Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is building and growing, South Australia is building and growing and my electorate of Sturt is also building and growing. Whether it be the Osborne Shipyard, home to the future build of the AUKUS SSN class submarines, the landmark housing developments in the northern and inner-city parts of Adelaide, the new Women's and Children's Hospital or the Torrens to Darlington Road upgrade, South Australia is building. The hospital, houses, roads and submarines do not build themselves. Skilled workers build them, and skilled workers educate the children of those workers who are doing the building. Skilled workers care for the ageing parents of those workers who are doing the building. South Australia may be the beating heart of AUKUS, but AUKUS is a national endeavour requiring effort and dedication across the country, and programs like AUKUS, so critical for our national security and our prosperity, require a skilled workforce.

That is why the Albanese Labor government is bringing states and territories together to improve vocational education and training and build the skilled workforce our country needs for the future. Skills shortages will leave our country behind, and that is why this future-focused government has prosecuted the National Skills Agreement, which was designed to directly target industries with the most critical skill shortages. This five-year agreement releasing up to $34 billion to strengthen the VET system is a landmark investment in productivity and future economic security. The data tells us that the percentage of occupations suffering from a skill shortage has dropped to 29 per cent in 2025 from 36 per cent in 2023. Skills shortages in these critical industries are at their lowest level in three years, and these industries are critical. They are housing, care, support services, clean energy and digital capability.

The National Skills Agreement is not just a bucket of funding; it is a complete reset of how the future workforce is trained for these critical industries. Since 1 January 2024, $135 million in policy funding has been paid to the states and territories and $225 million has been announced through the National Skills Agreement to be matched by the states and territories to establish 14 TAFE centres of excellence, which are central to delivering a refreshed and strengthened VET sector. In my home state of South Australia, TAFE SA is leading with the Centre of Excellence in Early Childhood Education and Care and with the National Security TAFE Centre of Excellence in a joint initiative between the Australian government and the South Australian government. A key feature of these TAFE centres of excellence is the partnerships they are fostering with university, industry, unions, jobs and skills councils, and other TAFEs across Australia. Partnerships with industry are particularly important, because it is these partnerships that lead to work-ready graduates who are not just highly skilled in their field but are ready to hit the ground running from day one.

Labor is the party of skills, and Labor is also the party of free TAFE. It is not true that, if you receive something for free, you don't value it. Ask the 725,000 students, 62 per cent of whom are women, who have enrolled in free TAFE places, including the 24,000 in my electorate of Sturt, whether they value the opportunity to achieve a meaningful qualification that will lead to a well-paid, secure job in a critical industry. They value it. Ask the students who typically face barriers to education and training—such as women, economically disadvantaged students and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons—whether they value the opportunity to participate in the education system, then participate in the paid workforce, providing a better life for their families and doing something for themselves. They value it. And ask everyday, reasonable Australians whether they value having highly-skilled workers to build the houses we urgently need, to educate young children, to care for elderly family members, to assist in the transition to renewable energy, and to contribute to the largest defence project in Australian history with transformative, generational opportunity for industrial and strategic advancement. Australians value it. Free TAFE is valued by all who touch it and all who directly or indirectly benefit from it.

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