Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this motion moved by the member for Wright. I do so not only as a parliamentarian but as someone who spent years on the tools as an electrician. What the member for Wright is attempting today is pretty straightforward—to pretend the challenges in skills and housing began the moment the Labor government was elected. That takes a level of imagination reserved for fantasy novels or coalition budgets. The truth is this: when Labor came to office, we inherited the worst skills shortage in half a century. After nearly a decade of neglect, apprentice commencements had fallen from over 220,000 in 2014 to less than 135,000 in 2019. Completion rates cratered, billions had been ripped from TAFE, pathways were hollowed out, and skills policy was reduced to handing public money to fast food chains for traineeships that never led to real qualifications. So let's not take lectures from those who drove the car into the ditch and now want to yell at us for calling the tow truck.

The motion claims apprenticeship numbers are collapsing. That is wrong. As of 31 March 2025, more than 320,000 apprentices are in training, up 15 per cent on pre-COVID levels, and trade completion rates are 34 per cent higher than in 2019. Apprentices are training in the trades this country actually needs—electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Since 2023, over 650,000 Australians have enrolled in free TAFE, with more than 170,000 completions. We've locked free TAFE in as a permanent feature under the free TAFE act 2025, guaranteeing at least 100,000 places a year from 2027. And we're backing apprentices with real practical support. From July, new apprentices in housing construction can receive up to $10,000 in direct incentives. In the first three months, 4,700 apprentices have taken up that opportunity—real people starting real careers. We've lifted the living-away-from-home allowance for the first time in over two decades, now $120 a week for first-year apprentices, easing the pressure for those who move from home to train. We've doubled wage support for apprentices with a disability to $216 a week, indexed for the first time since 1998. We've also extended incentive payments for employers and apprentices in priority trades, with up to $5,000 in direct support.

In my electorate of Moore, we are fortunate to have two north metropolitan TAFE campuses. Their staff train nurses, cybersecurity experts, community workers and tradies that keep our regions running. Those campuses connect to construction training at Clarkson and Balga, a pipeline of skilled workers ready to build the homes Perth's north needs.

The member for Wright says housing approvals are collapsing—again, misleading at best. The slowdown began under the coalition, driven by the unwinding of their HomeBuilder stimulus and their failure to plan for materials and workforce shortages. This government has faced those pressures head-on. We're targeting 1.2 million new homes through the National Housing Accord, supported by the $32 billion Homes for Australia plan—the largest investment in housing in decades. We are cutting red tape, streamlining approvals and ensuring a skilled workforce to build those homes. That alignment between housing and skills is deliberate. It's the centrepiece of Labor's plan to build more homes and create secure jobs. When I was on the tools, TAFE fees had climbed to over $3,000. What many in this chamber don't realise is that, for some trades, many of those fees are paid for by the employer, so, every time those opposite hiked TAFE costs, they hurt not just the apprentices but also the small businesses that were training them. They made it harder for young people to start a trade and harder for employers to take them on. That's the record we inherited. They failed, and now they want to pretend this mess that they left never happened.

Australians deserve better than this kind of politics. We will keep investing in TAFE, we'll keep driving apprentices into critical trades, and we'll make sure every young person in Moore, in Western Australia and across our nation can build a skilled, secure future. I reject the motion.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:47 to 12:58

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