's participation. What we saw come out of that Jobs and Skills Summit is what this motion is about today—action on funding TAFE, action on fee-free TAFE for hundreds of thousands of Australians to ensure not only that they're getting the best opportunity, but also to ensure that those skills shortages are reduced.

On top of that, if you look at the care economy, we knew we had a skills shortage, but we also knew there was a reason for that skills shortage. We knew people weren't entering into that area of employment because, to put it bluntly, it was drastically underpaid. So, the combination of wage rises, fee-free TAFE and attacking those skills shortages has seen a dramatic increase in people in this country enrolled in TAFE. In fact, in this first term we've invested $400 million for a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places in high-need skills areas from 2024.

To address the skills shortage we've prioritised sectors, we've prioritised things that have been outlined for us. Last year the Commonwealth, state and territory governments signed a $1 billion 12-month national skills agreement delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places for this year, and the take-up has been extraordinary. In the first quarter of 2023, 150,000 Australians enrolled in fee-free TAFE. This is about getting on with the job, about attacking those skills shortages and about making sure we have opportunities in our suburbs, in our regions, across our country for people to either get themselves qualified or retrained into areas where we need people to work and where they might find employment—not just employment for employment's sake, but good employment. So it all works together with fee-free TAFE as well as the increases to wages that have been seen in our first 12 months of government. This is incredibly important.

It's also part of the cost-of-living relief, because all those people enrolled in fee-free TAFE have avoided up to $10,000 in fees this year. That means they're being given the capacity to make different choices. You don't have to look far in my electorate to see how this is impacting because it's having an extraordinary impact in my electorate. The notion of going to TAFE had become something I would talk to young people about and they would say to me, 'What's the point?' When I'm engaging with young people now who are doing, in my electorate, lots of child care and lots of aged care, they've changed their minds about that. Particularly in aged care, they can see there's a career path. They can see they will get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and, therefore, it's worth them investing their time and their commitment to plan a future in that sector.

I thank the member for Holt for bringing on this debate, and I want to pay tribute to the member for Gorton for his great work in this space.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning we're discussing the motion put forward by the fabulous member for Holt about fee-free TAFE. I should go on the record and point out that I'm not a member of the Liberal Party or the National Party, or even the crossbench—I'm a member of the Labor Party—but I'm speaking on behalf of that side because they couldn't find three people to actually say something positive about a government policy that delivers cost-of-living relief, free TAFE—the clue's in the title—and training opportunities for everyday Australians, something that the member for Holt and our whip recognise.

I can never get my head around why the Liberals and the Nationals don't understand how good TAFE is. Are they wary because they think TAFE takes money away from private training providers, perhaps? I don't know. But at the federal level, for over a decade, I saw the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government leave the training sector in a hole, which has now delivered a massive skill shortage for our nation. In Queensland I saw the Newman government try and choke the life out of TAFE Queensland by sacking TAFE teachers and staff and by ripping funding out of TAFEs.

Thankfully, Labor governments believe in the vital role that TAFEs play in skilling Australians. We invest in not only the institution but the people. The Albanese Labor government is following that great Labor tradition, and we are investing in our greatest resource—our people. We believe in Australians and believe they can be more, and education is that great transformational policy. We're honouring our key election commitment to provide fee-free TAFE and vocational education places—places that will provide training opportunities to priority groups, increase workforce participation and address those skills gaps in the economy. Training through fee-free TAFE will help drive enrolments in sectors that have those recognised skills shortages, whether it's in the care sector, agriculture—something the Nationals might perhaps be interested in—hospitality, tourism, construction, technology or the need to ensure our sovereign capability when it comes to defence and manufacturing. We need to deliver these skills at a time of acute skills shortages.

This supports our plans for making things in Australia; how good is that? I love it because my electorate has a strong manufacturing sector. My local TAFE SkillsTech at Acacia Ridge has a long history of providing highly-trained employees for the local workforce in Salisbury and Rocklea, where most of the manufacturing in Moreton is located. SkillsTech has some of the newest facilities, with the recent completion of a $200 million capital works program, including a 3D welding simulator for welding qualifications, which are in high demand in defence and manufacturing industries—not a job I would be able to do, based on my experience with 3D welding! There was also high demand when the Minister for Skills and Training came to visit recently.

