PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (12:47): I represent an electorate that has quite a broad tradie population, and they contribute immensely to our community on the Gold Coast. I represent an area that is experiencing one of the fastest periods of growth across the country, and we see it daily. People who are in the trade sector are the ones who enable us to grow and to develop, and that is something that's noteworthy.

What I will say, though, is that I will mention a figure: $1.5 billion. One point five billion dollars is no small amount of money, but that is the amount that the current Albanese government has spent on fee-free TAFE. Ordinarily, I'd say we encourage that sort of investment.

We encourage investment in the next generation of people who are going to build our homes, especially in the midst of what is quite a concerning housing crisis across our country. But the point of me speaking on this motion today is that we're seeing a situation where, despite that investment of $1.5 billion, the skills shortage has only worsened. It's right in that instance, instead of the government coming in here and moving a motion commending their investment, for them to come here and say: 'Well, is it actually working?

Is it an effective use of taxpayer funds, and, if not, how can we make it better?' I think it does call for a moment of self-reflection for those on the other side of this place. We've seen apprenticeship completion rates fall unacceptably low. Over four years, we've seen completion rates go down from 50 per cent to 47.9 per cent.

This is at a point where more than one in three occupations, about 36 per cent, are assessed as being in national shortage. I know that those opposite have made comparisons to when the coalition were in office. Well, if we look at the comparison, when we left office in June of 2022, there were 426,830 apprentices and trainees in training across the country.

But today, that number has plummeted to just 282,430 as of December last year. This means we're seeing fewer skills at a time when this government is putting us through a housing crisis. We saw in the last budget overall funding for VET activities has dropped since we were in government, and that's been driven overwhelmingly by the government slashing employer incentives to take on those apprentices from just over $4 billion to $1.54 billion.

In my electorate, I have the Industry School in Robina. I've had the privilege of visiting the Industry School multiple times, spending time with those younger generations of tradies, the people who will be building our homes in the future. I'm very proud of that school because it is actually translating education into outcomes.

The last I checked, about 96 per cent of people were walking straight into a job upon graduation and that's great for our community, it's great for our country and it's great for them. But what we're seeing with fee-free TAFE more broadly are others not adopting a similar model and not going down that path of employment. I think the contribution from the member for Grey earlier was noteworthy because he mentioned that there's only one area where we're actually seeing the growth and that is in public administration.

Now, that's not the area where we need to see the growth right now, and it's a testament to the government's priorities that, in reality, that is in fact what's happening. That $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds being spent by the government could be used more effectively and should be used more effectively. We need a system that ensures that the skills that are required in this country are supported through our education system, and not just through our education system but also through our broader policy base.

I note that, since the government came to office, only 2.5 per cent of the people in our net overseas migration intake are in the construction sector. So on all accounts, when it comes to making sure we have the skills needed to face the next generation of Australia, the government are failing, and I'm surprised that they're moving this forward.