Jodie Belyea (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the Government's Free TAFE program has, for three years, expanded opportunity and opened new pathways for Australians to gain the skills they want for the jobs we need;

(2) notes that, despite opposition from the Opposition, the Government has successfully legislated to make the Free TAFE program permanent, securing its future and ensuring this pathway is not taken away from the next generation;

(3) observes that, through the Fee-Free TAFE Skills Agreement, the Government has partnered with state and territory governments to invest over $1.5 billion in Free TAFE program places across the country; and

(4) reflects that, unlike their federal colleagues, the Victorian State Opposition will not oppose a bill to guarantee Free TAFE.

I rise today to speak not only about policy but about opportunity, because TAFE and all it offers is not an abstract idea to me and the many students of Dunkley. It is an important pathway to one of many careers. It provides so many opportunities.

I entered TAFE in my mid 20s. Like many Australians, I was searching for something more meaningful, more fulfilling and more impactful. At the time, I had been working as a secretary, volunteering in the community, working closely with young adults with disabilities. That experience opened my eyes to the difference that dedicated, skilled support workers can make in people's lives. It also inspired me to pursue a career in youth work and community development. TAFE provided that pathway. It gave me the chance to study, to build knowledge and to develop the skills I needed to turn passion into a profession. At TAFE, I studied youth work and community development, and I am proud to say that at one stage I even taught at Chisholm TAFE. That journey gave me confidence, capability and a sense of purpose as a young woman to pursue a career and then go on to study a master's in business leadership. And I remind the House this was before TAFE was even free.

We cannot talk about TAFE without acknowledging what happened in the past. In the 1990s, TAFE in Victoria was gutted. Those opposite, when they were in government, cut $3 billion from the VET system and TAFE. The consequences of those decisions are still being felt today. We see it in our skills shortages. We see it in our housing crisis and we see it in the lack of trained workers in critical sectors like child care and aged care. That is why the work of the Albanese Labor government is so important. We are rebuilding TAFE. We are backing apprentices. We are investing in the future workforce of this country. Through direct support of up to $10,000, we are helping train the carpenters, plumbers and electricians. In Dunkley alone, there are 1,800 apprentices currently in training.

Since 1 July 2025, more than 11,000 apprentices have commenced housing construction trades. These are real people gaining real skills for real jobs.

This government is not just investing to fill our current skills shortfall; it is also developing the skills for future-ready jobs. Just a few weeks ago, I was pleased to announce with the Minister for Skills and Training a $30 million investment in the Digital, AI and Technology Centre of Excellence, a national first at Chisholm TAFE in Frankston. In addition to this, Labor has delivered 740,000 free TAFE places, opening doors for Australians who may never have had the chance otherwise. In Victoria alone, there have been over 149,000 enrolments and more than 59,000 course completions. These numbers continue to grow as students balance study with work and family commitments. Free TAFE is also delivering real cost-of-living relief. A student studying a Diploma of Nursing can save up to $17,000, while a student studying a Diploma of Building and Construction can save up to $15,000. These are real-life savings.

Despite this success, those opposite continue to oppose free TAFE. They have called it wasteful spending and previously voted against making it permanent. This is despite a track record of cuts, including the loss of nearly 10,000 full-time TAFE teaching positions nationally between 2012 and 2019. The contrast could not be clearer. Free TAFE is working, it is popular and it is transforming lives and careers. Free TAFE is now so popular in Victoria that the Victorian Liberals did not oppose a bill to guarantee free TAFE. So I say to my colleagues across the aisle: look at the numbers, look at the outcomes and look at the opportunities being created. We need more skills in this country, and our initiatives are delivering them and supporting productivity. Together, let us continue upskilling our workforce and building the future of Australians and Australia.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dunkley for the opportunity to speak to this very important issue. Fee-free TAFE is one of the most significant investments that this government has made in working Australians. Enrolments in priority courses like construction, early childhood education, nursing and clean energy have surged. Free TAFE is telling students that our country is willing to invest in their future. The case for fee-free TAFE is also economic. Every qualified worker that we train here is a worker that we don't have to import. Every young Australian who enters the workforce will contribute to their community, to our tax base and to Australia's productive capacity.

But, despite this investment, Australia still faces critical workforce shortages in a number of key sectors. According to Jobs and Skills Australia, roughly half of all occupations in the category of technicians and trades are currently in short supply. That's the consequence of decades of underinvestment in vocational training. Free TAFE aims to address this, although I am hearing from constituents like Ian Baker, who I met with in Kooyong last week, that, despite free TAFE, first-year apprenticeship opportunities remain very difficult to secure. Free enrolment is only valuable if it leads to completion and to a good job.

