PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (13:16): I rise to support the motion and recognise National TAFE Day. I've been to TAFE twice in my life. I think, in both cases, TAFE probably saved me from myself.

The first time was because I wanted to go to university. I was not what anyone would describe as an enthusiastic student at school. I had ability, but I lacked any particular interest in demonstrating it.

I've also developed a habit in my life that whenever I reach a fork in the road, I rarely choose the easiest path. If one sign says 'nice sealed road, ocean views, good coffee, arrive relaxed' and the other says 'unsealed road, three river crossings, no phone reception, possible livestock', for some reason I'm already indicating right. So, rather than taking a straightforward route into university, I went through TAFE.

TAFE gave me another way in. It gave somebody who had not exactly set the academic world on fire at school another chance to prove themselves. And that is one of the great things about TAFE.

It does not spend much time asking how you got there. It asks, 'Where do you want to go next?' My second trip to TAFE came when I decided to become an electrician. I was 25 and a mature-age apprentice—although 'mature' is probably doing a bit of heavy lifting in this sentence.

I started with a preapprenticeship. At that point, I knew virtually nothing about electrical work. I was learning how to strip cable, terminate wires and use basic tools like pliers.

I eventually became reasonably competent with them, though some of my former workmates may seek to dissent from that statement. TAFE helped start a career that completely changed my life. It gave me a trade, it gave me secure work, and it took me into the construction and resources sector.

That trade has stayed with me through every job I've had since. And that is what vocational education does: it gives people another door. Sometimes it is a young person leaving school, sometimes it is someone changing careers, sometimes it is a parent returning to work and sometimes it is someone like me—who has looked at the sensible career path, carefully considered it, and then wandered off in the completely opposite direction.

That is why TAFE is so important, because opportunity is not really opportunity if people cannot afford to take it. Since 2023, more than 850,000 free TAFE places have been taken up across Australia, and we have now made free TAFE permanent with at least 100,000 places every year. That means more electricians, more builders, more nurses, more aged-care workers, more early educators and more people getting the skills Australia actually needs.

It matters, because the cost of training is real. When you're an apprentice, particularly in those early years, you are not exactly swimming through piles of cash like Scrooge McDuck. You are paying the rent, buying tools, getting yourself to work and trying to live on apprentice wages.

Every extra cost makes finishing that apprenticeship a little harder. Free TAFE removes one of those barriers. It also helps employers.

Taking on an apprentice requires time, patience and money, and for quite a while an apprentice is learning more than they are producing. I can say that with some confidence, because I was one. So, when government reduces the cost of training, that is not only support for the apprentice; it is practical support for the businesses training our future workforce, and that, ultimately, is what TAFE is about.

It's not about prestige. It's not about whether one qualification looks better framed on the wall than another. It is about giving people useful skills that lead somewhere.

The evidence backs it up. People completing vocational training are more likely to be working afterwards and, on average, earning more. But I don't need a report to convince me of the value of TAFE.

I've lived it twice. The first time, TAFE gave an uninterested school student a pathway into university. The second time, it handed a 25-year-old who could barely use a set of pliers the start of an electrical career, and, remarkably, nobody was seriously shocked in the process.

That is why I'm proud that this government backs TAFE, because Australians do not travel along the same road. Some people take the highway, some people take the scenic route and some of us will keep choosing the road with the potholes, the roadworks and the questionable bridge. TAFE makes sure that, whichever road people take, there is still somewhere worth getting to.