AEU Federal Conference Melbourne

Acknowledgements omitted

It is a great pleasure to be here once again with you all this morning – to recognise the extraordinary contribution that everyone in this room makes to our TAFE sector and our education system more broadly.

Individually, and collectively.

It is your passion, your commitment, your advocacy and your dedication that ensures that Australians can continue to benefit from the very best our education system has to offer.

When it comes to TAFE, let me be very clear: the Albanese Labor Government shares your belief in its importance and your determination to see TAFE strengthened and properly valued.

With that in mind, today I’d like to outline how our Government’s commitment to rebuilding TAFE and transforming the VET sector is central to our agenda – to building a more productive, more prosperous and above all fairer Australia.

More than 50 years ago, the Whitlam Government commissioned Myer Kangan to provide advice on the development of technical and further education in Australia. 

Myer’s pivotal role has, of course, been commemorated here in Victoria with the renaming of the Broadmeadows College of TAFE in 1995 as the Kangan Institute of TAFE – appropriately so.

Because his report established the foundation of our modern TAFE sector, built on the traditions of the finest state technical schools and trade colleges.

The report directly linked vocational education and training and national prosperity. 

And was a tripartite effort, bringing together employers, union, educators and state and territory governments.

A true partnership – a theme I’ll be returning to.

For the first time specific funds were to be earmarked to encourage the participation of women, people with disabilities, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. 

As Australia’s Skills and Training Minister, I believe the vision outlined by the Kangan Report is more relevant than ever.

More urgent, too.

When the Albanese Government was elected in 2022, the tapestry holding Kangan’s vision together was more than a little threadbare. 

Australia was experiencing the worst skills shortage in my lifetime, and the second worst of all the advanced economies. 

The near decade of Liberal and National government is often referred to as a decade of drift – and it’s true.

But in the skills and training portfolio it was worse than mere drift.

Because under successive Liberal Prime Ministers we saw funding for TAFE and training slashed – to the tune of $3 billion dollars.

Shameful conduct, at a time when we needed to invest in TAFE and the skills it delivers.

Shameful, but also unsurprising – because it is in the DNA of the conservative side of politics.

The Prime Minister highlighted when he spoke to you on Friday that when he was in the training portfolio during the Howard years, the privatisation of the sector being seen at that time was actually damaging Australia’s economy. 

And not only that – it was failing to provide people the pathways to opportunity – to make a contribution and to build a career. And to build a life.

The conservative side of politics hasn’t learnt in the intervening years.

The Liberals have never seen a public institution they haven’t wanted to gut and cut.

We know that all too well here in Victoria, where the impacts of the Kennett cuts have been felt years after he was booted from office.

The Nationals – despite the fact that regional communities are among the greatest users of TAFE – fail time and time again to stand up for TAFE and TAFE students.

And One Nation does what they always do – finding someone else to blame, turning their attacks on international students – people who are coming to Australia to get a world-class education, and make their contribution by working in the industries Australians rely on every day.

We won’t see any of this change under Angus Taylor – a man who last mentioned TAFE in the Parliament more than ten years ago, when his role model Tony Abbott was still Prime Minister, cutting billions from schools education and entrenching inequalities – amongst other things.

Who had the absolute wrong priorities when he was leading Peter Dutton’s cuts team, and who spent the last nine months working to cut down the Liberals’ first female leader 

But we aren’t – and we won't be – distracted from the work we’re doing to put TAFE back where it belongs – at the centre of our VET system.

Labor is the party of TAFE. 

We will always stand up for TAFE, and we will always stand alongside TAFE teachers and trainers – and the AEU – to defend TAFE as a critical part of what makes and builds Australia.

We see you, and the work you do. I see it, and the Prime Minister sees it – as he said when he joined you: ‘each of you represents a contribution to our nation that is fundamental to our collective success.’

My predecessor in this portfolio, Brendan O’Connor, made significant and essential strides forward in his time as Minister – including establishing Jobs and Skills Australia, the introduction of Free TAFE, and the signing of the $30 billion National Skills Agreement – after ten years of the Coalition failing to put their own agreement in place.

