Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the ministerial statement on revitalising national planning in vocational education and training. Labor is fixing Australia's skills crisis, which developed over nine years of failed Liberal government. Across the country, TAFE courses are filling up again, and hundreds of thousands of young Australians are gaining the skills they need to provide financial security for them and trained labour for the nation.

When Labor came to office in May last year, the nation's skills sector was in crisis. I don't say that lightly; there was an absolute skills crisis. There were fewer people completing traineeships and apprenticeships after nine years of failed Liberal government than there were when the Liberals first came to office in 2013. Despite population growth and ongoing economic growth, there were fewer traineeships being completed at the end of nine years than at the beginning—absolutely ridiculous. Billions of dollars were cut from TAFE under the failed Liberal government. No wonder we had employers tearing their hair out for hairdressers, aged-care workers, childcare workers, chefs, butchers and tradies.

When we don't have enough aged-care workers and nurses, we end up with an aged-care system in crisis. When we don't have enough childcare workers, we end up with an early childhood learning sector that can't keep up with demand. When we don't have enough tradies, we can't keep up with the demand for construction, which sees prices spiral. When we don't have enough chefs and baristas, we see cafes and restaurants cut their hours or close because they can't service their customers. What was the failed Liberal answer to all of this? Just import more temporary labour from overseas on temporary visas. Just keep it coming and don't worry about skilling up the next generation of young Australians to seize the opportunity to build a secure financial future.

Labor has a different approach. Under the terrific leadership of Minister O'Connor, we are rebuilding TAFE as the backbone of Australian skills and training, and we are fixing the Liberals' skills crisis. Labor's fee-free TAFE plan is at the core of our skills agenda. It was dismissed, laughed at and opposed by the Liberals, but fee-free TAFE has been a raging success. Australians can't get enough of it. We had planned for 180,000 to be on the books by now but we've already reached 214,000, and we plan to add another 300,000. That's half a million Australians with new skills, new training and new opportunities to make a contribution to this great country and to build a secure future for themselves and their families. Opposed by the Liberals, built by Labor, fee-free TAFE is reshaping the Australian skills sector to deliver what this nation needs.

I'm pleased to report to the House that the Albanese Labor government has committed more than $10 million to support and deliver fee-free TAFE in Tasmania in partnership with the Tasmanian government—a Tasmanian Liberal government, I might add, that has been sensible enough—unlike their federal colleagues—to grasp the benefits that fee-free TAFE delivers. Tasmania has seen the highest demand for fee-free TAFE in courses like aged care and disability care, early childhood education and care, and technology. In just the first quarter of the year, we have provided more than 600 fee-free places in Tasmania to care courses, more than 200 in hospitality and tourism, more than 237 in agriculture, 192 in technology and digital, and almost 100 in construction.

I had the privilege of visiting Clarence TAFE recently on Hobart's eastern shore with Minister O'Connor and local member Julie Collins, accompanied by the state minister, to see firsthand the difference that fee-free TAFE was making to the lives of aged-care students. One student, a mature-aged woman, told me she would not have started the course if it had not been free, because she could not have afforded to. Now she has gained the skills she needs for a brighter future as a valued member of the aged-care workforce, which is great for her but also so essential for our aged-care sector. The Albanese government is investing millions more in Tasmania, with a share of the $50 million national TAFE Technology Fund to upgrade facilities such as laboratories, workshops and IT services. We are investing $1.5 million in my electorate for the new Sorell training and jobs hub, and I look forward to its construction in the months ahead.

In our government's first 18 months, we've introduced Jobs and Skills Australia and jobs and skills councils to ensure our programs are targeted where they are needed most. Jobs and Skills Australia will conduct a national study on adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy to provide up-to-date, evidence-based results to help us design future programs and policies, ensuring we build a skilled Australian workforce to meet our country's demands. Because Labor's skills plan is informed by facts, not politics, we fund projects based not on colour-coded spreadsheets of marginal seats but on community need. The Albanese government's $442 million jobs and skills councils have all been formally established. They are a network of industry-owned and -led organisations that bring together employers and unions to work in partnership with governments and the education and training sectors. These councils will address skills challenges and give a voice to the tech, tourism, retail, arts and emergency services sectors.

Recently, I had the opportunity to represent the minister at the launch of Industry Skills Australia as the jobs and skills council for the transport and logistics industries in Tasmania. This is a jobs and skills council that covers a vast amount of industrial ground ranging from aviation, maritime, rail and road transport to warehousing and ports. At the heart of jobs and skills councils is tripartism—employers, unions and governments working in collaboration to address skills and workforce priorities. We're not demonising unions as some sort of enemy of industry. We know they can be great partners at the table. Working together confers real benefits on business, community, the workforce and our economy.

The reforms outlined by the minister in his statement will ensure that national planning for the skills that our economy needs is timely, high quality, evidence based and tested against the firsthand knowledge of industry. The creation of JSA and the creation of the jobs and skills councils are significant milestones in the skills and training portfolio. These reforms will ensure that workers have the right skills for secure work and career advancement and that our country has the skilled workforce needed for current and emerging jobs.

After a decade of inaction, I am pleased to be part of a government that is prioritising Australia's vocational education and training system. As a proud Tasmanian member of the federal parliamentary Labor team, I'm so proud of the work that is being done with fee-free TAFE and the difference it is making to so many Tasmanian lives, particularly young Tasmanian lives, as young people get their foot on the ladder of a better future in a trade or in other skills and qualifications that our country so desperately needs—and they are creating a financially secure future for themselves as well.

I'm so proud of what the minister is doing. He's doing such important work in skills and training, and I commend this document to the House.

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