According to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, around half of all apprentices who commence their training fail to complete it. For those who started in 2020, the four-year completion rate is only 47.9 per cent. Between June 2024 and June 2025, trade apprenticeship numbers fell by more than seven per cent, and non-trade apprenticeship numbers fell by more than 20 per cent. Young people in Kooyong are telling me that the most common reason for their walking away is that employers are unwilling to hire first-year apprentices. But they're also really dissatisfied with pay and conditions, and national figures back that up. A first-year boilermaker apprentice who finished year 12 earns about $587 a week before tax—perhaps $500 in the hand. One who didn't finish school could earn less than $500 a week. The median rent in metropolitan Melbourne is now $580 a week, and a room in a share house is often over $300 a week. The arithmetic is brutal. A young person committed to their trade can't fund themselves with $200 a week left for transport to the job site, for the tools, for their food and for a phone. It just does not add up.

Meanwhile, we know that 83 per cent of those who abandon apprenticeships are in employment shortly afterwards. Most end up in cash-in-hand labouring work in the very same industries, doing similar work but without the qualifications, without the protection and without the same future. We are losing their skills to the cash economy at exactly the time that our economy needs them the most. The apprenticeship system is under strain. Host employer networks are fragmented. Group-training organisations are overstretched. The paperwork burden on small operators is unreasonable. We should be making it easier for younger people to get a first break, not harder. We also have to be honest about who is bearing the brunt of these barriers the most. Young women entering male dominated trades are still facing structural and cultural obstacles, and First Nations young people face enduring geographic and system disadvantages.

I do support the member for Dunkley's motion, and I welcome the government's investment in fee-free vocational education to support the next generation of workers. I recognise that some in this place, like Pauline Hanson, have consistently voted against this measure, against free TAFE for young people. But the government's responsibility for apprentices doesn't end at enrolment. It extends to ensuring that the full pipeline works, from the classroom to the workforce, from the qualification to the career. That means genuine incentives for employers to take on first year or mature aged apprentices. It means reducing the administrative burden of apprenticeships, and it means seriously addressing apprentices' wages. The young Australians who are trying to build a future in this country deserve more than a good start. They deserve to finish, and they deserve a good job.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a simple question at the heart of this debate: who gets opportunity in Australia, and who gets left behind? The Albanese government believes free TAFE is all about opportunity—opportunity for people to get ahead and lead fulfilling lives. That is why I rise to support this motion, because this is about more than policy. It's about what kind of future we choose to build.

Last week the Minister for Skills and Training set out a clear idea in a speech at the McKell Institute that skills policy is about the future, equipping Australians with the skills to navigate change—embrace opportunity or be left behind. That is the choice before this House. On this side, we believe in building that future. We believe in expanding opportunity. We know that talent is everywhere in Australia, from our cities to regions like mine across the Bellarine, Surf Coast and Geelong. Those opposite take a different view. They oppose free TAFE, they vote against making it permanent, and they continue to undermine a policy that is changing lives for the better. As their former leader said, 'If you do not pay for something, you do not value it.' That statement reveals everything. It says that opportunity should depend on your capacity to pay.

The Albanese government rejects that, and so too do Australians. We believe that skills and training is a public good. We believe they connect aspiration to opportunity and success, and that is exactly what free TAFE is doing. More than 740,000 Australians have now enrolled—hundreds of thousands of people gaining skills in areas our country needs in construction, aged care, early childhood education, technology. In my home state of Victoria, we've seen nearly 150,000 enrolments. These are not just about numbers; they are about real people who will gain qualifications to set them up for rewarding work. They're people like Jack, an apprentice plumber from my region who is now working on some of the most transformative government projects that we've seen.

That is what free TAFE does. It opens doors, it creates pathways to meaningful work, it builds confidence and it strengthens our country. If we are serious about building more homes, we need tradies. If we're serious about delivering care, we need qualified workers. And if we're serious about a future made in Australia, we need skills, and skills require investment, and that is why the Albanese government has made free TAFE permanent. That is why we're investing over $1.6 billion into the future of the program, supporting at least 100,000 places every year. And it is why we are targeting those who need it most—young people, job seekers, women, First Nations Australians, people with disability.

This is about fairness. It is also about delivering economic prosperity. We know that VET graduates are more likely to find employment and will earn more after completing their qualifications. This is cost-of-living relief and this is real workforce policy. It stands in clear contrast to the approach taken by those opposite—a decade of cuts, a weakened TAFE system, fewer teachers and fewer opportunities. And now they call our investment in free TAFE wasteful. Tell that to Jack, whose life was forever changed for the better because of free TAFE, or to the parent retraining for a secure job.

This motion recognises something important. It is that free TAFE reflects a belief in the future, in fairness and in Australians. The real choice Australians have is simple: do we go backwards or do we build what comes next? Or, in the words of our skills minister, do we get drawn in by nostalgia or push forward to the future, writing our own story? The Albanese government and Australians choose to push forward, to invest in people, to expand opportunity, to build our prosperity.

