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

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training. How many Australians have been able to enrol in high-quality education and training for free thanks to the Albanese Labor government? And how is this helping solve the massive skills deficit left by the previous government?

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

I thank the member for Parramatta for his question because he fully understands how important it is to educate workers and students in this country to ensure we have a productive and efficient labour market and economy, and that's what we're doing by investing in education and training in that way. I have said before in this place that upon coming to office we inherited one of the deepest and broadest skill shortages we have seen. In fact, it was the deepest and broadest skills shortage in five decades. It didn't matter where you looked across the economy, there were shortages. It that was for that reason that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer convened the Jobs and Skills Summit, bringing together industry, universities, the vet sector and state and territory governments.

The first announcement was to ensure 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. I'm happy to inform the House that we have smashed that target. There are now almost 300,000 Australians enrolled in fee-free TAFE this year. There are 296,107 Australians enrolled in fee-free TAFE and vet courses for this year, providing the skills that we need for our economy. Sixty-five thousand of those enrollees are in the age, disability and care sector. We have 26,000 in the tech and digital sector. We have 21,000 in construction, 14,000 in early childhood education, 12,000 in agriculture and 11,000 in hospitality and tourism. Sixty per cent of those enrollees are women. More than one-third of the courses that we are delivering are in regional Australia, which is critical for our communities within the regions. This is a remarkable achievement by the state and territory governments, working with the Albanese government, to deliver the skills that we need in this country.

That's why it's so hard to fathom why the opposition opposed this initiative and why they attack it and call it a waste of spending. Why will the Leader of the Opposition not support workers who need these skills? Why doesn't he support the need for businesses to have the skills that they are crying out for? Why does he oppose our economy getting the skills that it needs?

I will just take one example. A woman enrolled in a Diploma of Nursing in Victoria would have to find more than $15,000 to access that course. Without this initiative, we would not have people in the numbers we have enrolling in areas of demand in all sectors of our economy. This is a successful initiative. This is a collaboration between this government, state and territory governments and industry. We will continue to deliver more. We are starting another 300,000 fee-free TAFE places next year. We will continue to supply the skills needed to this economy.