Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 before the House. Vocational education and training is skills based learning. It producers our builders, bakers, aged-care workers, healthcare workers, electricians, technicians, gardeners, landscapers and many, many more. These are great careers, but importantly they're jobs that keep our economy thriving. The Albanese government has always supported TAFE and vocational education, and that's why we introduced fee-free TAFE. Fee-free TAFE has opened many pathways for Australians to build a new path in life. Fee-free TAFE is removing financial barriers for students undertaking vocational education and training courses. Fee-free TAFE opens doors for all Australians, whether you're finishing school, changing careers or upskilling.

In my own electorate just last month, I visited Eagle Farm TAFE alongside the Minister for Skills and Training. The Eagle Farm campus is nestled in the east of the electorate and is largely in an industrial hub that sits north of the Brisbane River. It is high tech. There are robots. There's 3D. There's everything you can think of. It offers a diverse range of trades and courses for many occupations for many constituents in my electorate and beyond. That TAFE college is training students right now in automation, security, locksmithing, glass glazing, boat-building, telecommunications, renewable technologies and utilities.

While I was there I met Zac, Tahi and their class. They were finishing their locksmithing apprenticeship—yes, locksmithing. Like many jobs, the skill requirements have changed, and technology and electronics now feature very heavily. Tahi's just from across the river, but Zac came all the way down from Townsville. They talked about the things that they were learning and the new pathways TAFE has opened for them. After four years, they're both excited to be fully qualified locksmiths. This is a great example of how our government, the Labor government, is helping young people achieve their dreams. TAFEs like Eagle Farm campus are delivering the skills and training needed to grow Australia's economy, caring for Australians, building the homes we need, supporting and building renewable energy, and creating a Future Made in Australia.

Fee-free TAFE—we've heard a bit about it from our earlier speaker—is part of training more Australians for these high-demand industries. Fee-free TAFE is a Labor legacy and has been extraordinarily popular, with many constituents in my electorate signing up. Over 128,000 Queenslanders are enjoying fee-free TAFE and are saving thousands in student fees thanks to the Albanese Labor government. Free TAFE is also required to build the Australia of tomorrow, making it easier for Australians to pick up the tools and get into high-demand industries. From school leavers to career changers, TAFE opens the doors to opportunity and lifelong learning. Places like Eagle Farm TAFE are at the heart of the vocational education and training sector, with the states and the territories growing our investment in fee-free TAFE and continuing to build a national network of TAFE centres of excellence.

TAFE is just as valuable as university. It gives Australians of all ages the skills they need to build their future. We see life-changing benefits not only in my electorate of Brisbane but also across Australia. Every week more Australians are enrolling in fee-free TAFE courses and more are getting qualified to make their contribution. Recent free TAFE data shows enrolments and course completions continuing to reach new milestones, showing just how popular this Albanese government program is. Hundreds of thousands of Australians are now directly benefiting from the program, with fee-free TAFE enrolments now over 725,000.

The Albanese government's free-TAFE policy focuses on priority areas agreed between the government and the states and territories to help address skills shortages. Priority areas include construction, health and aged care, manufacturing, and technology and digital.

One important skill area that is required in my electorate is construction, where we need skilled tradies from across the vocations. We are teaching Australians the skills to build the homes and the infrastructure required for our growing cities and suburbs. But we also need to supercharge our housing build to get more homes built sooner, and we can't do this without training more people in essential trades. Across Australia, construction sector courses have seen a surge in sign-ups, with 59,000 enrolments, making them the third-most popular type of free TAFE course. This popularity shows how effective and essential free TAFE is. There is a strong take-up in construction sector courses like carpentry, plumbing, building and construction, and electrotechnology.

Fee-free TAFE is particularly benefiting Australians from priority cohorts, with 170,000 young Australians, 124,000 jobseekers and 30,000 First Nations Australians enrolling in the programs. Fee-free TAFE is breaking down barriers for Australians to learn the skills we need. This program is saving Australians thousands of dollars and helping set them up for new careers with secure, well-paid work—setting them up for life.

