PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr VENNING (Grey) (17:01): 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.