Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Urquhart. Obviously, the biggest challenge we face in delivering more free TAFE to Australians is the sneering, arrogant view from Liberal Party members and senators that you don't value something if you don't pay for it. If the Liberals believe that the diesel mechanics in Mackay taking up free TAFE don't value their training, Labor does. If the Liberals believe the trainee nurses in Devonport don't value their training and their courses, Labor does. If the Liberals believe that apprentice carpenters in Nowra don't value their training because they don't pay for it, Labor does. Labor will continue to deliver the free TAFE courses that working-class Australians deserve and that they are using to get a pay rise and a step ahead in life. We will not cop the sneering, arrogant, looking-down-the-nose attitude of the Liberal Party, who want to keep people in their place, just as the Liberals always want to do. Free TAFE will stay under Labor. It'll go under Peter Dutton and the Liberals.