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

Last week's Jobs and Skills Summit produced 36 immediate actions and about the same number of issues for further action. This was a historic collaborative process, and it is just the beginning. The Albanese Labor government will build a bigger, better trained and more skilled workforce.

In the lead-up to the summit I held a series of roundtables across South Australia, including three in the upper Spencer Gulf, with community service organisations, Indigenous RTOs, student unions, education and training providers, not-for-profits, community leaders and a wide range of migrant communities. After nine years of neglect by the former government it is not surprising that a number of the issues that I heard across those 10 roundtables were very similar. There were common themes. The vocational education and training sector, which has long been the foundation of Australia's strong and vibrant community and a significant and essential part of our economy, has just been crippled.

But what we saw last week at the Jobs and Skills Summit was an outcome, some concrete actions that are going to make a fundamental difference. When I met with people who were affected by the skilled migration issues they talked about all of the things that they could offer; all of the things that they could support our community with; and the delays, the challenges and the barriers that they were consumed by. I am pleased to say that the summit last week provided an outcome for them.

Housing and community infrastructure was raised everywhere that I went. Securing a job can be very hard, particularly if you cannot find a place to live. You're not going to move to the place where the jobs are. Last week the Jobs and Skills Summit provided an outcome. (Time expired)