PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (12:37): For the member for Blair's information, I support technical and further education. TAFE is a great pathway for young people in particular, and people of many ages besides, to get into employment. Just for the record, I hold a number of TAFE certificates—I'm very proud of that.
I do believe that a TAFE certificate is worth every bit as much as a tertiary degree, and we should be applauding it as such. This Wednesday is the first anniversary of the Economic Reform Roundtable, otherwise known as the productivity roundtable, which was held in Canberra —in the national capital—from 19 to 21 August last year. Yet since then we've actually had a productivity decline.
When we come to this motion brought to the parliament by the member for Moore, the stark reality is the actual data, the actual numbers. Nationally, 429,000 apprentices and trainees were in training in June 2022. That's just after Labor was elected to office.
Labor closed the funding, and numbers have fallen every year since. This data is from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Total apprentices and trainees in training fell 11.3 per cent across the country in the 12 months to June 2025.
Trade apprenticeship commencements were down 15.3 per cent nationally in the 12 months to June 2025. Non-trade commencements fell 13.9 per cent in the year to December 2024, and the centre directly attributed this to the closure of Boosting Apprenticeships Commencements. That scheme was making some sort of difference.
In September 2024, trade commencements fell 17.4 per cent nationally. Construction was down 18.6 per cent. Automotive and engineering were down 18 per cent.
They're not my numbers. These are the numbers from this centre, which also stated that apprenticeship job postings nationally fell 27 per cent in 2024, now tracking below pre-pandemic 2019 levels. That is a real worry, and it's a real worry when Labor is talking up building a million homes.
That number has changed and has varied. But, when Labor talks about building the houses for the future, for the migrants, for young people, for first home buyers or whatever the case might be and we have Housing Industry Australia estimating that an additional 83,000 tradies would be required to meet Labor's housing target, then those two figures simply don't match.
What we've also seen is the construction industry in freefall. The building industry is one of the hardest hit sectors at the moment. Another one is the transport sector, but in the building industry there were almost 3,500 insolvencies in 2025-26.
This has to stop. Labor talks about fee-free TAFE all the time. It's almost job-free TAFE at the moment because we've got the transport sector in freefall.
We've got the construction sector hit like never before. We've got Labor members talking about the need to build a million new homes whilst at the same time absolutely smashing our real estate market, absolutely smashing the property market, and then taking pride in that—taking pride in the fact that our housing market is slumping, that the prices are coming down.
They suggest and proclaim that there's never been a better time for a first home buyer. Well, I tell you what, there have been much better times for our TAFE apprentices. For those people—whether they're in carpentry, an electrical trade or whatever the case—it must be a worry.
They're going to TAFE. They might be learning on the job at the same time. But what future do they have when we see the number of bankruptcies and insolvencies in the construction sector?
They might tune into question time. They might tune into parliament, and they hear Labor members talking about the property market and talking up what are fudged figures. They are.
This disaster is Labor's own making. This disaster, this productivity freefall, is on Labor's watch. There is a better way; it's the coalition way.