Emma Comer (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm proud to speak in strong support of the VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025. This bill goes to the heart of something that Labor believes in: building the skilled workforce Australia needs now and into the future. The VET Student Loans program makes vocational education and training more accessible to Australians by providing opportunities for students to undertake a VET course and defer their tuition fees through an income-contingent loan. It's a system that gives Australians from all walks of life a chance to gain qualifications in high-demand fields, from engineering and project management to occupational trades like plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. This bill ensures the system remains fair, transparent and secure.

Under the current law, students applying for a VET student loan must provide their tax file number. This is essential because, like university HECS style loans, repayments are made through the Australian tax system. The tax file number ensures that the student's loan details align with Australian Taxation Office records. However, due to a recent review of how VET student loans are administrated, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations identified a legislative grey area: the VET Student Loans Act 2016 did not explicitly authorise providers to handle tax file numbers, even though this has been a practical necessity since the beginning of this program.

The department also identified that improvements could be made to better align legislation, IT systems and privacy safeguards. We have acted to fix that. Since early 2025, updates have been made to the department's IT systems. These updates now mask students' tax file numbers and automate the secure transfer of data between student interface and government systems. This means VSL providers no longer need to directly handle tax file numbers at all.

The bill before the House today therefore does two things. It retrospectively authorises VSL providers' past handling of student tax file numbers for the purpose of administrating VET student loans and it authorises the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations's past disclosure of those tax file numbers to providers for the same purpose. This measure applies to all current and former VSL providers and their officers who handled tax file numbers between 1 January 2017 and 30 September 2025 as well as the secretary of the department, the Commissioner of Taxation and the relevant Commonwealth officers. By clarifying this legal authority, we protect both students and providers from uncertainty about past administrative processes and we reinforce confidence in the ongoing integrity of the system. Importantly, there have been no student complaints about the handling of tax file numbers under the program since its commencement in 2017. This bill simply ensures that the administrative reality of the past eight years is now aligned with the law and that the program continues to operate smoothly and securely.

While this bill is technical in nature, it speaks to something much broader: Labor's unwavering commitment to rebuilding Australia's vocational education and training system. The truth is that the VET sector is crucial for the future of Australian industries. It trains the builders who construct our homes, the electricians who power our cities, the nurses who care for us and the clean-energy workers driving our transition to a net zero future. That's why the Albanese Labor government is building Australia's future and boosting the workforce we need to deliver it. We are investing in priority occupations and creating a modern, adaptable apprenticeship system, one that's critical to our nation's future productivity and prosperity.

Labor knows apprentices are essential to Australia's growth. They're the young people and the career-changers picking up the tools, learning the trades and gaining the skills our country needs. That's why we've implemented targeted measures to ease the cost-of-living pressures for apprentices and support employers with training costs. From 1 July 2025, the government expanded the Key Apprenticeship Program to include a housing construction apprenticeship stream, offering up to $10,000 in financial incentives to new apprentices in construction, and it's already working. In just the first three months of the program we've seen 4,700 new apprentices commenced training as plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

We've also extended the Australian apprentice training support payment and the priority hiring incentive by six months to the end of 2025. These provide up to $5,000 to apprentices and employers in priority occupations. For those who relocate for work, the living away from home allowance has been increased for the first time in more than 20 years, from $77 to $120 a week for first-year apprentices and similar rises for second- and third-year apprentices. For the apprentices with disability, we've increased the disability Australian apprentice wage support payment from $104 to $216 per week, the first increase since 1998, back when I was four years old. It's time for a change. And we have scrapped unnecessary red tape that force annual rechecks.

These measures are about more than cost-of-living relief. They're about fairness, opportunity and inclusion. And we can see the results. There are currently 300,000 apprentices in training across Australia, up by 15 per cent compared to pre-COVID levels. Over the last financial year, more than 62,000 employers and 119,000 apprentices received incentive payments. Trade completions are up 8.7 per cent compared to last year and a remarkable 34 per cent compared to before the pandemic.

In Queensland, apprenticeship commencements and completions have risen steadily under Labor, particularly in construction, electrical and engineering trades. In my own electorate of Petrie, as of December 2024 there were 1,480 apprentices and trainees in training, young locals and career changes, gaining practical skills that lead to secure, well-paid work. These are people who will build our homes, wire our renewable energy systems and drive the next generation of Queensland industry.

Only Labor is the party of free TAFE. We are delivering real cost-of-living relief and valuable skills to Australians through the most significant investment in vocational education in decades. More than 685,000 Australians have already enrolled in free TAFE courses under the Albanese government. There are thousands of opportunities to get skilled and start a career in the sectors our country needs most. And almost 200,000 Australians have already completed their qualifications. That's hundreds of thousands of Australians who can now access better jobs with higher wages without being crushed by student debt. These are the skills Australia needs, and they're being taught in our TAFEs now free of charge.

For students in my electorate of Petrie, this means life-changing savings. These are real dollars staying in the pockets of local students and families, opening doors that might otherwise have stayed closed. That's what Labor's free TAFE program is about. Under Labor, free TAFE isn't a short-term pilot; it's a permanent pillar of our education system. We've locked in 100,000 free TAFE places every year from 2027, guaranteeing a pipeline of skilled workers for the future.

Labor is also delivering fairer loan arrangements for all students, whether they study at TAFE or at university. We're cutting 20 per cent off all student debt and raising the minimum repayment threshold so repayment only starts when graduates are earning more. This one-off reduction applies to over 280,000 VET student loan and Australian apprenticeship support loan accounts, cutting more than $500 million off student balances. That's real relief for apprentices, tradies and students, who keep our economy running. Labor is a party of education, whether it's TAFE or university. We believe in giving Australians every chance to succeed.

The VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 might be a small technical bill, but it sits within a much larger Labor mission to rebuild vocational education, restore fairness and ensure that every Australian has access to skills, opportunity and secure employment. We're making sure that the VET system supports our nation's big goals, from building 1.2 million new homes to transforming our energy grid to expanding our care economy.

We're supporting more women in trades through the $60 million Building Women's Careers Program, partnering with business, industry and education institutions to create inclusive higher-paying jobs. We're reforming apprenticeships, strengthening pathways and investing in institutions that deliver quality training: our TAFEs. We know that, when Australians have the chance to learn, they have the power to build their future and our nation's future.

This bill is about good governance, ensuring that the VET student loan system remains compliant, fair and effective. But it's also about Labor's bigger story—one of investment, fairness and nation-building through education. In my electorate of Petrie, I've met apprentices training to become electricians and nurses, people retraining in the care sector and parents returning to study through free TAFE. Each one of them is building a better life because of the choices the Labor government has made. This bill ensures that their opportunities are backed by integrity and security. It is part of a broader vision: a skills system that gives every Australian the chance to learn, contribute and prosper. When we invest in skills, we invest in people. When we invest in people, we build communities. And when we build communities, we build Australia's future.

See this speech in context