Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is making an investment of $4.1 billion in what is a once-in-a-generation reform of our TAFE and vocational and educational training sector. It is investing $4.1 billion in a joint-stewardship model with the states and territories.

I had a wonderful opportunity to study at TAFE, completing an associate diploma in Japanese. However, my completion was actually not of the course's duration and choosing. It was because the course was so underfunded that it was not able to continue. So my completion was not of the years that I'd hoped to study to get to a translator level of qualification. Thankfully, Murdoch University identified the students that were studying alongside me and invited us to continue the associate diploma into a degree at that university, which I did embark on.

This commitment changes the future for Australians. So far, we have supported almost 150,000 Australians to take up the initiative of fee-free TAFE, including 15,000 Western Australians. Among those are 35,000 jobseekers around the country who are taking advantage of the opportunity to upskill and enter the workforce, ready to address the skills shortages in key sectors. We are investing this $4.1 billion because we recognise the urgency of the skills crisis facing Australia today, and we are taking those necessary steps in collaboration, in partnership, with the states and territories to build the skilled economy of the future. In fact, on 23 August last year I hosted a green energy jobs and skills roundtable as a lead-in to the national Jobs and Skills Summit. There we heard from industries—large and larger—that support so many Western Australians in employment across the state. We heard from small business, we heard from unions and, most importantly, we heard from the training service providers themselves. The Treasurer participated by video link, recognising that the insights that these participants would share could help shape the future of our training and vocational sector.

The issues that they spoke to included the need for a renewed focus on the jobs and skills sector, better data, nationwide standards, better wages and conditions for apprentices, and more industry integrated training. The Minister for Skills and Training, Minister O'Connor, listened. He went beyond acknowledging the significant skills shortage. He emphasised the government's willingness to invest in this sector, and the Treasurer and the cabinet have backed him in. So the minister is working with his state and territory counterparts to deliver a new National Skills Agreement with guiding principles that include shared stewardship, fee-free TAFE, gender equality and qualifications reform.

Seeing the benefits already landing in my seat of Hasluck is exciting. The North Metropolitan TAFE, which is in Midland in the seat of Hasluck, is now the home of the renewable energy trades training centre in Western Australia, with a focus on training people to become wind turbine technicians for the wind farms that we will see across the nation. This is a $3.24 million commitment at Midland TAFE alone. With the use of wind energy increasing across the state, a skilled workforce to install, maintain and repair wind turbines is critical. We recognise that. We listen to industry, we understand the changing direction with our transition to green energy, and we have acted.

It's not just the technical skills sector where we are offering fee-free placements. Nationwide, almost 30 per cent of enrolments in all courses have related to the care sector, in skill priorities like early childhood education, nursing and support work, and 60 per cent of the enrolments to date taking up these fee-free places are in fact women. So families across Hasluck will know that their children have access to the skills and training they need for the jobs of the future, and the opportunity for themselves to also upskill is now available. The places are there. The commitment to the courses and the training—unlike in my own personal experience—is guaranteed. I think we can all be deeply proud that we are creating a more skilled and smart Australia.