Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to my friend the member for Swan for her question. She's an incredible advocate for learners and apprentices in her community, and I saw that when I went with her to see students at Bentley TAFE to celebrate a $2 million commitment that we made to deliver a state-of-the-art commercial training kitchen through the TAFE Technology Fund. TAFE is breaking down barriers and setting up Australians for the future, and free TAFE is of course at the very core of this. This is a policy that this prime minister took to the 2022 election. Australians voted for it, and we have delivered it.

Just last week I announced that we've reached nearly three quarters of a million free TAFE enrolments, at 742,000 so far, and almost a quarter of a million course completions, at 245,000, with plenty more on the way. This means more opportunities for young Australians like Blake, who I met while he was completing his cert II in carpentry. For someone like Blake it means more opportunities after free TAFE, too, as he moves into his career, because the Key Apprenticeship Program is offering $10,000 in incentives to new housing apprentices, people like Blake, to help with the cost of tools and transport so they can play their part in meeting our national priorities, like building more homes for Australians—the more than the 373 social homes that the Minister for Housing was just talking about. In just the first six months of this program, more than 11,000 apprentices have commenced in housing through the Key Apprenticeship Program—a program that, importantly, is helping not just apprentices but also their employers, the vast majority of which are small businesses.

You'd think the coalition would support programs that are making a real difference, helping Australians get a good start in great careers and making a contribution, but the former leader of the opposition infamously said of free TAFE that Australians don't value what they don't pay for. What about her replacement? Well, we don't know, because it would mean actually saying the word 'TAFE' in parliament, something he hasn't done in more than a decade, since his idol Tony Abbott was Prime Minister. He should also clarify for the thousands of apprentices and the thousands of people who employ them his position on the Key Apprenticeship Program, given his shadow minister calls it 'wrong' and talks about throwing good money after bad money.

Free TAFE is getting thousands of Australians new qualifications in areas of need. We think that's a good thing. The Key Apprenticeship Program is backing in thousands of housing apprentices. We think that is a good thing too. Labor—and only Labor—is backing Australians like Blake to get skills they need for the jobs we need doing.

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