Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the Government's national leadership in partnering with states and territories to strengthen the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system and help more Australians gain the skills they need for secure, well-paid jobs;

(2) observes this partnership is already delivering results in Queensland, including almost 135,000 enrolments in Free TAFE and 2,000 construction apprentice sign-ups under the Small Business Apprenticeship Pilot Program;

(3) notes that:

(a) with up to $2.52 billion in Commonwealth funding being invested in Queensland over five years, this partnership is well-placed to deliver continued growth in training opportunities and outcomes; and

(b) $85 million has already been delivered under Free TAFE, with a further $188 million in Commonwealth funding committed to Queensland over the next five years;

(4) acknowledges these outcomes demonstrate the Government's commitment in delivering real benefits to Queenslanders; and

(5) affirms that a strong, high-performing VET sector is critical to a fairer society and a more productive economy.

If you go shopping on the weekend and you've got your kids with you or maybe you just want a bit of a stickybeak and you head down to Big W, Target or Kmart—pick one; it doesn't matter—and you end up in the toy section, if you look around there are costumes. You can be Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, a Ninja Turtle or a Transformer. It doesn't matter. You can be whatever your mind desires. But also you can be a nurse. You can be a construction worker. You can be a plumber. One of the litmus tests for a job or a career is: does a five-year-old want to do it? That's what TAFE is about.

I want to tell a story about a woman named Terri. I met Terri a couple of years ago during the campaign at the TAFE up there in Cairns. She was telling me that, when she was a child, all she wanted in life was to be a nurse. That was her goal. That was her aim. Life, as it sometimes does, took her in a different direction. She ended up in admin. She raised some children. She lived a good life. But in the back of her head there was still that dream, that dream of a five-year-old—'Could I have been a nurse?' Fee-free TAFE gave her that opportunity. It's hard if you're doing an admin job to take the time off to do that extra study and to pay for it, but fee-free TAFE gave her that opportunity. We met her just before she graduated. She was so proud because, every day, she rewarded that little girl. She allowed the dream that had sat dormant for half a century. Now Terri is a nurse and she walks the floors of a hospital, she saves lives and she is the person she wanted to be as a child. That is an amazing feeling for her. There are going to be tough days. Nursing is hard. It's going to have ups and downs. But, every day, I promise you that little girl is thanking her.

That's what fee-free TAFE is. Fee-free TAFE is supplying the workforce that we need. It is allowing hardworking Aussies the opportunity to be the thing they wanted to be as a child and to give our workforce much-needed skills. The jobs are coming. In Cairns alone, there's almost $1 billion worth of infrastructure coming down the pipeline. That is a huge amount of work that is going to need to be done. We're going to need chippies, sparkies, boilermakers, plumbers, nurses and aged-care workers. We are on the edge of something really exciting, and the only way that we can realise that is by having the workforce, and the workforce is going to be provided by fee-free TAFE.

To give you an overview, there have been over 135,000 enrolments. There have been 2,000 construction apprenticeship sign-ups through the Small Business Apprenticeship Pilot Program. We are training Queenslanders so we can get more people to work in the fields that they want to work in and deliver the projects that we need. We need these projects, and we're giving people the opportunity to do it.

I met a young fella who had just finished his carpentry apprenticeship. He tells his children every day when they go past the high-rise that he worked on, 'Daddy made that, and people are living in that house right now,' and he is so proud, and his children are proud of him. His son has a little saw, and his daughter has a little hammer, and maybe one day they too will take advantage of fee-free TAFE, because, when it was designed and the pilot program rolled out and we saw how successful it was, this prime minister made a promise that we are going to make fee-free TAFE stay, and that has been signed, sealed and delivered.

You can take the vocational opportunities that you need. You can go out and become the thing you wanted to be as a child, and you can contribute to building Australia's future, and you can do it all at your local TAFE. The best part about it is that, with no fees—it doesn't matter where you are in life—that opportunity is still presented to you. It still exists for you right now. We have invested over $85 million into fee-free TAFE in Queensland, with another $188 million coming over the next five years.