So if you've been sitting on the fence and thinking about a career change or you're just starting to think about your career, reach out to a TAFE campus near you. You never know; it just might change your life.

A Future Made in Australia is a cornerstone of our economic and industrial policy and is one of the many measures to achieve our net zero ambitions. The Albanese government continues to deliver an ambitious reform agenda to strengthen the vocational education and training sector, close national skills gaps and train the skilled workforce we need right across the country. Around $600 million in measures in the 2024-25 budget will bolster skills growth and develop the clean energy, construction and manufacturing sectors, as well as support apprentices and help break down barriers for women in male dominated industries.

We will see demand and job growth in areas such as our critical minerals, batteries, solar panel manufacturing, electric vehicle mechanics and much, much more. These investments continue our work to remove the cost of barriers to education and training and incentivise people to train in areas our economy needs the most. This bill before the House, though, will provide certainty to VET student loan providers and government officers that their past handling of student tax file numbers in the student loan program from 2017 was lawful under taxation and privacy laws. It's a little technical. Income contingent student loans for vocational education and training students were first introduced in 2008 under the former VET FEE-HELP scheme.

Now, this scheme operated under legislation that allowed for the handling of student tax file numbers by VET FEE-HELP providers and higher education loan program providers. This continued under the VET Student Loans program with its own legislative framework, but a review of how the VET student loans are administered by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations identified that there is no clear role for VET student loan providers to handle tax file numbers in the VET Student Loans Act and stronger alignment between relevant IT systems and legislation was required for handling tax file numbers. So the department has since early 2025 made updates to relevant IT systems to mask tax file numbers from the VET student loan providers and automate the transfer of tax file numbers between relevant systems, meaning that VET student loan providers no longer need to handle tax file numbers. But this bill ensures that the alignment by retrospectivity ensures that VET student loan providers were authorised to handle students' tax file numbers to administer the VET Student Loans program. I understand that it's unlikely that there will be any persons adversely affected by the retrospective operations of the bill and there have been no VET student loan student complaints as a result of past tax file number handling practices since the commencement of the VET Student Loans program.

The VET Student Loans program does have strict use and disclosure provisions that are applied to VET information under the VET Student Loans Act, which VET student loan providers must comply with. These protections have previously applied to providers and will continue to apply after the bill's commencement. These safeguards include requirements for providers to comply with strict use and disclosure provisions that apply to vet information under the VET Student Loans Act, undergo extensive approval processes to become an approved provider and notify the department of any student related data breaches. These protections have previously applied to VET student loan providers handling tax file numbers and will continue to do so after the commencement of this bill. With this bill, we are ensuring that there is certainty in the system and that no-one else will be affected by any problems in the future.

Now, the Labor government's approach to vocational training is in complete contrast to those opposite. The coalition cut $3 billion from TAFE last time they were in government, and almost 10,000 jobs were lost. The coalition at the last election also threatened to end fee-free TAFE. During this time of cost-of-living pressures and demand for vocational skills, free TAFE is an essential program to build Australia. Australian voters decided to back TAFE and prevent the coalition stopping investment in TAFE like they did the last time they were in government. We want to make sure Australians can go on to have well-paid and secure jobs, and fee-free TAFE creates those opportunities for individuals as well as for investing in the future of our great country. That's why the Albanese government has legislated permanent free TAFE to ensure Australians can continue to access courses without the cost barrier. We are locking in 100,000 fee-free places each year from 2027.

After a decade of neglect under the Liberals, the Albanese government is rebuilding vocational education and training and building out that sector. Free TAFE continues to be an enormous success, helping Australians get ahead while easing cost-of-living pressures. More than 500,000 Australians are gaining skills and the opportunity to work in meaningful jobs that give back to our society. Like Zac and Tahi, I met students across the country saying how life changing fee-free TAFE has been for them, and this bill, like fee-free TAFE, is part of the many ways we are rebuilding and securing our vocational education system to keep Australia thriving and to build the Brisbane and Australia of tomorrow.

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