PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms CAMPBELL (Moreton) (16:56): 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.