Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the ACT alone, 2,500 students have already taken up the offer of fee-free TAFE. After a decade of neglect and decay under the previous government, our VET system is again on its way to being world class, as the government firmly believes it should be. On Tuesday I had the great pleasure to join the Prime Minister, the Minister for Skills and Training and the ACT Chief Minister at CIT in Fyshwick at the electric vehicle training hub to announce the national skills agreement. This is the first agreement since 2012—pretty unbelievable—and it will enable thousands of Australians across the country to attain the skills and knowledge they need to transform Australia. It will be absolutely vital to ensuring that the Australian workforce remains competitive, productive and able to keep up with the rapidly evolving nature of the world economy. Australia is moving towards a net zero future, and the next generations of Australians are being trained to deliver it.

The skills agreement will also help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and between men and women in the workplace—and what a contrast to those opposite. A survey of over 1,000 TAFE staff, in 2020, showed that budget cuts and neglect from the previous government had left staff demoralised, with growing workloads and poorer results, and an increasing number of students were missing out on opportunities that should be commonplace. With an additional $12.6 billion of Commonwealth funding, the skills agreement will ensure that the neglect of the last 10 years is finally addressed.