Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. How will the Albanese Labor government's investments in the VET sector help to relieve cost-of-living pressure, tackle the skills shortage crisis the government inherited, and provide Australians with the skills and training they need to harness the jobs and opportunities of the future?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I firstly thank the member for Parramatta for his question and his long interest in this area of public policy. He understands how important it is to invest in skills, which of course delivers to our economy, businesses and workers. It was clear to this government upon election that we needed to address this matter urgently. We were very conscious of the fact that the acute skills shortage was as bad as it possibly could be. In fact, the National Skills Commission report, the final report that was only released recently, showed that the occupations on the shortage list had almost doubled in 12 months, from 153 occupations to 286.

That is really an indictment of the failure of those opposite to properly plan in the labour market. Of course the pandemic had some role to play in relation to shortages, but the reality is that so too did some of the policy prescriptions of those opposite, namely that the failure to provide any support, JobKeeper or JobSeeker, to hundreds of thousands of visa workers meant that they left the country in droves. That compounded the problem. So too did the failure to plan for the economy—to identify more clearly the existing shortages in the labour force and also, of course, anticipate areas of emerging demand.

We understood that. That was why the government convened the Jobs and Skills Summit quite quickly, convening a meeting of businesses and unions, of state and territory governments, of civil society to work through these issues, to discuss and then move on to respond immediately. And respond we will. For that reason we have announced the delivery of 180,000 TAFE and VET fee-free places for 2023. That is absolutely critical to supply the skills to the labour market, to those businesses crying out for workers with relevant skills, to those workers who want secure employment but need skills in demand. For that reason it's absolutely vital that people work together. That's the difference between those on this side, the government now, and the government that we saw before the election—a failure to engage properly with the business community, with unions and with others. That's the reality.

The fact is we need to do this and we will do it as a matter of urgency. Of course, we have seen the transformation, for example, in the energy sector. That's why we're investing in energy apprenticeships—to make sure that we have the skills and that we are ready for that transformation, working together across government with employers and industry to deliver the skills that our economy, our labour market and this country need.