Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am talking about what it is now—and you can come up and speak to those young people—and how difficult it is for them. At the same time, we have a massive skills crisis as well in that area. It is an absolute failing of our government. We need to train those young people, and they need to be trained now.

Of course, the Prime Minister is not interested in training our youth at all. He prefers to import apprentices from overseas. Instead, we should be training our Aussie kids, not driving down wages and importing workers—that is his solution to it. At the same time that 300,000 Australians are being turned away from TAFE, he has allowed 178,000 skilled workers into Australia. That is an outrageous situation while locals are being turned away. Migration is no substitute for training our young people, particularly those in regional areas where they have limited opportunities.

I believe so strongly in providing proper investment in TAFEs, proper investment in training and proper investment in our universities—investment in our children and in our nation’s future. As I have said, under this government we have seen one of the largest declines in public investment in universities and TAFEs in any OECD country. I will say it again: while the rest of the OECD increased funding by 48 per cent, this government cut it by seven per cent. In its first two budgets this government slashed $240 million from its vocational education and training sector. Is it any wonder that we are now facing a skills shortage, with a history like that and after what they have done? As always, this government’s action is too little, too late. It is not good enough at all.

By comparison, Labor has put forward numerous policies in relation to this issue because we are serious about education and we value education. We value our young people and we value our nation’s future. That is where our priorities lie. Labor over the years has been designing very strong, practical measures to ensure that our kids have affordable education and training choices like providing free TAFE, creating more apprenticeships, providing a lot more incentives to train apprentices in areas of skills shortages and offering young people better choices by teaching trades, technology and science in first-class facilities.

Those are the sorts of measures we need, particularly given the difficulties we face with people not completing their apprenticeships. There was nothing in that package today at all to address that major issue. We have to make sure the young people get into these apprenticeships and stay in them. That is where the focus should be and we have not seen that from this government at all. We also need to be looking at options to reduce the HECS burden in critical areas of shortage, particularly in our rural and regional areas where there is an absolute, critical need for skilled labour.

All we have seen from this government is how they have systematically denied Australians the opportunity to have real training and a real education so they can better themselves and contribute to our economy. As we have said on many occasions, one of the major factors causing a strain on our economy is the huge skill shortage that we are facing. It has to be fixed. There have been so many warnings from so many different groups—from the Reserve Bank right across to businesses—that this government have ignored time after time, yet the government come in here today and suddenly all these quick fixes start appearing. I think people realise exactly what it is: nothing more than a quick fix.

Investing in institutions and programs designed to give our young people the skills they need to get a job addresses the skills crisis and youth unemployment, and that leads to future prosperity. As I said, the values and priorities of a federal government should focus on training our youth by providing jobs and strengthening our economy, not providing a quick political fix. Yet the only value this government has, the only value it adheres to, is protecting itself, and it keeps doing that time and time again. It is not placing any value on where the solutions are needed and is not providing for the future of our nation. It is only consumed with protecting its own hide and what spin it can put on the next stop round the corner—whatever that may be. (Time expired)

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