I want Queenslanders to know that this government has their back. We are going to deliver the workforce, we are going to deliver the jobs, and we are going to make sure that Queensland's future is built off the back of good, honest vocations for hardworking Queenslanders who want to get ahead. I commend this to the Chamber.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion, and I reserve my right to speak.

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion in relation to TAFE, and I say at the outset that I have a fantastic TAFE in Robina in my electorate, and I've had the opportunity, both prior to being elected and also post my election, to engage directly with not only the staff there but also the students. It's an impressive facility, and people on the southern Gold Coast have the opportunity to access that and to further their knowledge and then, in turn, contribute to our community not only on the Gold Coast but around the state and country as well.

I support TAFE, I support apprentices, and I support Queenslanders getting real skills. But there's one point of difference that I will make from the contribution of the member for Leichhardt, and that is that he referred to the fact that the government has signed, sealed and delivered TAFE. I agree that the government has invested a substantial amount of money, but what I will say is that we can't just judge success based on the amount of money invested. We need to look at the outcomes. Ultimately, in my interactions with small-business owners in my electorate who have taken on students from RTOs and from TAFE, they've actually given me an insight into what happens on the ground not only for employers but also for those people seeking employment post TAFE. What we should make sure we distinguish is the difference between what the government's doing, which is celebrating the first day of the class as opposed to celebrating graduation day—a queue at TAFE isn't a workforce. A course started is not a house built. A press release is not a plumber, and a media conference does not wire a new home. The government says that there are almost 135,000 Queensland free TAFE enrolments, but the questions that we actually need to ask—the questions that the government is not asking—are: How many completed? How many drop out? How many are earning a wage?

I speak to an example in Robina in my electorate. I engaged with a local RTO that does barbering. It's a fantastic RTO, and the students who were taking up barbering there are doing a really impressive job. One of the things that they said to me is that they noticed that they were taking on young people who were going through and doing courses at TAFE, but the courses weren't actually allowing them to get a job. This is where we need to make sure we have some sort of a review into the actual certifications that you get at TAFE translating into employment. What students were doing is—they were attracted to certain courses but then, on the other end, were having to take on additional courses and further study in order to be employable, and that's not something that does either the students any good nor us as a society who's desperate for a number of employees in these critical skills shortage areas any good.

The question that's not being asked is: how many students are filling the shortages that Labor keeps talking about? If the government can't answer that clearly, it shouldn't be taking selfies with the spreadsheet. Nationally, the latest snapshot shows that more than 800,000 enrolments occur in TAFE, but around 250,000 completions occur. That means that we're still seeing a government that's selling the sign-up sheet as the success story. I understand that the government is saying that completions will rise—and fair enough—but that cuts both ways. If the data is still maturing, we can't really declare victory until it's matured. Enrolment's the starting gun and employment's the finishing line.

The apprenticeship pipeline tells a tougher and harsher story. Active apprentice and trainee contracts are actually down 8.6 per cent in a year, and, in Queensland, they're down 8.4 per cent. So we're seeing the skills pipeline really struggling, which doesn't actually correlate with the messaging that's coming through this motion and from those opposite. The big problem with the government at the moment is that these big announcements are followed by weak follow-throughs, with more posters and fewer people on the tools. So we can't praise the government for spending the money. We want to make sure that there's proof that the money has worked. And that shouldn't be controversial, because it's basic accountability.

In summary, the motion wants praise for inputs. We want results. We want to see the completions. We want to see the jobs. Show us the apprentices who finish. Until then, it's not national leadership we're seeing; it's national self-congratulation. Labor can applaud enrolments. The coalition will back completions, jobs and apprentices—because that's what actually builds our country.

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

When my partner and I first decided to move to the southside because we thought it was a great place to raise a family, we chose to live in Acacia Ridge. Acacia Ridge is a very special place. It's a stone's throw away—and a couple of kays down the road in the car—from the Acacia Ridge TAFE. If you've heard me speak about how proud I am of the Acacia Ridge TAFE, you're about to hear it again.