I was very proud to take up Brendan’s place, including delivering permanent Free TAFE in the months ahead of the last election – and despite the opposition of conservatives who once again tried to talk down the Australians who are benefitting from Free TAFE.

Who deeply value their courses, and the support that enables them to study.

In our first term, our Government’s role was to bring TAFE out of the shadows and back into the spotlight. 

This work is well underway, but it’s not finished.

We need to lock in the investment and the structural reforms to ensure TAFE can continue grow and thrive – so that even as the conservative side of politics looks to ideology and for cuts, they can’t touch TAFE because of the depth of support it has across the Australian community, and the depth of appreciation it is held in across industries.

Building the evidence base for the work we do in the skills and training space is so important, which is why I’m so proud of the work our Government did in our first months to establish Jobs and Skills Australia. 

In fact, it was the very first piece of legislation that the Albanese Government passed.

JSA provides us with independent evidence which informs decision making around our workforce and skilling needs. 

In the spirit of Kangan, its work is informed by a tripartite approach, engaging with major partners in the national skills system, including governments, unions and industry.

Providing the statistical and research backing to bolster the case that we make for investment in TAFE and training.

And it is worth noting that, the work we have done in the skills and training area is beginning to pay off. 

JSA’s Occupational Shortage List shows that the number of occupations in shortage is now at 29 per cent, down from 33 per cent in 2024 and 36 per cent in 2023. 

This doesn’t happen by accident.

It comes from deliberate, thoughtful work – with partnerships at its centre.

The five-year National Skills Agreement, which commenced in January 2024, is based on a national stewardship model of the Commonwealth and states and territories jointly collaborating to set the direction of our VET system. 

The agreement makes our Government’s commitment to placing TAFE at the heart of the VET system explicit. 

It is there on the first page. 

And this is not just words. 

We are backing that commitment with 70 per cent of all Australian Government funding under the agreement being directed to TAFE.

The NSA also provides for initiatives to not only rebuild our TAFE infrastructure but to support, grow and retain a quality VET teaching workforce – rebuilding cannot occur without this.

While the Albanese Government has shifted TAFE back to the heart of VET, the heart of our commitment to the Australian people is to ensure that no one is held back and no one is held behind. 

That every Australian has opportunity.

That every Australian has the means to pursue their lives as they choose to do so. 

That every Australian can access secure and rewarding employment. 

That the talent and skills of each and every Australian help to build a society that responds to the challenges we face today – and for the future.

Some of the trends that will shape our economy in the years ahead include the transition to clean energy, an ageing population and the digital transformation we are seeing through the growing adoption of AI.

The transformation of the VET sector is vital to meeting these changes head on. 

JSA says that over the next ten years, 90 per cent of new jobs will require a post-secondary qualification – with my focus on seeing a more even split between VET and university education, and developing a parity of esteem when it comes to tertiary pathways.

And through Free TAFE, the Albanese Government is delivering those qualifications.

Since the program began just over three years ago, Free TAFE has seen incredible results – providing opportunity to hundreds of thousands of Australians through more than 725,000 Free TAFE enrolments. 

Of those enrolments:

• about six per cent have been First Nations people
• about a quarter are job seekers
• almost nine per cent are people with disabilities, and
• almost 62 per cent of the enrolments are from women.

These are good numbers – but they’re more than that. 

Because within those numbers are so many stories of how the opportunity that Free TAFE provides breaks down the barriers of disadvantage that people face, as the Prime Minister highlighted in some of the stories of Australians he has met at TAFEs.

Along with your Federal TAFE President Elaine Gillespie and TAFE teachers from Box Hill Institute, we recently celebrated the third birthday of Free TAFE’s national rollout.

One of the students we met that day was Naomi, who had recently completed her Certificate III in Individual Support.

Naomi was inspired to make a career change later in life after seeing the incredible care her husband and her mother received.

Free TAFE made it all possible.

And as Naomi highlighted, the relationships that TAFE creates – between students and staff, between TAFE and industry organisations – are so important to preparing students for their future careers, with real, on-the-job experience and training.

Naomi credited her success to this, and to her teachers that she said gave her the best start to preparing for her new career.

That’s just one of hundreds of thousands of stories of the impact that TAFE teachers and staff are having on the workforce of the future.