Last year the Commonwealth, state and territory governments signed a $1 billion 12-month national skills agreement delivering those 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places. The agreement will increase opportunities and workforce participation in priority groups, including First Nations Australians, young people, people out of work or those receiving income support, unpaid carers, women undertaking study in non-traditional fields, people with disability, and certain categories of visa holders. The most popular courses have been in skills priority areas like early childhood education, nursing, support work, cybersecurity and construction. This just highlights the great success that fee-free TAFE is already having by encouraging Australians into sectors that are in desperate need of more skilled workers. Fee-free TAFE has also seen a strong uptake by women, who represent 60 per cent of all enrolments, while more than 25,000 students currently enrolled in fee-free TAFE are from households that speak a language other than English at home. Often it is the first door opening to a new career.

This isn't where it ends; this is simply where it begins. I know Minister O'Connor is keen to build on the success of fee-free TAFE by continuing to work with state and territory ministers to achieve better outcomes for students in the bush but also in the city. They're all committed to delivering access and equity to their vocational education and training system as part of the coming five-year National Skills Agreement, which will commence in January next year. The National Skills Agreement will provide states and territories with access to additional Commonwealth investment of $3.7 billion over five years from 2024. In addition, the Albanese Labor government will invest an additional $400 million to deliver a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE places Australia-wide from next year. This $4.1 billion investment shows the commitment of the Albanese Labor government to work in partnerships with states and territories. The Albanese Labor government will continue to help to give more Australians in the city and the country the skills and training they need to harness the jobs and opportunities of the future.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise this morning to speak on the motion moved by the amazing member for Holt, because, when it comes to skills and training, the approach between us and those opposite could not be any more different. Our government is rebuilding and modernising our skill sector to ensure a stronger and more resilient economy and to give more Australians the opportunity to access well-paid and secure jobs now and into the future. This is a stark difference to the decade of mess and mismanagement of those opposite, who inflicted cuts on TAFE, cuts on universities and led us into the skills shortage that we see in Australia here today. According to the OECD, Australia is experiencing the second-most severe Labor shortage in the developed world. The project of repair that needs to be undertaken in the skills and training sector is extensive, but this government isn't wasting a moment in seeking to repair and rebuild our vocational education and skills training system.

Last months budget invested $400 million to deliver an additional 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, which is building on the 180,000 places we created in 2023, including 120,000 places in New South Wales, underpinning our commitment to affordable vocational education. We increased funding by an additional $54.3 million to critical Australian Apprenticeships supports to improve completion rates, including 3,265 apprentices currently training in my electorate of Cunningham. We're investing an additional $436 million over four years to fundamentally reform the way the Commonwealth delivers foundation skills programs as well as $8.6 million to deliver the Australian Skills Guarantee and introduce national targets for apprentices, trainees and paid cadets working on Australian government funded major infrastructure and ICT projects; $3.9 million in additional funding over four years to establish a defence vocational skills task force. to develop the workforce required to shape our sovereign industrial base and support the delivery of defence programs; and $42.2 million to develop a modern fit-for-purpose IT system for the VET Student Loan program. There has been a strong response from the community following these investments.

In the first quarter of 2023, the Albanese Labor government has supported almost 150,000 Australians to enrol in fee-free TAFE, with more than 65,000 of them from my home state of New South Wales. As of 1 June, in my electorate of Cunningham over 2,000 students were benefiting from fee-free TAFE places. More broadly, in New South Wales we have seen over 2,000 students enrolling in cert III in early childhood education and care, 1,500 enrolling in cert IV in training and assessment, close to 2,000 in cert IV in accounting and bookkeeping and cert III in individual support, and 225 enrolling in Diploma of Nursing.