The Acacia Ridge TAFE is not just the largest trade training centre in Queensland; it's not just the largest trade training centre in Australia; it's the largest trade training centre in the Southern Hemisphere. If you go there, you'll know that it teaches 1,000 to 1,300 students a day. If you go there, you'll see cars sitting up on dynos with their wheels spinning, training the next mechanics of the future. If you go there, you'll see stairs being measured by young people who are going to be chippies, who will build the homes that we know that we need right now. If you go there, you'll see sinks hooked up to electrical boxes because we're training the next set of workers as sparkies.

When I was last there with the Minister for Skills and Training, we met Ian. Ian was training to be a sparky, but, for him, it was a second shot. Ian had worked for many years in a completely different industry, and free TAFE was his opportunity to go back and make a contribution to his family and to our economy by doing something that he thought he might never have the opportunity to do. For people like Ian, it's not only a second shot; it's a shot in the arm for those trades and the training we need for our country.

Much like the member for Leichhardt's example, with Terri, a nurse who went back to study what she loved, it is the Terris and the Ians who benefit from Labor's investment in free TAFE. In 2023, we saw the free TAFE rollout. In 2025, we saw it legislated and made permanent. In three years in Queensland, we've seen 134,000 enrolments. We know what the coalition's position is on free TAFE. The member for McPherson can talk about the messaging coming through, but the messaging coming through from those sitting opposite is loud and clear. They voted against it. The messaging coming through from those opposite is loud and clear. They don't want people to be able to access free TAFE.

It's worth taking a closer look at what free TAFE has meant for Queenslanders. We've seen 10,000 students in the diploma for nursing. We've seen 4,800 students in cert III in individual support for aged care and disability support. We've seen 10,000 students in construction sector courses. This means savings for students—savings for a diploma of nursing of up to $15,900; savings in a cert III in electrotechnology of up to $1,700—and more qualified workers in critical services.

Of late we've seen a bit of scaremongering by the LNP and the Crisafulli government talking about what TAFE funding looks like, but it's worth looking at the facts on this matter. Currently, in their agreement with Queensland, free TAFE has the Albanese government contributing $85 million over three years. The proposal for a new agreement is for $188 million over five years, increasing the contribution per student from $1,309 to $1,759. We're investing up to $2.5 billion over five years in Queensland, an increase of $690 million compared to the previous agreement.

We know that free TAFE is valued. Despite the cynicism that we've seen from those opposite—including the former leader of the opposition, who said, 'If you don't pay for something, you don't value it'—I believe that, when you value something, you participate in it. That's what we've seen Queenslanders do. I believe that if you value something, you invest in it. That's what Labor has done.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

More self-congratulatory motions by this Labor government are a complete waste of our time, but I will play along. Labor's fee-free TAFE program is completely failing to deliver real solutions for our nation. They've spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money, yet we've seen unconvincing overall apprenticeship numbers. In SA we've seen a very unconvincing 50 per cent course completion rate for fee-free TAFE participants in 2025. That is absolutely not a success story. That is a total policy failure. Fee-free TAFE might sound wonderful in a press release, but the reality on the ground is different. The Albanese government is not training people where they are actually needed. We do not need more enrolments in generic training programs that do not lead to real jobs, especially with a massive price tag of $1 billion.

You cannot build houses without tradies. You can't manufacture without boilermakers. Right now Australia is facing a massive housing shortage and major infrastructure bottlenecks. Builders are crying out for skilled tradespeople and waiting months just to find qualified workers to finish basic jobs. Projects are constantly delayed, costs are rising and communities miss out. Labor promised fee-free TAFE would fix this problem, but the dial has not shifted.

Let us look at Labor's record of decline. When the coalition was last in government, there were over 450,000 apprentices and trainees in training. Today, under Labor, that number has absolutely collapsed. Waiving fees means nothing if apprentices are not mentored and connected to real jobs; the result is just churn and a much bigger burden on the taxpayer, with zero solutions to the shortage. I've used this analogy a few times in this place: if you're trying to pump water from A to B and you find a gaping hole in the pipe, you can (1) fix the pipe or (2) pump more water down it. This Labor government is pumping more water down this pipe with this fee-free TAFE proposal.

