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

You would think that the ability to deliver the skills that Australians need, the productivity improvements the economy needs and cost-of-living relief would be something that everyone in this chamber could get behind. But according to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and shadow minister for skills and training, Ms Ley, fee-free TAFE is 'wasteful spending'. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising given the coalition had cut more than $3 billion out of the TAFE system since 2013. You can't take that much money out of TAFE and then complain about a skills shortage. But, of course, that's exactly what the coalition are doing.

When comparing the Treasurer's budget speech and the opposition leader's budget reply speech last month, it was very clear who actually cares about upskilling Australians. On this side, we spoke about creating 300,000 fee-free TAFE places to train Australians in critical and emerging sectors. The opposition leader didn't mention TAFE once. When they are in power they cut funding to TAFE; when they are out of power they say it's wasteful spending. We are getting on with the job. (Time expired)