Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. The Albanese Labor government is the weakest and most incompetent since the Whitlam government. Minister, of the 500,000 enrolments in fee-free TAFE since Labor was elected, funded with $1.5 billion of taxpayer funds, how many have resulted in no qualification being delivered?

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to get another question from the shadow minister on TAFE and completions, and I really hope these questions continue. Every day students are enrolling in fee-free TAFE. What I want to emphasise is that good courses and advanced TAFE study take time. I also want to say this: as I'm sure the shadow minister knows, the professional data agency, the custodian, the NCVER, reports completions after four years. The VET data experts only report on the cohort that completes after four years, because it takes four years to get usable data. It takes four years, because the learning is complex and critical. It takes four years, because TAFE courses are just as important as university degrees. It takes four years, because four out of five students are enrolled part time. It takes four years, because someone who enrolled yesterday can't complete today. I would have thought that that's a pretty simple concept. The latest NCVER publication covers enrolments from 2019.

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

The member for Spence is warned.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The completion data from 2023 or 2024 will be reported by the custodian in 2027, so drawing conclusions on this year's data and last year's data simply doesn't make sense—like pretty much everything the shadow minister says. Students are still completing their studies. Students are starting their studies.

Fee-free TAFE has been operating in Victoria since 2019, so there is four years of data there, and the shadow minister and members opposite might want to have regard to that. The NCVER there shows that fee-free TAFE completions are higher than university completions. They are also higher than those of the VET system more generally. The evidence from Victoria and the data custodian is that free TAFE is doing its job. If 508,000 Australians agree, why doesn't the opposition?

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition We're not doing anything until the House comes to order.

The minister for infrastructure, I've just said we're not doing anything until the House comes to order, and you're interjecting. We shall hear from the member for Bendigo.