The national failure is hurting communities like Coober Pedy, proving that a generic system does not reflect regional needs. Opal was first discovered there in February 1915. From their history of grit, an incredible innovation was born. I do not say this lightly. If governments do not start taking the plight of this regional centre seriously, Coober Pedy could very well just be history. In places like Coober Pedy, we need to be providing funding and support tied directly to locally relevant training programs. If you know where Coober Pedy is, it is in the middle of the country. You can get your boat licence at the local TAFE—I'm not sure how useful that is.

The local opal industry is immensely rich with knowledge. The absolute best opal cutters in the world are right there, ready to teach the local youth about presentation and grading, yet we are told the government has shockingly refused to use the TAFE. They are refusing to use the facility due to supposedly outdated machinery. I'd bet my last dollar that the pencil pushers in Adelaide who made that tone-deaf decision have never even seen an opal mine in action.

The very skills that define Coober Pedy are at immediate risk of being lost. We urgently need a thorough review of this TAFE decision. We need proper pathways into trade—opal cutting, tourism operations and other local industry opportunities. We must heed the miners who clearly say they simply cannot afford to lose those skills.

Coober Pedy clearly shows us that, when governments treat remote communities as complete afterthoughts, the social, economic and human consequences heavily mount. This is a truly great town, with a warm, deeply resilient soul, and I would hate for bad decisions by this government to strip that great soul away. Remote Australia should not be a backyard for neglect. The young people of Coober Pedy deserve so much more than this.

Fee-free TAFE is a flawed policy, because human nature dictates we rarely value what we receive for nothing. When a student has no financial skin in the game, commitment plummets. Free enrolment has led to higher dropout rates, and there is no penalty for simply walking away. Instead of generally upskilling our workforce to meet regional industry demands, we end up funding ghost students. Real education outcomes require mutual investment, not just empty handouts.

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

Every time we flick on a light switch, move into a new home, take our car to the mechanic or drop our child off at child care, we're relying on someone's skills. But those skills don't appear overnight. They come from apprenticeships, from TAFE, from hands-on training and from people willing to learn a trade. I know that firsthand.

Growing up, I saw the dedication of vocational education every day because my mum spent more than 20 years teaching at TAFE, helping train the next generation of early childhood educators. She understood that every graduate represented something bigger than a qualification; it was another skilled worker ready to make a difference in their community. That's why investing in vocational education isn't just investing in students; it's investing in the people who keep Australia moving. At a time when Australia needs more homes, more renewable energy, stronger manufacturing and a growing childcare workforce, investing in new skills has never been more important.

That is why the Albanese Labor government has taken national leadership in rebuilding vocational education and training, working in partnerships with states and territories to deliver the skilled workforce that Australia needs. Back home in Queensland, that partnership is backed up by $2.52 billion in Commonwealth funding being invested over the next five years, helping deliver continued growth in training opportunities and outcomes.

Fee-free TAFE has been delivered to almost 135,000 Queenslanders, and the Albanese Labor government has committed $188 million in Commonwealth funding to Queensland over the next five years. For many Queenslanders, that doesn't just mean a place in a classroom; it means real savings that make training possible. A student studying a Diploma of Nursing can save up to $15,900. Someone undertaking a Diploma of Project Management can save up to $12,100—a Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping, saving up to $4,700. That's money staying in people's pockets while they gain the skills our economy needs.

Yet, over recent weeks in Queensland, we've seen the Crisafulli government trying to create uncertainty around fee-free TAFE. The facts simply don't support that campaign. The current agreement sees the Commonwealth contributing $85 million over three years. However, the new agreement proposes to deliver $188 million over five years, increasing the Commonwealth's annual contribution and supporting more than 106,000 fee-free TAFE places for Queenslanders.

Labor wants to see more Queenslanders training, more opportunities created and more skilled workers entering the workforce. That's exactly what we're delivering, and we are already seeing the results. More than 2,000 construction apprentices signed up through the Small Business Apprenticeship Pilot Program, helping train the workforce that will build the homes our growing communities need.