One of the themes that I explored in my address to the National Press Club last year was parity of esteem. 

For too long, we’ve let this outdated idea linger–that a university degree is the “real” path, and TAFE is what you choose when Plan A goes sideways.

But TAFE is not Plan B. It can’t be.

Because if we’re serious about building a tertiary system that actually works for this country, then we need VET and universities to play to their strengths – not compete in a hierarchy that never made sense in the first place.

Myer Kangan said that TAFE should be accessible, providing equality of opportunity. 

And it’s still one of the VET sector’s greatest strengths. 

VET plays a critical role in supporting priority cohorts, including people with disability, First Nations Australians, women, migrants, jobseekers, and learners in regional and remote communities.

Through the National Skills Agreement, we are ensuring VET is meeting learners where they are.

That opportunity is not only extending to students from diverse backgrounds, but those from diverse places, something that universities can’t match. 

TAFEs delivers training in more than 300 locations across metropolitan, regional and rural Australia.

I had the opportunity last year to visit its northernmost location, the TAFE Queensland campus on Thursday Island, which offers courses including primary health care, health support, marine, business, leadership and management. 

TAFE reaches every corner of our country. The Albanese Government wants to strengthen that by further extending its footprint through initiatives such as Mobile TAFE.

Announced by the Prime Minister at the Garma Festival last year, $31 million has been provided to deliver up to 12 projects across Australia. 

Mobile training units will enable VET providers to take skills on the road and train the next generation of workers in outer regional and remote communities.

I’m also excited to soon be announcing the first round of Remote Training Hubs, which will supercharge the training opportunities for even more Australians in remote communities.

None of this work happens without you – the TAFE teachers and staff that turn up every day to ensure students get the knowledge and skills they need.

I know in just the last week the AEU’s State of our TAFE Report has highlighted the scale of the work TAFE teachers are doing – and that underfunding baked in over a decade means we still have a lot of work to do.

I’ve visited dozens of TAFEs around the country in the 18 months or so since becoming Skills and Training Minister.

At every campus, in every department, I meet students who make it clear to me how incredible their teachers are. 

Your students know how much you give to your work, and they absolutely value it.

Our Government values it too – and I’m pleased that we can work together to first identify and find solutions to those issues the AEU highlights. To build on the understandings you have in this room, and from the rooms you come from as delegates.

Including the need for more wraparound supports for students – as part of our National Skills Agreement, states and territories are required to work with the Commonwealth on bilateral implementation plans to improve student completion rates.

These plans unlock state and federal funding that is targeted towards getting students the support they need before they reach the point of considering ending their course.

Another required implementation plan from the states and territories is focused on improving foundation skills – in literacy, numeracy, language and digital skills. 

Again, our Government has money on the table that each state and territory unlocks by outlining their plan to roll out more foundation skills training.

I look forward to continuing to work with the AEU to ensure this funding has the greatest impact, and reaches those who need it the most.

While all of us in this room share a passion for TAFE, we know that there remain those out there that want to see TAFE worse off.

I note a recent editorial in The Australian that tried to denigrate TAFEs by calling them 'unionised'. 

Really?

Well, let me make it clear – a unionised workplace is a stronger workplace.

In my experience, a more collaborative one too.

The editorial also bought into the trope that TAFE is stuck in the past, that state TAFE systems 'are not great innovators in teaching'.

Rather than leaning into old-fashioned – and let me be clear wrong –  stereotypes, I'd encourage the person who wrote that editorial to get out and visit some TAFEs.

What they'd see is the drive that TAFE teachers bring to their work – that in turn drives students to turn an idea into a career.

And I'd point them towards the collaboration across campuses and states. 

TAFEs around the country benefitting from the work of TAFE Centres of Excellence, like the short courses on modern methods of housing construction being developed out of the Melbourne Polytechnic campus in Heidelberg.

Your members – the teachers whose skills and expertise anchor the training that TAFE colleges provide – are an essential part of the Albanese Government’s efforts to transform the sector. 

One of the aims of the National Skills Agreement is, through the VET Workforce Blueprint, to strengthen the VET workforce.

Under the Blueprint, we are providing targeted measures and funding to support grow and retain a quality VET teaching workforce, like the VET Workforce scholarship program here in Victoria.