This government's agenda is not just about making education and training more accessible; it's also about making it more affordable and reducing the cost-of-living pressures that are currently facing so many Australians. Under our plan, students undertaking a Diploma of Information Technology (Cyber Security) in New South Wales are up to $4,060 better off with fee-free TAFE. Students studying a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care are up to $4,970 better off with fee-free TAFE. Students studying a cert IV in ageing support are up to $2,320 better off with fee-free TAFE. Students studying a cert III in manufacturing technology are up to $5,750 better off with fee-free TAFE. These achievements have only been possible thanks to the tripartite and collaborative approach that the Commonwealth has taken with businesses, unions, and the states and territories, an approach which we saw at the Jobs and Skills Summit last year and a principle at the core of Jobs and Skills Australia.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian Education Union, the New South Wales Teachers Federation and the TAFE Teachers Association for their support and collaboration in making this policy a reality. I have stood with my good friend Rob Long at TAFE campuses all over New South Wales. I thank them for their advocacy and for fighting to ensure that all Australians have access to an affordable, world-class vocational education and skills system.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion moved by my colleague the member for Holt. I'm extremely pleased to see the member for Holt moving a motion on TAFE, especially one that highlights the Albanese Labor government's efforts to ease barriers to entry to study for many students, particularly those which will help to reduce critical labour shortages in the short, medium and long term. There is a reason for this to be a policy imperative of the Albanese Labor government. As we all know, the Morrison liberal government gave many gifts to the incoming Labor government. Instead of being bestowed with the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, we instead got $1 trillion of liberal government debt, years of stagnating wage growth and, of course, a labour and skills shortage. Those gifts are distinguished quite dramatically from gold, frankincense and myrrh, and they weren't given to us by three wise men either. In fact, when it comes to the labour shortage, the OECD regards Australia as having the second-worst labour shortage in the developed world.

We can go as far back as October 2019 for the first signs of our government making steps to address this. These steps, for anyone with a calendar open, are a bit shy of being three whole years prior to taking office. The positive inroads with establishing Jobs and Skills Australia and following through on that commitment were effectively the first plank of actualising a policy like fee-free TAFE. Getting major employers in the same room with state and territory governments, the federal government and unions to assess where the short-term holes in our labour market are and, in the next breath, to look towards the future and assessing where these gaps will be in the medium- and long-term future if not adequately addressed is public policy done right.

I was absolutely delighted to hear in November last year that it was my state of South Australia that signed the very first skills agreement with the Commonwealth government. The enthusiasm to be the first state to take part in this may very well have something to do with a Labor government being elected in South Australia earlier that year. You have premier in Peter Malinauskas and an education minister in Blair Boyer that were all too keen to address South Australia's skills shortages and also to empower many South Australians to upskill themselves into careers that will give them a good chance of long and gainful employment through expanding their horizons with vocational educational and training. I could see that commitment when South Australia's education minister, Blair Boyer, accompanied me, along with the minister for skills and training, in visiting TAFE Elizabeth. Talking to a number of staff at TAFE who are passionate about providing vocational training to many eager students is one thing, but to hear from some students who have benefited directly from this policy is something that everyone from ministers down to local members such as me ought to do. To hear from students who have all read an article or two telling them what the jobs are of tomorrow is one thing, but to have a government policy making it easier for them to make the choice to make that sea change certainly amounts to an example of why we are here doing our day jobs as parliamentarians.

Fee-free TAFE is not just something that is working but something that we as a country have been long overdue for. Having a policy borne out of tripartite discussion between the education sector, unions, big business, small business and state and territory governments putting advice to the federal government about what the needs of the labour force are and what they believe them to be puts self-interest to one side and the national interest at the forefront of the discussion, as things should be. The need for this in the discussion is paramount, because in the next five years nine out of every 10 new jobs will require a post-school qualification, with four out of those being jobs requiring vocational education.

Accordingly, the Albanese government sees this as both a problem and an opportunity. With fee-free TAFE, the government is investing in our human capital, investing in the careers and livelihoods of many Australians that this policy will not just touch but alter the trajectory of their working lives for the better. Many students undertake vocational training for a number of reasons, whether it is to upskill the base of skills they have already acquired, whether it is to get into a field they are passionate about, or whether it is seeking out a career path that is futureproof for years to come. Those reasons, as diverse and varied as they may be, find commonality in many of those career paths now benefiting from fee-free TAFE pathways. For many, that is something that makes undertaking vocational education a possibility rather than an aspiration for when circumstances in their life better allow for it.

This is why I stand with my colleagues in support of the Albanese Labor government's policy for fee-free TAFE, and I look forward to Australia reaping its benefits for years to come by lifting people up, not pushing them down.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the date for the next sitting.