In my electorate of Bonner, I see the value of vocational education every day. Almost 19,600 people in my electorate hold a certificate III or IV qualification. They are the tradies building our homes, the educators caring for our children and the hospitality workers welcoming visitors. Their qualifications don't just create careers; they strengthen local businesses, support local families and help our local economy grow. That means more opportunities for Australians to gain the skills they need, more workers for local businesses and a stronger workforce for the future.

I saw the impact of these opportunities first-hand when I visited the Tesla workshop in my electorate with Minister Giles, where we met apprentice Zara. She's training for a career in the clean energy sector but she's also helping pave the path for others, establishing a peer support network for women undertaking apprenticeships in Tesla. It's a reminder that investing in vocational education isn't just about fulfilling the skills shortages; it's about backing people with the talent, determination and, in Zahra's case, the leadership to shape Australia's future. That's exactly why the Albanese Labor government created the New Energy Apprenticeships Program, with eligible apprentices like Zahra receiving over $10,000 over the course of her training.

Labor is delivering for all Australians when it comes to free TAFE, apprenticeships and training and vocational education.

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

I, too, rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Leichhardt. The motion talks about the strengthening of vocational education training and celebrates enrolments in free TAFE. But I don't accept that free TAFE necessarily equals better TAFE, and the enrolment in courses shouldn't be automatically taken that vocational training is working. Vocational training works best when the skills being acquired align with the skills required by employees, and it goes to the quality and relevance of the education that is being provided and how fit for purpose the facility is.

Some years ago, when I was working at an organisation called the Committee for Greater Shepparton, which you know well, Deputy Speaker Aldred, I was concerned about this issue of us not having the skills we needed in regional Australia, particularly for our food manufacturing businesses. I sought to study what was being done in other parts of the world, and I was successful in gaining a Churchill Fellowship. I continue to thank the Churchill organisation for the support of me to travel to Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland to look at vocational education.

Particularly in Germany, I saw a vocational system that looks different to ours and, I would argue, is better. We can look to other parts of the world to try and improve our vocational education system. For example, at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany, typically an apprentice will do a couple of days at the vocational education facility, which is their version of our TAFE, then they'll do another three days at the actual organisation; in this case, it was Mercedes-Benz. What I saw there was a real alignment between the businesses, the industries and the curriculum at TAFE. In fact, the curriculum at the vocational education facility in Germany is set by the chamber of commerce. The funding arrangements are shared between the chamber of commerce—the businesses—and the government. The education facilities are state-of-the-art. I saw one in Frankfurt, which was absolutely first class in terms of the quality of equipment, the quality of teaching—in this, case it had to do with mechatronics. I saw highly engaged students who had skin in the game because they had a hard-won a prized apprenticeship at an organisation such as DAB, Fresenius, Mercedes-Benz, BMW. The other two days were spent working in this really high-quality facility. The connection between the two disciplines—getting the theory in the classroom at the vocational facility, and the actual industry—tended to bring forward a very engaged, high-level, problem-solving graduate.

I think we've got a bit of a way to go in Australia. I don't wish to denigrate any of the people doing a lot of hard work at TAFE, as it does have some good outcomes, but I feel like it's going in a direction of herding people into it through the free system, trying to be able to say 'We got X number of enrolments in TAFE; isn't this great?' and not ensuring that the actual quality, the curriculum and skills that people end up coming out with from TAFE properly align with the skills that industry requires. We've got a long way to go in this country to be the equal of Germany and Finland.

Another thing, before I finish up—and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what I saw in Europe—is that, in Finland, 40 per cent of school leavers go to university, 40 per cent go into vocational education and 20 per cent go straight into the workforce. That hasn't changed since 2001, and the Finnish department of education told me they're very happy with that because it equates to the workforce. For a lot of those courses, the vocational education system is best to put young people into industry. That's something we can learn from in Australia, rather than pushing more and more kids to university when it might not be right for them.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.