Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night's budget delivers the plan the Australian people voted for. This budget is right for the times and ready for the future. Our budget will do three things: provide responsible cost-of-living relief that doesn't add to inflation, invest in the capabilities of our people and the capacity of our economy, and begin the very hard task of long-term budget repair. It's a responsible budget that starts to clean up that awful mess the Liberals left behind and begins to build the better future that the Australian people deserve.

I'd like to speak today on the second point: how Labor will invest in the capabilities of our people and the capacity of our economy. Australia is facing an unprecedented skills shortage, caused by the inaction and incompetence of the nine years of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. Having skilled workers is vital for growing the economy and creating secure, high-paying jobs that are good for workers and their families. Particularly during this time of emerging new industries and technologies, it's vital that Australian workers have the skills to meet the challenges of the future and to position Australia to grasp the opportunities.

We need to provide a path for workers to seize those opportunities with transferable skills. Working in a globalised market, we must be aware of how we and industries can maximise support for growing our domestic talent and how we can attract a skilled workforce. According to the OECD, Australia is experiencing the second most severe labour shortages in the developed world. Labor understands this. Labor is acting. That's why last night's budget invests in the capabilities of our people and the capacity of our economy to boost productivity, grow the economy and get wages moving again.

Together with the states and territories, we are making a $1 billion investment in fee-free TAFE and vocational education places. We are providing 180,000 places next year, the first stage in our plan for nearly half a million fee-free TAFE places for Australians to learn skills for jobs in priority areas like the care sectors and the digital economy. This budget also invests more than $770 million for better schools, happier and healthier students, and more qualified teachers. We will invest $485 million to create 20,000 new university places over the next two years for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. As the Treasurer said, no Australian should be denied, by poverty, by postcode or by lack of privilege, their chance at a better future.

These budget announcements came after the Albanese government moved quickly to hold the recent Jobs and Skills Summit. The Jobs and Skills Summit brought together Australians including unions, employers, civil society and governments to address our shared economic challenges. As a result of the consensus reached at the summit, immediate actions will be taken to build a bigger, better-trained and more-productive workforce to help deliver secure jobs with growing wages, to boost incomes and living standards and to create more opportunities for more Australians. The summit has also laid out priorities for further work and further action.

In addition to the announcements in the budget, the Australian government will legislate Jobs and Skills Australia as a priority based on tripartite governance, establish the Jobs and Skills Australia work plan in consultation with all jurisdictions and stakeholders to address workforce shortages, and build long-term capacity in priority sectors. We'll task Jobs and Skills Australia, once established, to commission a workforce capacity study on the clean energy workforce. The Australian government and the states and territories will also kickstart skill sector reform and restart discussions for a five-year national skills agreement based on guiding principles agreed by the National Cabinet and skills ministers, and develop a comprehensive blueprint with key stakeholders to support and grow a quality VET workforce.

The Australian government, in partnership with states, territories and stakeholders, will also reinvigorate foundation skills programs to support workers and vulnerable Australians to gain secure employment choices; explore more options to improve the apprenticeship support system and drive up completions; include specific sub-targets for women in the Australian Skills Guarantee and ensure the guarantee includes a focus on the need for digital skills; and work together to reform the framework for VET qualifications and microcredentials to ensure they are most relevant to labour market needs.

In the lead-up to the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra, over 100 jobs and skills forums were held across Australia, including three in Tasmania. I attended the Hobart forum with my Labor colleagues the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Mr Leigh; the member for Lyons, Mr Brian Mitchell; and the good senator Carol Brown. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear firsthand from a wide variety of voices: businesses, civil society organisations, professional associations, employment service providers and unions. Everybody in the room was working together, not trying to kill off certain sectors, like the previous government did in trying to kill off the unions.

We heard that we have a vital need to provide skills and training, especially for our young Tasmanians. Career education must include skill based occupations such as trades, transport and logistics, and care based occupations. Further, training targeting occupations which ensure the next generation—those children, those students, up in the gallery—is job ready was a key focus. One concern is that Tasmania has a shortage of education professionals, which is impacting the education of Tasmania's young people right now. We had a lot of great ideas generated about how to tackle the skills crisis, make jobs secure and get wages moving, so I do quickly want to thank all those people who were present for their ideas and suggestions, and for participating in that activity.

Our current skills crisis has of course been exacerbated by COVID, but we saw signs of the looming shortage even before the pandemic hit. Whether in nursing, aged care, hospitality, construction, teaching or tech, there are skills shortages wherever we look across the economy. In my old area, early childhood education, there are skill shortages and a lack of people taking on the roles. The Skills Priority List released recently by the National Skills Commission includes 286 occupations in national shortage, up from 153 in 2021. Action should have been taken by the previous government on the shortages and the emerging shortages, but, of course, they dropped the ball in this area as in a range of other areas. But now we have a government that is willing to work with employers, education and training providers and the unions to find solutions.

According to the OECD, a staggering three million adults in Australia lack the fundamental skills required to participate in training and secure work. These are skills such as basic literacy, digital literacy and numeracy, which are required to participate in our economy and, frankly, in our society. The Albanese government will explore options to address this critical issue to make sure that no-one is held back and no-one is left behind.

As anyone who has listened to parliamentary debates well knows, I'm deeply passionate about TAFE. I came out of TAFE. A strong TAFE sector is crucial to a strong economy and achieving a fair society. We will restore TAFE to its rightful prominence in the training landscape, and it's crucial that we reinvigorate Australia's apprenticeship system and provide support for secure careers in trades and occupations that are in demand. We are engaging the sector to shift the focus to improving retention and completion rates and ensuring apprentices and trainees get the support they need. The Australian Skills Guarantee will ensure that one in 10 workers on major federally funded government projects is an apprentice, trainee or paid cadet, with a particular focus on supporting women through specific targets.

The new energy sector is one such area of focus, and we're providing for 10,000 new energy apprenticeships.

We must secure a more productive economy and help Australians get well paid and secure jobs, providing them with great opportunities. This requires leadership, planning, collaboration and working towards a shared goal if we are to be successful. At a time of low unemployment and labour shortage, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure that the people who face intergenerational barriers to employment can gain transferable skills and secure jobs. Labor is more than ready to grasp this opportunity.