Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment (Strengthening Quality and Integrity in Vocational Education and Training No. 1) Bill 2024. In doing so, I note that the most significant change proposed by this bill is for the Minister for Skills and Training, as is so often the case now across this government in different portfolios, to seek to directly control market entry of new registered training organisations. Again, that is what the minister for skills is seeking to do in this bill. He is seeking to directly control market entry of new registered training organisations.

I also note, though, that the bill introduces a new power that allows the minister, by legislative instrument, to direct the regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, to pause the registrations of new registered training organisations. This would need to be agreed with state and territory skills ministers. The bill also tightens rules for RTOs in their first two years of operation and makes a number of changes to the way the regulator, ASQA, processes and prioritises the registrations of new training organisations.

The government, in typical Albanese government style, has framed this bill as a response to integrity and quality issues. When you look at it like that, you think to yourself, 'This is a response to integrity and quality issues within the training sector, so all must be okay.' However, feedback from across the sector is, yet again, that there was very minimal consultation before it was introduced. But, again, that is a highlight of this government. They talked big on transparency prior to the election. Then, suddenly, portfolio across portfolio across portfolio across portfolio, when bills are presented, stakeholders say: 'Hey. Hold on. We haven't been consulted with.' Again, this is a very, very bad process. It certainly does not indicate the transparency that this government campaigned on prior to the election. But, as I said, it is, unfortunately, as we have all come to know, now the modus operandi of the Albanese government.

Given the track record of this government putting government-run training providers ahead of the needs of students and their outcomes, the approach to this bill actually gave cause to just pause and have a look at it. We do like to consult. We liked to consult when we were in government, unlike the current government. Both in government but also in opposition it's incredibly important. We went out and we sought the views of the training sector and the business groups on what the changes would mean for them. What would be the impact of the changes on the relevant people affected by this legislation? While there was a high level of caution around this bill, particularly around the minister's new power to pause the establishment of new training organisations, there was a broad alignment on the intent of the bill. However, what was made very, very clear to us was that some amendments were required. Obviously, as the coalition, we have tabled a number of amendments, and I am pleased that the government has agreed to support the amendments so that we are able to make this bill a better bill.

As I said, there are noted concerns around transparency and accountability of this new ministerial power. The opposition will put forward amendments that will force the minister to publicly justify the use of this power to the sector, the parliament and the public and to mandate that a determination to pause the establishment of new training organisations be in place for no longer than a 12-month period. We believe these amendments will establish an important guardrail for this new power. They will also enshrine a level of protection that would prevent the minister putting in place a pause that would in fact turn into a de facto ban. The principle here is that we expect that this power would be rarely used and, therefore, there should be increased transparency and accountability when it is exercised by the minister.

It is also important that we do not overreach with intervention here, because what we do want to do as a coalition is very much what we did in government—that is, support our dynamic and innovative skills and training sector in Australia. So, it's important the government does not overbalance in pursuit of the objective, and it is a very worthy objective, of quality outcomes. But we also need to be aware of the consequences when the government gets this area of policy wrong. That is why, as I said, we consulted with the sector as the opposition, unlike the government, which did very limited consultation. The sector said to us, 'We need these amendments to make the bill (a) a more workable bill and (b) a better bill.' The coalition is therefore putting forward the amendments, and I understand that the government will be supporting them.

Of course, we should never forget why we're in this position in the first place and why we need to strengthen this regulator. If you look back to the coalition's time in office versus the former Labor government's time when they were last in office, it is a direct comparison. It was an absolutely appalling record for the last Labor government in relation to skills policy when they were last in office. In fact, when you talk to stakeholders today, they are actually still scarred by what occurred. They will also say to you that everything the former Labor government touched in relation to skills ended up being detrimental to the sector and was a total disaster. That is actually borne out by the statistics. Apprenticeship numbers plummeted. Here is the statistic. When Labor last left office, apprentice and training numbers were in freefall, with the number of those in training collapsing by 22 per cent. And this still scars people today because we are still seeing the effects of it.

The most egregious of Labor's failures was their absolutely doomed VET FEE-HELP disaster. You talk to people about it today—I've talked to people who were affected by it at the time. Seriously, they do not have a good news story to tell about the former Labor government. As we know, the former Labor government's VET FEE-HELP scheme saw the very proud reputation of the Australian skills sector hit rock bottom as tens of thousands of Australians were loaded up with debt for doing courses that would never get them a job. This was a scheme established by the former Labor government in 2008. They then expanded it in 2012. It was plagued by system-wide rorting, with some training providers exploiting loose rules and charging students substantial debts for training—you will never believe this!—they never undertook or benefited from. And yet the system was able to be rorted and the training providers were able to exploit the rules to the detriment of vulnerable students in the sector, some of whom are still paying off debts today.

