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

Thank you very much, Senator Sheldon, for the question. You are absolutely right. The $1 trillion of debt was not the only thing we inherited from the Liberal and National parties. We were also bequeathed a massive skills deficit. You can see very clearly where the coalition feels sensitive and vulnerable, because they always pipe up. They wake from their slumber when they're reminded of the trillion dollars of debt that we inherited, that they left behind. They always wake up from their slumber when we point out that they kept wages deliberately low for a decade that they were in power. They're all the things that they're embarrassed about that, and we are never going to let the Australian public forget about it.

We're also not going to let the Australian public forget that we were also bequeathed a massive skills deficit by the former coalition government. According to the OECD—and I suspect the former Senate leader Mathias Cormann knows about this now that he is the Secretary-General of the OECD—as of July 2022 Australia was experiencing the second most severe labour shortage in the developed world. Mathias must have been shaking his head when his own organisation had to put that report out, saying that Australia had the second most severe labour shortage in the developed world. That's why the Albanese government took urgent action on being elected, starting by bringing together Australians, unions, employers and civil society at the jobs and skills summit; establishing Jobs and Skills Australia to underpin our response to current and emerging workforce needs; funding 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023—I can't hear you, Senator Birmingham; have you got something to say there? I didn't hear that.