Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Lyons for his question, and it was great to catch up with the Sorell Council mayor and others in his electorate only a month ago, as we talked about how you supply skills to local economies. These are not just macro decisions; they need to be granulated, and you need to work out ways to do so in local communities.

We understood the massive skills deficit we inherited upon election. That's why we responded quickly to announce 180,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, 150,000 of which are already filled, I'm happy to say.

Of course, when you're making decisions to invest in education and training, you do need to have the right advice. By creating Jobs and Skills Australia, and accompanying Jobs and Skills Australia with 10 tripartite Jobs and Skills Councils, you actually get real-economy insight into what is needed now and into the future. For that reason, that creation of JSA and councils really does provide the advice that government and industry need to invest in education in areas of existing and future demand. As a result of that, I think we are well placed.

Today, Jobs and Skills Australia released its latest quarterly market update, which reveals that skill shortages are persistent in regional areas, as people know—and indeed the minister for health and others have talked about these shortages, of doctors and nurses and other care sector workers; essential service workers; retail; hospitality—wherever you look, in fact, across the regional economy, you do see these shortages.

Therefore, it's absolutely critical that higher education and the VET sector supply skills to the labour market and that they do so in areas like regions and rural communities. That's why I'm happy to say that, of the 180,000 places, 150,000 are filled and 48,000 of those 150,000 are filled by people in regional and rural communities. And that's absolutely critical. Nearly one-third of all of the 150,000 places are filled by people in regional and rural communities.

Now, there is more to be done, but we'll continue to focus with states and territories and with industry to do so. But I just want to make the point that, in the member for Lyons's electorate, a person enrolling in a cert III agricultural course doesn't have to find $2,500 to enrol in that course, because of fee-free TAFE. That's why it's so important that we remove cost barriers to education and training in areas of demand and, in doing so, we provide the skills that workers need, we provide the skills that businesses are crying out for and we provide the skills that our economy demands.

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