I'd like to thank the member for Dunkley for bringing this motion forward and for her advocacy, supporting free TAFE and helping Victorians and all Australians to get ahead. I commend the motion to the House.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's great to be able to contribute to this motion moved on free TAFE, and I'd just like to go through the points in the motion itself. In the first point, the government asks us to celebrate three years of expanded opportunity, but let's look at what the three years of data actually shows. What it shows is that, out of roughly 650,000 fee-free enrolments since January 2023, fewer than one in four has resulted in a completed qualification. Now, a completion rate below 26 per cent isn't expanding opportunity; it's expanding enrolment numbers for a press release. Opportunity means someone finishes their course and walks into a job, and by this measure this program is failing the very people it claims to help.

The second point says 'despite opposition from the opposition'. This motion frames scrutiny as obstruction, and that's not what it is. This side of the House has asked three very reasonable questions about this policy: what are the completion rates, why is there no means testing, and where is the evaluation? These are very reasonable things to ask of any policy, and the government's response was to legislate the program as permanent before answering any of those. Making a program permanent doesn't make it effective; it just makes it harder to fix. The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and major employer groups have all opposed this legislation, not because they're against skills and training—none of us are against skills and training—but because they recognise that you don't lock in a program with a sub-26 per cent completion rate and no published evaluation.

The third point talks about the $1.5 billion investment. The motion celebrates $1.5 billion in spending as though spending itself was the achievement. But we've got to ask: what has that $1.5 billion delivered? For every dollar spent, roughly three-quarters has gone to enrolments that have not yet produced—and may never produce—a qualified worker. Meanwhile, apprentice and trainee numbers have fallen, with commencements dropping 36 per cent since the government took office. The question was never whether we should invest in skills; the question is whether this particular investment is working, and the government can still not demonstrate that it is.

The fourth point is the comparison with Victoria—and this is a distraction. What happens in Victoria is for the Victorian parliament. But in this chamber we are accountable for how Commonwealth taxpayers' money is spent. On that question, the facts are clear: a cleaner earning $60,000 a year is subsidising fee-free training for plumbers and electricians, who will go on to earn sometimes $100,000 a year. I challenge the word 'free' because everyone always pays for something. That's not to say that taxpayer money should not be invested in skills training for people who most need it, but this act contains no capacity to pay-test, no targeting of the most disadvantaged and no mechanism to ensure completions. Pointing across the aisle or pointing to the Victorian parliament doesn't change any of that.

I think everyone in this chamber supports skills, supports TAFE and supports giving every Australian the chance to build a better career. But what we don't support is spending $1.5 billion of taxpayers' money and getting a completion rate that wouldn't be tolerated in any other area of government. We wouldn't tolerate refusing to publish a proper evaluation of a program that spends that amount of money and then coming in here and wanting the chamber to somehow congratulate the government for it. I say to the government: show us the completions, show us the employment outcomes and show us it's working, and then we can talk about celebration.

My experience with TAFE and of having witnessed vocational educational training overseas, particularly in Germany, Sweden and Finland, is that their vocational education training schools, facilities and teaching are far better than what we have in Australia—and that has led to highly qualified people going into the workforce in those countries, and they're much more linked with industry than people here in Australia. I say to those opposite: we want people to access TAFE, but we also want a much better TAFE system than we have at the moment.

Kara Cook (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love TAFE. My mum was a TAFE teacher for decades in Central Queensland, and I saw every single day the difference she made to those students in training the early childhood education teachers of the future. When I think about being here in this place and the importance of being in this place, there is nothing more important than fee-free TAFE. That is why I'm so proud of the Albanese Labor government's commitment to making fee-free TAFE permanent.

From next year we are going to deliver 100,000 free TAFE places every single year, and the impact is already being felt right across the country. We've got more than 740,000 people enrolled in fee-free TAFE, and in Queensland alone there have been over 134,000 enrolments and more than 45,000 course completions. These are not just numbers; they are lives being changed.

In my electorate of Bonner, I see that impact each and every day. From Wynnum to Wakerley, from Ransome to Rochedale, locals are gaining skills, changing careers and building better futures. They are studying everything from nursing to construction, from accounting to cybersecurity. Importantly, they are saving thousands of dollars while they are doing it. A student studying accounting at the Mount Gravatt campus can save up to $4,800, and a nursing student can save more than $16,000. That is real cost-of-living relief and that is also real opportunity.

