QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr GILES (Scullin—Minister for Skills and Training) (15:09): Thanks to my friend the member for Leichhardt for his question. In a short time in this place, he has already made a really significant contribution. When the Deputy Prime Minister and I had the great privilege of joining the member in the Torres Strait last week, we saw just how effective a member he is—respected and recognised everywhere.
Although, as he did say, he is hard to miss. It was just over a year ago that I was on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait to announce our investment in a new health hub for the TAFE campus, which meant that people could study nursing without having to leave the Torres Strait. It was fantastic to return to see what this investment, together with free TAFE, is delivering, and it was great to meet Ash, a Torres Strait Islander who is well on the way towards completing his Diploma of Nursing.
He'll be one of the first to have completed his whole course on country. Ash told me and the Deputy Prime Minister that studying this course simply would not have been possible but for free TAFE. Ash is one of the hundreds of thousands of success stories that have come from free TAFE, and Ash symbolises why free TAFE is so important.
Free TAFE is changing lives. It's backing more Australians into good, secure jobs, which our communities need right around the country. It's also backing more First Nations people to learn and to train on country, which we know means more course commencements and more completions.
It also engages more people around those students in learning. It's stories like Ash's that remind us on this side of the House how important the work we're doing is, especially making free TAFE permanent. It's why I continue to be surprised—shocked indeed—that the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation have teamed up to try to block permanent free TAFE.
But, thanks to the work of the Albanese Labor government, free TAFE is here to stay. Free TAFE is here to stay, with 100,000 places guaranteed each year from 2027, and the only thing that stands between more Australians accessing those opportunities that Ash has and more opportunities from the jobs that come from free TAFE are those opposite. They're a coalition of cuts and chaos who always talk down Australians and talk Australia down.
This side, Labor, is the party of TAFE. The opposition leader can't even say the word 'TAFE' or look up Medicare online, it seems. But, on this side of the House, with free TAFE, we keep on delivering real change by backing Australians like Ash to get the skills they want to do the jobs we need, from the Torres Strait to Tasmania and right across to WA and everywhere in between.
Mr Albanese: Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.