Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 put forward by the Minister for Skills and Training, and I commend him for doing so. To build Australia's future, we need vocational education and training. We need VET to solve big national challenges in the labour market. There's no doubt we have a need for greater housing supply, for more workers in early education and aged care and for skilled technical workers to support the transition to net zero. That's right—net zero. That's because we on this side of the House actually believe in climate change and we want to prepare our country for a changing climate.

If we as a country are going to rise to these challenges, we need to ensure that the VET programs that support us are as strong as possible, that VET is accessible to people regardless of their means and that the programs supporting VET have the social licence to operate. Our work in this space started by putting TAFE back at the heart of Australia's vocational education and training sector. We did this because TAFE is vital for the next generation of skilled workers. For too long, students studied courses or undertook training that did not lead to secure jobs or the skills that employers need. Jobs and Skills Australia is the body established by this government to provide independent advice on workforce skills and training needs. This group quickly identified that we must address the disconnect between what students are studying now and where jobs and skills of the future will be. Since then, we have undertaken a massive piece of work to strengthen vocational education and training in Australia and to ensure that students are studying and training in the skills that will be vital for our future. This bill is another step in our broader efforts to ensure that Australia is equipped with the skilled workforce we will need for the future.

The bill before us is about ensuring that the VET Student Loans Act and the administration of the VET Student Loans program are aligned. Last year, the VET Student Loans program assisted more than 24,000 VET students to pay their student loans. VSL providers currently need to handle student tax file numbers, with TFNs being essential for ensuring students loan application details match with their ATO accounts. During a review of this program's administration, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations identified that there wasn't a clear role in the legislation for VSL providers to handle students TFNs. The bill before us today clarifies the basis for this necessary practice and, in this way, ensures the program remains compliant while being accessible to students.

So, in essence, this bill is about two things. It's about safeguarding student loans for VET students, and it's about strengthening confidence in government by paying attention to detail and making sure every process is up to standard. The VET Student Loans program is an important part of the education policy landscape in Australia. It commenced in 2017 and was passed with bipartisan support. It was an overhaul of the previous system, strengthening integrity and oversight and restoring confidence and trust in loans for VET students. Since this program was implemented, more than 324,000 VET students have accessed loans. That's 324,000 VET students trained in trades, technical skills, engineering, nursing, early childhood education and more. That's 324,000 more opportunities to help build Australia's future and critical skills.

This bill, which addresses a misalignment between the program's legislation and its administration, is important for a number of reasons. It strengthens the administration of the VET Student Loans program, a program that has been and will continue to be instrumental in building the skilled workforce Australia needs. VET student loans make vocational education and training more accessible to Australians and ensure that Australia has enough skilled workers to meet industry demand and address skills shortages across critical industries.

A study conducted by Jobs and Skills Australia last year confirmed that many of Australia's current job shortages in trades, care and education roles rely on the VET system and its workforce to teach and train future workers. Australia has persistent shortages in tradies and technicians, as well as community and personal service workers, including aged-care workers, disability support workers, childcare workers and nurses. As we strive to increase housing supply, care for our ageing population and ensure that our children receive the best start in life, these workers will be even more critical. For the future of our country, it's imperative that we ensure that the supply meets the demand for these workers, and safeguarding our VET Student Loans program, which gets people into VET courses regardless of their means, is a core piece of this puzzle.

But the importance of the VET Student Loans program doesn't end there. Trades are a really important part of my electorate of Gorton. More than 13 per cent of my constituents are technicians and tradies. More than 10 per cent of my constituents are machine operators and drivers. Another 10 per cent are labourers. And, at the last count, more than 3½ thousand of my constituents were studying in a vocational education institution.

Apprenticeships change lives. They connect students with employers, while building confidence and ambition. I recently visited CMV Truck & Bus in Derrimut with the Minister for Skills and Training and met a number of these amazing apprentices. CMV Truck & Bus have a fantastic program supporting 103 diesel mechanic apprentices across their operation, including 34 in Derrimut in my electorate. They're training the next generation of vehicle technicians. Free TAFE and good employers like CMV Truck & Bus make dreams like this a reality for so many young people in my community.

I previously worked in education policy. We reformed the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning to become the VCE Vocational Major, providing students with practical skills, hands-on experience and a pathway to further education. Bringing this pathway into the VCE was much more than a name change or a rebrand. It reformed the curriculum to ensure that there was an option within VCE that focuses on vocational and applied learning.

