Mr O'CONNOR (Gorton—Minister for Skills and Training) (14:25):

I thank the member for Hunter for his question and his strong advocacy for tradies and the TAFE sector in his electorate and beyond. As the Prime Minister said, just over a year ago today the Jobs and Skills Summit was convened and the first announcement arising out of that summit was the announcement of 180,000 additional fee-free TAFE and VET places for 2023, in order to make sure we supply the skills to our economy.

Upon election we realised that not only did we inherit a trillion dollars of public debt from those opposite; we inherited a massive skills deficit across the entire economy. It didn't matter what trade, what profession or what sector of the economy, there were shortages and we needed to attend to them. I'm happy to say, as the Prime Minister already indicated, that we have exceeded the target in both time and numbers when it comes to this initiative. We've now delivered, to 215,000 Australians, courses in areas where they can acquire skills in existing and emerging demand. That's exactly what we need. It's what those students need. It's what workers need. It's what our businesses are crying out for. We've done that by working with industry. We've done that by working with employers who have told us what they've needed. We've done that by talking to state and territory governments. In fact, last week I was with the Prime Minister and the member for Swan, at Bentley TAFE, where we met students. They told us that the cost barriers being removed provided opportunities for them to enrol in areas that they wanted work in but had difficulties affording to enrol in. This is meeting the needs of those students. I have spoken to employers who've said that they were paying, in some instances, the fees of those students, and all of a sudden the cost barrier was removed for those employers and they, therefore, increased the number of apprentices that they put on as a result of the removal of that cost barrier.

There are lots of good reasons why this is very good policy. To that extent it is very disappointing that those opposite call this wasteful spending. I don't believe that students think this is wasteful spending. I don't think that businesses believe this is wasteful spending when they can get the skills that are in demand. I certainly don't think that others who have spoken with us believe it's anything other than a very important initiative to supply skills that are in need. A number of students from Canberra Institute of Technology who met the Prime Minister and I this morning are in the gallery. We met with Archie, who said fee-free TAFE is allowing him to study a Certificate IV in Cybersecurity, an area in much demand, and Megan, who is studying hospitality. These are the skills that our economy needs, and we'll continue to work with state and territory governments and employers to make sure that we deliver them.