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

I thank the remarkable member for Dunkley and good friend. Can I thank her for the question, because it is true to say, upon election, we were faced with a very broad and deep skills shortage across the economy and the labour market. In fact, we had many, many jobs that were in need of supply, skills and labour. The OECD had reported that we had the second-highest labour shortage, per capita, amongst OECD countries. We saw the occupations on the shortage list, in 12 months, go from 153 to 286, before election. We were bequeathed a very significant skills shortage on top of the Liberal Party debt.

For that reason, we had to respond quickly. Can I thank the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for having the foresight to convene a jobs and skills summit, with very short notice, bringing together all governments, industry, unions, universities and the VET sector in order to ensure that we had a strategic plan to supply skills to our economy. That, of course, led to the first announcement in this sector to ensure that we had 180,000 fee-free TAFE places for 2023, and, as the Prime Minister just indicated, we've exceeded that target. It's now at 215,000 places and climbing. That is 215,000 Australians enrolled in courses in areas of skills demand. That is what is most critical. We understand that, because the states and territories have such an important role in the VET sector, you have to collaborate. You have to bring them together.

What is extraordinary is that in the nine years they were in government they did not have a long-term skills agreement with—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will pause and resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the standing orders are very clear. Ministers need to speak about matters for which they are responsible. The question concerned the government's commitment and what's been the response. The question did not concern matters of history, and the minister should be directed back to the question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for the Environment and Water will cease interjecting. I'm going to ask the minister to return to the question. He was not asked about previous governments, and I ask him to return to the topic.

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

I'm glad to say that we put together agreement amongst all of the governments, because we were without an agreement before the election. We needed to bring those governments together, and that's what we did. We did so to the benefit of students, workers, businesses and our economy, and we'll continue to do more.

As the Prime Minister indicated, the National Cabinet is meeting this evening to make sure we continue this strategic investment in the skills that are needed. If we're going to transform the energy sector, we need skills. If we're going to enliven manufacturing through the National Reconstruction Fund, we need skills. If we're going to supply the labour and skills for our care economy, we have to have the right investment, as advised by Jobs and Skills Australia. We'll continue to do more in ensuring that we supply skills to workers, students and businesses because, without doing that, we'll continue the failure by those opposite in leaving so many areas across our labour market in short supply.