House debates

Monday, 19 June 2017

Adjournment

Vocational Education and Training

7:50 pm

Photo of Amanda RishworthAmanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | | Hansard source

I do rise today to talk about a very important issue that a lot of young people in my electorate are calling for, and that is an investment in skills. The big concern is about this government undermining skills and training, particularly in the TAFE system. It is no secret at the moment that many young Australians are finding times tough—whether it is home ownership or whether it is finding a secure job. The outlook for many young Australians is not certain or secure. When we look at the youth unemployment rate, hovering at around 13 per cent and even higher in my electorate, we know that one of the important areas we must invest in is skills and training education.

Vocational education, in particular, provides many young Australians with the opportunity to gain real skills, a formal qualification and long-term employment. It is also important for employers, and I recently hosted the Southern Suburbs Jobs Taskforce in my electorate, and, not unsurprisingly, the topic of skills and training was raised time and time again by business owners. They told me how important a population of skilled and trained workers is for their businesses' ongoing success. They told me that they want to employ more young people and apprentices, but often could not find people with the appropriate skills. They told me they wanted to see a government invest more in the skills and training sector.

It is more important than ever for our country to be investing in vocational education and training. It has been incredibly disappointing that the federal Liberal government has done everything in their power to undermine the sector. Since coming into government, the Liberals have cut $2.8 billion from TAFE and vocational education. Funding for the sector and the number of supported students are lower than they were a decade ago. There are 130,000 fewer apprentices and trainees than when the Liberals came to government. Then in this budget, to add further insult to injury, this government cut a further $637 million from vocational education.

What has been particularly disappointing is this government's failure to support TAFE. We have seen over the past few years a number of less reputable private providers who have ripped off students. The value of our public TAFE as a trusted and quality training provider has become even more apparent under the cloud of private providers who have not provided high-quality vocational education to so many.

In my electorate, we are lucky to have a fabulous TAFE campus, the Noarlunga TAFE. I recently visited the campus and met many local students who are passionate about their areas of training and excited to enter the workforce after finishing their qualification. Indeed, just down the hill, in the old Mitsubishi site, we also have TAFE Tonsley, which is also delivering excellent, high-quality vocational education training to so many.

Instead of supporting our public institutions like TAFE, this government has done nothing but neglect and undermine TAFE. They have continued to cut funding and to force many campuses around the country to close.

Labor knows the value of TAFE. We know that a failure to support TAFE is a failure to support jobs. That is why we have committed to reinvesting into TAFE. We will ensure that TAFE is restored as the backbone of our skills and training system by ensuring two-thirds of public funding for TAFE. Labor also understands the value of apprenticeships as a pathway relied on by so many young Australians to gain long-term employment. You heard those statistics before—the way the number of apprenticeships has plummeted under this government and that is why Labor has taken the important step of setting a target of having one in ten apprentices on all Commonwealth priority projects. This is a really important commitment, to say that we value and see the importance of apprentices in this country. So I will continue to advocate for decent, accessible training and vocational education in my electorate, and we will make sure that TAFE is put back in the centre of our vocational education, as the public provider in this country.