Behind these numbers, there are powerful stories—people like Stacey, a Diploma of Nursing student in Queensland. She was inspired to become a nurse by battling stage 3 ovarian cancer and being cared for by nurses she describes as 'the best people I've ever met in my life'. Now, because of fee-free TAFE, she is on her way to becoming one of those nurses herself. Rhys, a Brisbane student studying cybersecurity, said free TAFE had changed the trajectory of his life and set him up for a future in an industry where his skills will always be needed. That is what this policy is about—not just qualifications but transformation.

Free TAFE is also helping us build the workforce Australia needs. Today there are 50,000 more apprentices in training than before the pandemic, and we've seen a 28 per cent increase in construction apprentices, which are critical to building the homes Australians need. Through the Key Apprenticeship Program, we are supporting apprentices with up to $10,000 to help cover the costs of tools, fuel and living expenses. Already, more than 11,000 apprentices have started in housing construction and over 12,000 are training for clean energy jobs. If we are serious about building homes, we must also build the workforce to deliver them.

We are also seeing something else shift, and it matters—more women are entering traditionally male dominated trades. The number of women starting apprenticeships is up 32 per cent, and women now make up 62 per cent of free-TAFE enrolments. That is not just progress; that is also transformation. We are also making it easier for Australians to keep learning. There is a new national credit recognition framework, and we are reducing the barriers between TAFE and university. This means that students can receive credit for their existing qualifications, cutting the time and cost of a degree. Learning should not be limited by cost or by rigid systems, and the results speak for themselves. Research shows that VET graduates are now more likely to be employed and to earn more. On average, graduates see income increases of over $14,000 after completing their qualification, and 84 per cent are employed after finishing their course. That is the value of skills and that is the value of TAFE.

Labor understands that education does not stop at 18 or 21. Nine out of 10 jobs in the next decade will require post-secondary education, and that is why supporting TAFE is not optional; it's essential. Free TAFE is delivering for young people, for jobseekers, for women, for First Nations Australians and for people with a disability. It's removing barriers, lowering costs and opening doors. Only Labor backs free TAFE, only Labor backs skills and only Labor backs the future of this country.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great privilege to be able to make a contribution to this, because I have a number of children and I am a supporter of TAFE. Yes, you heard it. I'm a supporter of TAFE, but the system is broken. I do agree that, as a nation, we need to be training the tradespeople, the apprentices and the trainees to build the infrastructure that our country needs, and, at the moment, this government is failing.

When we left office, four years ago, there were 412,000 apprenticeship trainees in the system. Today, under this government's management, do you think the numbers have gone up with fee-free TAFE, or have they dropped? I can report to the House they are down by 100,000—that's over 100,000 fewer. It's great to bring motions into the House and espouse fee-free TAFE, but you need to be able to back it up with outcomes. We are not in dispute. There are fewer apprenticeships and trainees today. My family attended TAFE. I was fortunate enough to have a tertiary education, but, for the boilermaker and tradie relatives of mine that went to TAFE, I remember it being an institution that was held in high regard.

I'm going to ask the people in the gallery a question about the completion rates for the trades that we need to build this country—the electricians, the carpenters, the boilermakers or any trade that you can think of in the TAFE system as it stands today. What do you think are the completion rates for construction sector apprenticeships in Australia at the moment? What's the percentage? Is it 80 per cent? Is it 50 per cent? Would you be surprised to hear—it beggars belief that they would bring this motion into the House when they were armed with this data—that the completion rate in the construction sector at TAFE colleges right across the country is 8.37 per cent? That is shameful.

We want to fix this. We need to fix this. Our country needs both sides of this House to work together to fix it, and fee-free TAFE is something that, when in office, we will need to adjust because these figures are not sustainable. Where they are, where the TAFE system is excelling—and I want to throw a bouquet to them—is in the care sector. Just under 30 per cent of people in the system studying care have completed their courses. Bravo, we need those people. With an ageing population, we need to be making sure that we've got the training skills to be able to look after the requirements we have into the future.

But it's not just about focusing on fee-free TAFE. When you have a look at why we've got less than 10 per cent completions in the construction sector, you only have to look at the construction sector's record insolvencies under this government's regulation and red tape on business. The cost is spiralling out. We have amazing inflation data which puts upward pressure on interest rates, and they, rather than addressing all the other underlying core problems and why we've got record insolvency problems in the construction sector, come into the House and say: 'Oh, we've got the answer. We don't have to look at all the other underlying problems that the government has created.'

The Reserve Bank governor clearly said that the inflation issues in this country are homegrown. That means they can be fixed. TAFE is an institution that needs our support. TAFE is an institution that I want to see returned to an institution held in high regard, but we need to change the completion rates. Having a cert II in bushwalking skills or a certificate in guiding is not going to help build the infrastructure that our country requires. It's only this side of the House that will put a broom through the TAFE system and make it great again.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand the member for Pearce would like to present a copy of her speech for incorporation into Hansard, in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 6 November 2025.

Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

Thank you for this motion, and I speak in support of a program that is changing lives in Pearce and right across our country.

For three years now, free TAFE has expanded opportunity and opened up new pathways for Australians to gain the skills they want for the jobs we desperately need. It began in January 2023 and has already seen more than 500,000 enrolments in priority areas such as digital and technology, construction, and early childhood education and care. These are not abstract numbers, they are real people: mums returning to the workforce, young people finding their first career and workers retraining as our economy changes.

The Albanese Labor government has now legislated to make free TAFE a permanent feature of our national training system, securing its future so it cannot be taken away on a whim. From 2027, Commonwealth funding will support at least 100,000 fee-free TAFE places every year, embedding free TAFE at the heart of vocational education and training.

We should be very clear that this has happened despite opposition from those opposite. At every step, they have dragged their feet, refused to back in extra free TAFE places for construction and new energy and voted against the very bill that locks in free TAFE for the long term.

Through the Fee-Free TAFE Skills Agreement, the Albanese Labor government has partnered with state and territory governments to invest over $1.5 billion in free TAFE places across the country. In 2023 alone, 180,000 free TAFE places were delivered nationwide, and a further 300,000 places are being rolled out over the three years from 2024, with an additional 20,000 places targeted to construction and housing.

In my own electorate of Pearce, we see the benefits of this investment every day. Local TAFE campuses and training providers have welcomed hundreds of new students into fee-free courses in aged care, disability support, early childhood education and construction trades, helping to meet Western Australia's skill shortages in health, housing and critical community services. Young people from suburbs and regional communities across Pearce are gaining their first qualifications without being deterred by upfront fees, and mature-age workers are retraining into in-demand roles instead of leaving the workforce altogether. Importantly, free TAFE is reaching groups who too often miss out: women now make up nearly 62 per cent of enrolments, First Nations Australians around 6 per cent and people with disability about 8.5 per cent, with strong participation from regional and remote areas.

It gives local businesses access to trained workers in the sectors where they are crying out for staff. It supports our hospitals, our childcare centres, our aged-care providers and our construction sites with a steady pipeline of skilled people who live in the community they serve.

For each student, it turns aspiration into a practical pathway from the classroom to a good, secure job.

That is why legislating free TAFE matters so much. With the passage of the free TAFE legislation at the Commonwealth level, free TAFE is now an enduring part of our national system, guaranteeing at least 100,000 places a year from 2027 and locking in long-term support to the states and territories. This safeguard means that future governments will not be able to quietly walk away from their responsibility to train the workforce Australia needs.

The contrast with those opposite is stark. Federally, the opposition opposed the fee-free TAFE bill and refused to support key measures to grow TAFE and apprenticeships. However, in Victoria, their state colleagues have understood what their federal counterparts will not: that Free TAFE removes the single biggest barrier to vocational training and that guaranteeing its future is both economically responsible and socially just. The Victorian parliament has legislated a free TAFE guarantee, recognising free TAFE as a pillar of their education and training system, and the Victorian opposition has not opposed that bill. If the Victorian Liberals can accept that free TAFE works, then there is no excuse for the federal Liberals to stand in the way.

I commend this motion to the House and reaffirm our commitment that no-one will be held back and no-one left behind when it comes to skills and training in Australia.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion because free TAFE is fundamentally about fairness, opportunity and the future prosperity of this country. At its core, this policy represents a powerful idea. No Australian should be locked out of education and skills training simply because they cannot afford the upfront cost. No-one should be forced to put their ambitions on hold because the qualification they need is out of reach. Let us be clear: no government serious about boosting productivity, economic growth and social mobility can ignore the paramount importance of skills and training. This is exactly why the Albanese Labor government proudly backs free TAFE. We know that investing in public education means investing in our people. It's an investment in the essential workers our communities need, laying the foundation for the stronger economy our country depends on.

Right now, free TAFE is delivering for our national priorities. It is training the tradies who will build the homes we need urgently. It is training the dedicated care workers who will support our older Australians and people with disability. It is opening doors for early childhood educators, hospitality professionals and the highly skilled workforce essential to building a future made in Australia. The Australian people have enthusiastically embraced this initiative. Free TAFE has now supported more than 740,000 enrolments nationally. This staggering number is not just demand; it is a testament to what happens when a government removes financial barriers and backs its citizens.

Driven by this success, Labor has made free TAFE permanent. We are investing over $1.6 billion, through to 2034-35, to support at least 100,000 free TAFE and VET places every year from 2027. This matters because it gives certainty to students, certainty to training providers and certainty to industries in need of skilled workers. This is what good Labor policy looks like—practical, targeted and focused on opening doors.

