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

I might need to come back to you with the precise figures, but what I do have to hand is the funding that's been provided to each state and territory under the new 12-month national skills agreement that we negotiated with the states and territories last year. The figures that I have here are that for that 12-month agreement, the Commonwealth contribution to Tasmania is $13.5 million. The bulk of that is for those fee-free TAFE places. I'm pretty sure, Senator Lambie, that this would be the new funding that's being provided, in addition to whatever existing funding there was in place, but $13.5 million in total from the Commonwealth, of which $9.9 million is for fee-free TAFE places, $0.5 million for student support, $0.6 million for data infrastructure, $2.5 million for the TAFE Technology Fund, tranche 1. We would expect that, as time goes on, that additional funding will be increased because, as I've said, the Albanese government understands that the TAFE system is the centre of our training system. (Time expired)