To further strengthen the VET workforce, newly published resources are available for RTOs to better support students with disability, embedding inclusive practices across course design, delivery and assessment.

Last year, at this conference I referred to our Government’s work to establish the National TAFE Network with states and territories.

Today, I am pleased to announce that with the recent signing on by Queensland, all jurisdictions have now joined us in the National TAFE Network, and the foundations of a truly national network are in place.

The network will foster collaboration among TAFE teachers and administrators, enable the development of shared curriculum and course materials, pilot innovative teaching practices, and create communities of practice to support the TAFE workforce.

Its activities will continue to be scaled up during 2026 – and I can’t wait to see what it enables.

One of the guiding principles that we have adopted in our work to improve the VET sector has been the value of partnerships – working together across governments and with unions and industry. 

An integral feature of TAFE Centres of Excellence is the partnerships they foster with universities, industry, unions, Jobs and Skills Councils, and other TAFEs.

The centres deliver high-quality, future focused training for industries that are strategically important to Australia’s economy and workforce. 

Among the 14 that have opened their doors so far are centres specialising in net zero manufacturing, health care and support, housing construction, clean energy batteries and national security. 

There’s more to come – and I’ll give you a heads up – we’re only days away from announcing two more.

The AEU’s Rebuild with TAFE campaign identifies the importance of physical rebuilding – investing in campus equipment and infrastructure.

The $50 million TAFE Technology Fund is supporting TAFEs to upgrade and expand facilities including labs, workshops and IT services. 

16 projects have already been completed – including the TAFE Health Hub I visited on Thursday Island – with another eight projects to be implemented by states and territories. 

They include projects like the $900,000 upgrade of carpentry facilities at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Epping campus, completed in March last year. 

It now means that future tradies can better develop their practical skills through hands-on learning. 

I want to end by talking about what I earlier referred to as a parity of esteem.

Valuing the education and skills imparted in the VET sector on a par with those obtained at a university.

If we want a tertiary system that works for this country – a system that reflects who we are and what we need – then VET and universities can’t be trapped in and divided by some imaginary, purposeless hierarchy.

All our efforts to rebuild the sector will be for nothing if people in some parts of our country see VET as second best. 

I said earlier that JSA forecasts that over the next decade, nine out of ten new jobs will require post-secondary qualifications.

The Albanese Government has set a target of 80 per cent of the workforce achieving a Certificate III or above by 2050.So, how do we ensure that the VET and university sector are working together to deliver the jobs industry needs while also providing opportunities that tap the diversity of our communities? 

Our response must be multi-faceted. 

The imbalance in our tertiary pathways and how they are often seen didn’t happen overnight, nor through a single action or decision.

This has been a long-run development.

It has a cultural dimension, in part driven by successive conservative governments running down TAFE.

And there are structural questions we need to address.

In July last year, the Albanese Government established the interim Australian Tertiary Education Commission, a major step towards a joined-up system.

The ATEC is leading the development of a Tertiary Roadmap, which will identify the next steps to make it easier for students to move between higher education and VET. 

It will set up a system to support students to gain qualifications matched to our future skills needs.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of the game, but an announcement in October last year by the Canberra Institute of Technology and the University of Canberra provides a glimpse of where we should head. 

A suite of pathways making it easier for students to move between vocational and higher education, receiving direct entry and up to one year of recognised credit into seven degrees including nursing, early childhood education, accounting and project management.

In 1974, the Federal Minister for Education, Kim Beazley Senior, predicted that the Kangan Report would revolutionise Australian technical education.

And while that promise has – at times – waxed and waned, the principles that Myer Kangan laid down are enduring. 

For the establishment of a connected, coherent, national sector that provides accessible and equitable training driving both economic productivity and social cohesion. 

It is that promise that has driven the Albanese Government’s efforts since 2022 – to put the skills and training sector on the path to success, and put TAFE at the heart of that work. 

Without those of you here today – AEU members – and the representation you provide for TAFE, it would not be the incredible feature of our education system that it is.

I value the relationship I have with the AEU, and the opportunity you have extended to me to join you today.

I look forward to continuing our strong working relationship, as we work together to ensure TAFE thrives well into the future.

Thank you.