At the end of January I joined the Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles; Victoria's minister for skills and TAFE, Gayle Tierney; and the member for Melbourne, Sarah Witty; at Box Hill Institute. We were there to celebrate three years of the federal free-TAFE program, and it was deeply inspiring to hear directly from students about how free TAFE is helping them gain the skills and confidence to build a better future. I hear the same stories in my electorate of Holt every single week. Constituents tell me how free TAFE has transformed their lives. For some, it's a chance to retrain for a career in nursing. For others, it's an opportunity to finally start in construction or community services, without carrying the unmanageable financial burden. As a proud TAFE graduate myself, I know firsthand that TAFE changes lives. I know the value of that educational path and the profound confidence it gives. To so many Australians, TAFE is not just a qualification; it is a second chance, a fresh start and a reliable pathway to economic security, which is why this reform matters so profoundly. When we invest in skills, we are not just helping people into jobs; we are building the workforce this country needs.

Despite all of these undeniable economic and social benefits, the Liberals and Nationals still voted against making free TAFE permanent. They recklessly dismissed it as wasteful spending. After years of the coalition neglecting the sector, Labor is reversing the damage. We are rebuilding TAFE, backing public education and ensuring that opportunity is not reserved for those who can afford it but is available to anyone willing to work for it. This government believes in the power of education to uplift communities and drive progress. By supporting our students, we empower our entire nation. Labor will always back TAFE, back workers and back Australians. (Time expired)

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to proudly support the motion brought by the member for Dunkley. Free TAFE has been an incredibly important program in the state of Victoria, helping to train the next generation of enrolled nurses, people assisting with literacy and numeracy in the classroom and, of course, tradies. Students at Swinburne TAFE in Croydon, where I visited as recently as last week, are learning those essential skills. We're seeing free TAFE make an enormous difference to individuals' lives, enabling people to gain initial skills after leaving school or to reskill midlife.

In an economy where there is so much transition going on at the moment, the ability for all of us to equip ourselves with new skills, mid-career, mid-working-life, has become more important than ever. With artificial intelligence changing the world of work, many of us will have to adjust to a new career. Often, when it's time to make a career transition, we're not carrying a wallet brimming with cash. Sometimes it happens suddenly and unexpectedly. To now have the option of being able to reskill and enter a new career, a new workforce, is now more important than ever before.

We're seeing the rewards of this across different sectors desperate for skills. When I talk to employers, they often say they're struggling to find skilled workers to fill their vacancies. We have a low unemployment rate, but we need to make sure that our workforce has the skills industry needs in order to provide the essential services we all rely upon, and free TAFE is an enabler of that.

The criticisms of free TAFE I've heard from the other side of the House seem to be based, frankly, on a contempt for the TAFE sector as it now sits. That's despite the fact that we inherited a system which was dominated by private providers whose reputations were various—we had some very good providers, but plenty were providing subpar education, and many have been deregistered in recent years due to the low quality of training and support they were providing. TAFE, on the other hand, has the trust and confidence of industry and of students to make sure that they are receiving the quality education they need and to bring the skills that are essential for their success in their next careers.

Victorians understand this so much so that even the state Liberal Party in Victoria recognise the need for free TAFE and, unlike the Liberals in this House, are actually not opposing the free TAFE program. They support it, as they should, because Victorians recognise the importance of free TAFE. In Victoria we've seen about 150,000 enrolments. Nearly 60,000 of those have already completed their courses, and many more will be completing them as they complete their training part time—a very significant completion rate. I know, from the experiences of my own family and of course many in my community that those who have transitioned into careers in nursing and in personal care as well, that this has made an enormous contribution not only to the lives of the students themselves but also to the community more widely—having access to those skilled professionals who can contribute to the provision of those essential services across the board.

In Victoria, the top three courses are literacy and numeracy support—something we desperately need, with both young people and older people needing support in literacy and numeracy at rates that are really higher than we've seen for a very long time; a diploma of nursing—we're talking about qualified enrolled nurses as well, able to administer medications and provide essential support to people in hospitals, aged care and other settings as well; and the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, which enables people to contribute their industrial know-how and their formal skills and qualifications to train the next generation of skilled workers. These are really important courses, and this is the kind of work that has been made possible through free TAFE. We have seen a large increase in the number of enrolments.

Now, the opposition have said this is a bad idea because it doesn't solve all problems at once. Completions and other aspects of the training system of course work together. This is a multifaceted challenge to ensure that we have the workers that we need, that completions occur and that employers have the incentives and supports they require. It's a multifaceted system. Free TAFE is an essential part of that. It enables people to enrol in the courses to build the skills we need without having a massive financial burden at the start of their careers, often when they least need it. It means young people don't enter the workforce already with a debt, unable to enter the housing market and limited in what they can do. This is a weight off their shoulder, as well as enabling industry to access the skilled individuals they need.

