Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank Senator Tyrrell for raising this issue, an issue that is deeply important in the context of the skills crisis that we are facing in this country, particularly given that this is an issue that, along with so many other issues, was ignored by the previous government for nine very long years. Let's not forget that, as well as ignoring this particular aspect of people's education and the development of skills in this country, they also doubled the cost of numerous degrees, making it so much harder for students. Then, of course, there were the changes to HECS. All of these things have created an environment where our higher education system is in need of extreme amounts of repair.

We have many students, in courses like nursing, teaching, early education and social work, who are required to undertake a set number of hours of placement in their area to be able to graduate appropriately from their degree. These placements are frequently unpaid, and they can be for significant periods of time. Notably, studying nursing requires up to 800 hours of placement, teaching requires 80 full days of placement, and social work requires up to 1,000 hours of placement. We find that the careers where placements are required are significantly female-dominated industries. For example, 92 per cent of workers across early childhood education and care are female and are required to undertake placement. Eighty-six per cent of workers across residential aged care are female, as is 76 per cent of the school workforce and 68 per cent of the disability workforce. This is overwhelmingly focused on females building their career and having to deal with the challenges that they have on placement.

We also know that placements have a disproportionate effect on people on low SES backgrounds. As is always the case, those with less get impacted more and struggle more, and we need to be looking at structures to change that. So the Labor government, having a deep and abiding respect and commitment to higher education, to TAFE education, to vocational education of all sorts, and to addressing our skills crisis, has undertaken a range of steps to start trying to address this challenge.

The universities accord panel has handed down its interim report and it's great to see that there are some good strategies proposed in that interim report. The interim report is just the essential things for now. The final report will be in December. It has had spectacular engagement and is coming up with excellent strategies to address some of these issues that we have seen festering and getting worse over the last 10 years. The placement issue was specifically referenced in the accord, so I, like Senator Tyrrell, are quite excited about what the future might look like in addressing some of these deeply challenging and concerning issues.

In addition, the government is working with education ministers across the country to consider the findings from the teacher education expert panel. Obviously, teaching is just one area where placement is an issue but it is a significant one. The impact of unpaid placements on those students is something that those education ministers are looking very, very seriously at and have already come to in-principle supports. One of those is a national practical teaching guideline by the end of 2023—only a couple of months away—establishing a system wide coordination of practical experience and undertaking work to increase the systemic investment in this area. We are making progress. It is a critical area. We have a great deal of positivity about how this may play out, but let's not forget that this is off the back of 10 years of abject ignorance of the issue and of the needs of this country to develop the skills we need into the future and that is at the foot of the coalition and their time in government.