Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. After a decade of neglect, how is the Albanese Labor government helping Australians to get the skills they need for good, secure jobs and to keep more of what they earn when they enter the workforce?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the fantastic member for Pearce for that question and for her concern about making sure that young people in Pearce get the skills they need and that older workers retraining for new jobs of the future get the skills that they need. Indeed, taking action on the cost of living is our No. 1 priority, because we want people to earn more and we want people to keep more of what they earn. That means we need to help more Australians get the skills they need to get a good, secure job, which is exactly what our fee-free TAFE policy does. It identifies areas of skills shortage and says you can enrol for free.

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

The member for Fisher will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we released new figures on what a success that program has been. Our initial target was 180,000 places in the first year. We smashed that target. We had more than 355,000 new enrolments across a range of industries where we have skills shortages, both blue-collar and white-collar industries: nursing and disability workers; technology and digital; construction and home-building; child care and education; and agriculture and farming. As I've gone around the country and visited TAFEs, I've met many students who are so excited by engaging in what will be a new career with a good, secure job at the end of it.

We're strengthening our economy, boosting key industries, and getting more Australians into good jobs. That's what it means to support aspiration—to be the party of aspiration for all, not just those who have been successful, such as people in this chamber who earn a good wage, but every person who looks forward to working. Many of those TAFE students, of course, will be apprentices. They're on relatively low incomes at that early stage in their careers. That's why it's so important that our tax cuts deliver a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer—all 13.6 million of them—not just some and not just in some places. It's in every part of the country and every part of our economy.

We're working for Australia each and every day. We're making sure that we preside over an economy which has seen real wages lift and which is putting downward pressure on inflation. More jobs have been created under this government during our first two years—and we're not quite there yet—than any previous new government in Australian history. More new jobs are being created, but we'll continue to not be complacent. We'll continue to work each and every day in the interests of working Australians getting ahead.