The scheme targeted, appallingly, people with disabilities, people with substance abuse issues, public housing residents and people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Others—and this was a shocking part of the exploitation of Labor's scheme—were offered free laptops and other incentives to sign up to courses without knowing they were about to be saddled with a debt that was going to last them a very, very long time. In fact, in 2014, the Hon. Michael Lavarch was the commissioner then responsible for risk intelligence and regulatory support at the Australian Skills Quality Authority. This is what he said about Labor's VET FEE-HELP scheme:

I have been in and around public life for a long time. I think I can fairly say that this was the worst piece of public policy I have ever seen.

What an absolute indictment of the former Labor government and the policy that they put in place. Guess what? It is 2024, Senator Scarr. Taxpayers are still picking up the tab for this enormous public policy failure and, to date, this failure of Labor government policy has cost the Australian taxpayer $3.5 billion. You can laugh all you like about that but that is a direct failure of Labor government policy that has now cost the Australian taxpayer over $3.5 billion. But this is the ironic part: who presided over these values at the time? Well, none other than the then member for Gorton, who is now returned as the skills minister. That is why consultation on legislation that the Albanese government brings forward is so important, because it is the same member today who is responsible for the failures of the former Labor government, in particular, a scheme that was rorted, that resulted in the exploitation of students and has cost the Australian taxpayer $3.5 billion today. Can you honestly imagine, with a cost-of-living crisis, what you could do with $3.5 billion?

Let's jump forward to 2024. What we are seeing again, and this is now borne out by the statistics, is the impact of the Albanese government's approach to skills. The latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research shows the Albanese government is again overseeing a collapse in the number of apprentices and trainees in every single state and in almost every electorate across the nation. After just one year of the Albanese government, there are over 50,000 fewer apprentices and trainees in training today than when Labor took office. That is a loss of one in 10 in just one year. The data also shows commencements of apprentices and trainees have dropped by 40.1 per cent over the same period. What that means is 110,000 fewer Australians started a new course, qualification or trade under the last year of Labor versus those who started under the last year of the former government. The data has also been broken down by electorate and it shows that, in the final year of the coalition government, in-training numbers increased—not decreased, increased—in every electorate across Australia bar one, while under the first year of the Albanese government, the number of apprentices and trainees has dropped in every electorate except four. That is the actual fact. They are the statistics of the impact of government policy. Under the coalition, you saw an increase; under Labor, you have seen a decrease. You can't make excuses for that; that is just bad policy.

In fact, in the minister's own electorate in the last year of the Liberal government, the numbers went up by 32 per cent. In his first year in office, he has lost 10 per cent of the apprentices and trainees in his community. Let's have a look at the Treasurer's electorate. In the final year of the Liberal government the numbers went up by 43 per cent. In the first year of office of the Treasurer, he has now seen over a 15 per cent drop in the number of apprentices and trainees in his own community.

Instead of worrying about these decreases, the Labor Party just changed their narrative. Instead of taking responsibility they continue to blame the former coalition government. Last time I looked at the statistics, they showed the policies we put in place, the investment we put in place, actually had a positive impact on the sector. The narrative that those opposite ran for nine years when the coalition were in government was that we had cut funding from skills, which, as we know, the statistics show is not true. What they are now saying is that the coalition spent $3.8 billion annually to 'prop up the apprenticeship system'. That was from the member for Gorton, the Labor Party. I would have said to the coalition: congratulations for investing in the apprenticeship system in this country, which is what was so desperately needed. On one hand the government are saying—when it suits them—that we cut funding but on the other hand they are saying we apparently over-funded skills. You could not make this up. But the reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't just change your rhetoric to suit your political narrative, because ultimately you will be caught out by the statistics. It is a fact that, when it comes to funding under the former coalition government, our policies invested over $13 billion in skills over the final two years of the coalition government alone. We also didn't just clean up Labor's mess; we made the most significant reforms to skills in over a decade.

It is actually very disappointing as a former skills minister to now see the detrimental impact Albanese government policy is having on the skills sector in Australia. They came to power promising they would resolve the skills shortages, and what we are seeing is that they have delivered a collapse in apprenticeship and trainees starts and a collapse in the number of Australians in training.