Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection from the—I'm not sure which—opposition senator who tried to blame state governments. You'd be talking about a Liberal state government in Tasmania, so I'm not sure how that helps your argument. But, Senator Lambie, I agree with you that our TAFEs do need more investment. They do need more investment when it comes to capital equipment. They do need more investment when it comes to teachers' wages. They do need more investment when it comes to places for TAFE. That's exactly why the Albanese government went to the election with a commitment to do so.

I think it was out of the Jobs and Skills Summit that we committed to provide 180,000 new fee-free TAFE places for skills that are in demand. I'm sure a considerable portion of them flow to your state of Tasmania, but this is an ongoing job. Again, unfortunately, this is one of the various messes that we have inherited from the former government. It will take time to repair, but at least we now have a government in Australia that is philosophically committed to our TAFE system and to making it the centre of our vocational education and training system.