It has been an enormously successful program. It's a great pity that the coalition do not recognise the important contribution made by TAFE in our community. I can only hope that, with time, they will learn to see the value of it as we continue to build the skilled workforce. I know that, in the construction industry, which was raised before, as part of the Key Apprenticeship Program, we're already seeing about 11½ thousand people signing up for those key apprenticeships in housing construction. So we're very much focused on the job, and I commend the motion to the House.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fee-free TAFE is transforming the lives of Western Australians, and it is changing the nation and the state of WA. We are building skills not just for today but for tomorrow as well. And do you know what? We are seeing employers needing more skilled workers and we are helping solve that problem. We are also doing this in the areas that matter: nursing, construction, aged care and disability care, early childhood education and of course the tech sectors. Fee-free TAFE is smart design. We are opening affordable targeted training in spaces in fields that are state and national priorities.

Since the program began, over 100,000 Western Australians have enrolled in fee-free TAFE. Fee-free TAFE has delivered more than 34,000 course completions in WA, with additional completions to come as many students choose to study part time while balancing work and family responsibilities. Behind these numbers are regular Western Australians taking these real opportunities—people like Natalie, who used fee-free TAFE to complete a Certificate III in Individual Support and moved straight into disability support work in the same year. She explained:

Getting my qualifications at South Metro TAFE has helped build my self-worth and I now have a job in disability support that I love. The guidance you get from lecturers is amazing; they are so encouraging, and no question is a silly question.

This is an Albanese government policy helping people with the next chapter of their lives.

In my electorate of Swan, we are proud to have South Metro TAFE's Bentley campus. This is home to the Bentley Pines Training Restaurant. It's a live-training venue where hospitality and cookery students train in the professional kitchen and dining room. This particular restaurant is booked out for months. The Albanese government invested $2 million to upgrade the commercial kitchen at Bentley Pines and the WA government's contribution to further support to these facilities was completed last year. This is a game changer for students. The upgraded facilities deliver modern equipment, a clear line of sight between the kitchen and the dining area, and a facility that mirrors contemporary industry standards.

The Prime Minister has twice visited this campus, and this reflects the government's commitment to Swan and to building a skilled workforce for our venues for tourism businesses and hospitality, because we want to keep the doors open and lift the service quality and showcase what Western Australia has to offer. For a school leaver taking their first step, a parent retraining or a mature-age workout that is changing careers, the Bentley Pines restaurant upgrades turn ambition into practical skills that translates to more shifts, more jobs and more income for West Australians.

In a previous visit to this campus, I met Kayla, a single mum and one of the thousands of Australians benefiting from fee-free TAFE. For Kayla, not having to find money to cover course fees meant that she finally had the opportunity to improve her skills. She had been working in kitchens most of her life, but now, with her kids in school, she wanted to get qualifications towards a career that she can do for the next 20 years. This is a really big deal. As Kayla told her kids, 'I'm going to school to get a better job so we can have a better life.'

Fee-free TAFE is a reform that only a Labor government is willing to provide to Australians, and it is targeted towards building skills for students and aligned for the WA workforce priorities. The difference between having fee-free TAFE versus a paid TAFE course is the difference between someone deciding they want to study this course or not.

We are trying to do two things. One is lower the barriers for students because we want them to have access to education—something that the Albanese Labor government will always invest in. But we're also ensuring that our businesses have the workers that they need. If people want to study these areas, we want to make sure that we send that signal. These are the ways that the Albanese government is making sure that we not only transform the lives of Australians but our workforce as well.

Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to free TAFE, I have some real-life experience from just last week, because on Monday just last week I had the great pleasure of visiting not just a TAFE but the largest trade training centre in the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere—the Acacia Ridge TAFE. I'm lucky enough that it is housed on Brisbane's southside in the electorate of Moreton. When Minister Giles and I went to that TAFE, we experienced what apprentices and others uplifting their skills were doing. We visited mechanics who were upskilling on EVs so that, when EVs enter the market, they would know how to deal with them safely.

As future technology expands, those working people will have the skills that they need, and they get them at TAFE. We saw plumbers just a few months shy of taking their final exams to go out into the workforce and to get their plumbing apprenticeship stamped from that TAFE, giving them the skills to drive not only household plumbing but also work in construction. We need to build homes, and the skills to do so come from TAFE. We saw future chippies—people learning how to build a home, a home our country needs so that we can address the critical supply issues that this Labor government is working to solve every single day. I did have a go at the nail gun, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Georganas, and I assure you that we need people at TAFE who can build houses.