We have some incredible school based VET programs as well, we students are taking up hands-on subjects like automotive, engineering studies, building and construction, hair and beauty, and so much. I recently visited Catholic Regional College in Sydenham, a fantastic local school in my electorate that has a VET hospitality program and a VET food processing program. Their teachers and kitchen facilities at the school are incredible. They're able to provide commercial catering at local events through these student programs. They're learning the hands-on skills while they're still completing school so that they can go on to do TAFE or go straight into work. CRC Sydenham also has a great VET Salon Assistant program and has offered me a haircut one of these days, which I'm very much looking forward to. CRC is just one example, but there are so many schools in the western suburbs of Melbourne that have embedded the need for hands-on learning in everything they do. This sets our students up for success in whatever they choose to do.

This bill, which ensures confidence in our VET Student Loans program, is part of Labor's larger commitment to education. Labor is the party of quality and accessible education, and in our commitment to education we're leaving no stone unturned. We've locked in 100,000 free TAFE places each year, from 2027. We've cut 20 per cent off all student debts, and we'll raise the minimum repayment threshold    so that repayments are lower and only kick in when you earn more.

Our 20 per cent reduction of student debts will benefit VET students in particular, applying to more than 280,000 VET Student Loans and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan accounts. It'll cut more than $500 million from VET Student Loans and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan balances, giving VET students a leg-up when they enter the workforce. We're working on all levels of education. We're committing $16½ billion to fully fund all public schools over the next 10 years, tied to real and practical reforms. We've legislated paid prac payments for teaching students to help with the cost of placements. We're giving early education and care workers a pay rise. We're subsidising additional hours of care for about 100,000 families under the three-day childcare guarantee. And we're putting TAFE back at the centre of Australia's vocational education and training sector.

We passed the Free TAFE Bill, which has seen more than 685,000 enrolments in free TAFE. The Leader of the Opposition famously said, 'When you don't pay for something, you don't value it.' Tell that to the 685,000 people taking up free TAFE around Australia. Tell that to the 1,420 apprentices in my electorate who are in training, right now, thanks to free TAFE. They include my husband Chris, who was able to make a career change later in life as a result of Labor's free TAFE. He's a mature-age electrical apprentice who studies at Victoria University in Sunshine a day a week while completing his apprenticeship with a third-generation small business called Rizzo Electrical in Airport West.

Free TAFE is life-changing for so many families, including mine. Frankly, it shows how out of touch those opposite really are. They voted against training more tradies to build the houses we need for our growing communities. They voted against the cost-of-living relief that free TAFE provides for so many Australians, particularly in the outer suburbs. They are out of touch with the needs and interests of suburban families, while we on this side of the House are doing everything we can to help Australians get better jobs with higher wages and give educational opportunities to Australians that would otherwise miss out.

Labor is the party of education and we are building on our commitment to education with this bill. The bill is important because it works towards ensuring the administration of crucial programs like the VET Student Loans program is compliant and administered with integrity. We know that trust in government isn't where it should be. It's been eroded over the last decade when those opposite were in government—those opposite, who presided over robodebt; those opposite, whose former leader swore himself into five additional ministries during his term without even informing his own cabinet, much less the public; and who voted against things that are making a real difference to Australians, like energy bill relief, cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, and cheaper health care.

When the Albanese Labor government came to power in 2022, we promised Australians we would make government work for them, not the other way around—no more secrecy, no more scandal—and we have delivered key pieces of legislation to give Australians confidence that government does work for them, that our democracy is by the people, for the people, as it was intended. We have created the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the first of its nature in Australia's history. We strengthened protections for public sector whistleblowers. We have committed to releasing an annual report on trust in the Public Service to increase transparency and trust in public servants. We are delivering on the things Australians care about—cost of living, housing and education, Medicare—and putting real outcomes for Australians first. With this bill, we are ensuring the programs and processes that bring out real outcomes for Australians are compliant and administered with integrity, down to the very last detail.

The bill before us today speaks to who we are as a Labor government. We are a government that pays attention to detail, that acts on advice from the Public Service, that knows the importance of integrity and transparency in everything we do, that wants to build confidence and improve trust in government, and wants to earn that trust by doing right by Australians. We are a government that invests in Australians—our people—unlike the opposition, who believe that if you don't pay for something, you don't value it. We know that when we invest in our people, our society, our economy and our future all benefit, many times over. We are a government that cares about what makes a real difference to the lives of Australians—cost of living measures, Medicare, affordable housing—and a government that knows the transformative quality of access to education, not just for individuals but for all of Australia. I commend the bill to the House.

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