Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. How is the Albanese Labor government's fee-free TAFE policy helping to support Australians with cost-of-living relief, and what has the response been?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Swan for her question. I look forward to joining the member at Bentley TAFE in her electorate later this month.

The Albanese government has been very focused on introducing, initiating and implementing fee-free TAFE, and it has been an extraordinary success. Over 150,000 Australians have enrolled in these fee-free TAFE courses, increasing access to training and skills that are in demand in our economy.

We've entered negotiations with states and territories to extend this approach into 2024 and beyond, because we know that nine out of every 10 future jobs rely upon post-secondary-school qualifications, whether they're in higher education—universities—or the VET sector.

We understand that. And the VET sector is indeed doing much of the heavy lifting.

That's why we're investing in TAFEs and students to ensure a pipeline of skills that are critical for this nation's future. It's critical in the areas of energy, sovereign capability, the care economy and many other sectors as well. The most popular courses to date have been in precisely these skill priority areas, whether that be early childhood education, nursing, cybersecurity, manufacturing, energy or construction. So we are continuing to work in these areas of demand. But fundamental to fee-free TAFE is the opportunity it provides Australians to get good, secure jobs in areas of high demand and also to supply those skills that businesses are crying out for. Our policy, of course, is also providing cost-of-living relief and removing cost barriers so that students and workers can access those much-needed skills.

But not everybody agrees with our plans to support students. According to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, fee-free TAFE is 'wasteful spending'. An initiative that is providing much-needed skills to students, workers, businesses and our economy is, according to those opposite, 'wasteful spending'. But what would you expect of the Liberal Party, the party of robodebt, a party that knowingly continued an illegal scheme that persecuted hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause and resume his seat. I'll hear from the Manager of Opposition Business.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the question was: on fee-free TAFE, what has the response been? We've now got the minister going off on a frolic on a completely unrelated matter. You should direct him back to the question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the point of order: the minister is explaining what the response has been. There is nothing out of order with the minister explaining that the response has been consistent with how they responded with robodebt. It's a completely reasonable part of the response.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was about dealing with the cost-of-living relief. I'm just going to ask the minister to ensure his answer is reflective of that part of the question. He is entitled to the remaining 24 seconds.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand the Manager of Opposition Business being touchy on this issue, because they haven't apologised and they don't show any contrition with respect to this scheme. They show a callous disregard, whether it's students who need access to skills or whether it's, in fact, vulnerable Australians that were subject to the persecution we saw under the robodebt scheme.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting constantly.