TAFE means something. It's not just about going back to school. It's not just about what they do. TAFE is about building pathways to secure work. It's about making sure that people can map out a future for themselves, supported by a quality education system. TAFE builds the skills that the Australian economy needs. It builds the skills that we know we need to drive the economy and to drive what our country needs, whether they're in housing, whether they're in construction, whether they're in health care or whether they're in education. TAFE—free TAFE, in particular—removes barriers, as the member for Swan said, and creates a country where we value those skills and make sure that people can have them. It is not just about providing cost-of-living relief to young people and people training to get jobs; it's also about making sure that we are building our nation to be something bigger and stronger with skills that people get at TAFE.

What a stark contrast there is between those of us on this side of the chamber and those on that side of the chamber when it comes to free TAFE. Those opposite don't back in TAFE. They don't back it in, because they voted against free TAFE. They told those students that Minister Giles and I visited at the Acacia Ridge TAFE that they shouldn't have free TAFE and that they shouldn't have the opportunity to go to TAFE to get skilled and to make sure that they have a pathway to a good, skilled country.

It's not just that we've been investing in free TAFE; this Labor government is focused on education and creating the skills that we need more broadly as well. It's why we've invested in free TAFE, but it's also why we've invested in 20 per cent off of student debt and why we have invested in $10,000 for apprentices to make sure that we have the people that we need to build homes of the future. And it's working. Free TAFE has supported over 740,000 enrolments nationally. In the first year of free TAFE, in 2023, there were over 355,000 enrolments against a target of 180,000 places. What that means is not only that free TAFE is something that is important for building our skills, our future and our economy but also that Australians want it—they need it. And the only way we're going to build those skills is with a Labor government in power.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remember standing in this place in 2023 and speaking about what fee-free TAFE could mean—the doors that it might open and the lives it very well might change. I have to say it is an absolute pleasure to stand here now not to talk about potential but to talk about what has already been delivered for Australia and for communities like mine across the northern suburbs of Adelaide. This reform has moved quickly, and it has landed powerfully.

Across the country, more than 742,000 Australians have enrolled in free TAFE, and over 245,000 have already completed their courses. In South Australia, there have been 26,725 enrolments and more than 6,100 completions. Free TAFE is about removing that upfront hurdle and replacing it with opportunity. In Adelaide's north, that opportunity has been seized. Free courses are offered in areas that lead directly into jobs in our economy—aged-care and disability services, community and family services and women's education. These are sectors built on care, compassion and connection, and they are crying out for skilled workers. At the same time, we are seeing strong uptake in industries shaping our economic future—workplace training, hospitality and cookery, cybersecurity, IT support, networking, programming, website development and automotive servicing. These are modern skills and practical skills, and they are opening pathways to secure, well-paid employment. Free TAFE is about building the workforce we need to construct homes, to care for our ageing population, to drive clean energy and to strengthen our digital capability. That is why only Labor is backing free TAFE, because only Labor is making the choice to invest in people—to train the tradies, the carers and the technicians our country needs.

This is practical support, not theory, not slogans and not ideas but real investment in real Australians. Importantly, this is not temporary. Free TAFE has been made permanent, giving certainty to students, to providers and to industries that rely on skilled workforces, because, if we are serious about building Australia's future, we have to be serious about skills. We have to recognise that talent exists everywhere but that opportunity does not always follow. That is why free TAFE is targeted, supporting young people, job seekers, women, First Nations Australians and those facing barriers to education. It's about making sure no-one is left behind, and, when people are given that chance, they take it.

The results speak for themselves. VET graduates are more likely to be employed and earning more within a year of completing their qualifications, on average earning around $11,800 more. That is meaningful change, not just in wages but in confidence, in stability and in future planning, because when someone gains a qualification, it does not just change their job prospects; it changes the way they see themselves and what they believe to be possible. In the north, I see that first hand. TAFE Elizabeth and TAFE Salisbury allow apprentices to start in trades, parents to return to study after years out of the workforce and young people to choose a pathway that leads somewhere tangible. That is what good policy should do. It should not just sit on paper. It should move through communities, lifting people up as it goes. That is exactly what free TAFE is doing.

This government understands that education is not just an individual benefit; it's a national asset. We have the responsibility to help people now and a duty to the next generation to build an economy that rewards effort and unlocks potential. That is why investing in skills is not optional. It is essential, and it is why supporting TAFE is in Labor's DNA. We are rebuilding a system that was neglected, restoring confidence and ensuring public training institutions are strong and accessible. Through the National Skills Agreement, through long-term investment and through making free TAFE permanent, we are laying the foundations for sustained growth, because this is about the kind of country we want to be, only where opportunity is real, where skills are valued and where your future is not limited by your circumstances. In communities like mine across the north, that matters deeply because, when opportunity reaches places that have been overlooked, it does not change individuals; it transforms communities. That is what free TAFE is delivering. That is why it is worth backing now and into the future.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.