Australia India Business Council - Melbourne

Acknowledgements omitted

It’s my pleasure to join you all for today’s Australia India Business Council Education event. Your topic, ‘Shaping the future of Skilling between Australia and India’, is an incredibly timely one.

Because of the ways our skills systems interact with each other, the relationship our two countries have – and how we make the most of the opportunities we have together.

As a country, Australia is indeed lucky.

Lucky to be located – like India – in the fastest growing region in human history.

Lucky to share in – uniquely – 65,000 years of continuous First Nations culture and understanding.

Lucky to – here in multicultural Melbourne, but right around the nation – appreciate perspectives from every corner of the planet.

But having been lucky isn’t enough.

We have to work to realise these advantages and to secure a prosperous future.

This means getting our policy settings right, of course.

But it also rests on standing up for who we are.

All of us.

Just a few days ago we saw a small minority - here in Melbourne, but around the country too - attack both the oldest and newest Australians.

Attempting to divide and diminish us.

They won’t succeed.

Because this is not who we are as a country.

We are a diverse country, and our diversity makes us stronger.

I’m proud to represent a large and diverse Indian-Australian community.

I’m proud of and grateful for the contributions of around one million Australians of Indian origin.

I’m excited by the possibilities of our people to people links.

And I’m determined, alongside every member of the Albanese Labor Government, to say to every Australian with links to India – you belong.

And to call out anyone who suggests otherwise.

As Australia’s Skills and Training Minister, I’m really pleased to be here today, to talk with you about my work and that of the Albanese Government – and the role that we can play in this together.

Our Government is firmly focused on skilling Australia’s future.

On how with our partners, both domestically and abroad, we can tackle the challenges facing Australia and realise the opportunities of the decades ahead.

The world is changing and the systems meant to support Australia’s skilled workers to be their best have not always kept up.

Prior to the Albanese Government coming to office, skills and training had suffered. In the decade that the previous government was in office, we saw a failure to recognise the potential of our skills and training systems. This failure carries consequences, for individuals, and for our economy.

Since our Government was first elected, we have made significant progress in turning this around, including through the introduction of Free TAFE, establishing Jobs and Skills Australia and the landmark $30 billion National Skills Agreement.

I come to my role as Skills and Training Minister as someone who wants to solve problems and bring people together.

To ensure we keep turning around the skills shortages Australia is facing, which were at the worst levels we’d seen in half a century at the time of our Government coming to office.

The 2024 Jobs and Skills Report found that 33 per cent of occupations were experiencing national skills shortages.

It is in this area that the Migration Program is helping, especially in boosting key sectors like construction, healthcare, education and engineering.

Research shows that skilled migration, particularly employer-sponsored migration, contributes strongly to productivity by offering a pipeline of skilled workers, and by injecting new ideas and innovation into the labour market.

Ensuring a supply of appropriately skilled workers and matching those skills with jobs remains a key challenge.

Assessing authorities play a role here too.

It’s why our Government has committed to enhancing the integrity, consistency and assurance of these assessing authorities to better unlock the potential of skilled migrants.

In August this year my Department released new Guiding Principles and Standards for Skilled Migration Assessing Authorities.

These were informed by extensive consultations with assessing authorities, industry peaks, unions, employers, migration agents, multicultural groups, and settlement service providers.

I look forward to seeing the positive impact these changes will bring to migrants, employers, and Australia’s workforce, and how they can contribute to building on our relationships with key partners, including India.

There is no doubt that education and skills are cornerstones of the bilateral relationship between Australia and India. They foster enduring connections not only between our countries, but also through our people and our education and training institutions. 

There is great momentum in the engagement between our two countries, and with the investment in the relationship from both ends I am confident this relationship will continue to grow. 

Our Government knows that education and skills are key to building economic prosperity for both Australia and India.

And I recognise that India’s economic vision, Viksit Bharat 2047, seeks to achieve a substantial GDP uplift, with targets ranging from US Dollars 30 trillion to 40 trillion by the year 2047.

To achieve this, India requires partnerships that expand access to workers with the right skills – something that Indian institutions cannot meet alone.

I am particularly focused on how we can better facilitate transnational delivery opportunities for Australian VET providers, and for Australian providers and industry to seek out partnerships in India more broadly.  

A great example of this is the landmark collaboration between Australia’s Kangan Institute, the state Government of Gujarat and the Maruti Suzuki corporation to establish India’s first International Automobile Centre of Excellence.

Another key pillar of the Australia-India skills partnership is the deep and enduring connection forged by Indian students who come to Australia to study.

Indian VET students and graduates are valued members of Australia’s classrooms, communities and workplaces.  

The people-to-people links and mutual understanding that international education fosters is strengthening the broader friendship between our two countries, and supports bilateral trade and investment in both the short and longer term.

Australia continues to be a destination of choice for many Indian students, and India remains Australia’s top source country for international VET students – around one in five international VET students in Australia are from India, which speaks to the nature of the partnership we share.

Towards the end of last year, our Government introduced a new Ministerial Direction on student visa processing, to ensure fair and efficient access to student visa processing across the sector.

To ensure the sustainability of the international education sector, our Government has also committed to legislative reform to strengthen integrity; to combat the exploitation of overseas students; and to address behaviours which seek to abuse the migration system.

Combined with our broader Migration Strategy reforms, the Government’s integrity agenda for international education will ensure a migration program that protects international students, and maintains Australia’s strong reputation as a prestige, high quality study destination.

Australia’s and India’s training systems share many similar features, which create opportunities for cooperation and exchange. We must continue to work together so we can make the most of the systems for both our countries. 

I am pleased that the Indian Minister for Skills, Shri Jayant Chaudhary, is here with us today.

I am looking forward to speaking with him about how our two countries can work more closely together, ahead of the Australia India Education and Skills Council meeting scheduled for this December in India, which I look forward to attending alongside my ministerial colleagues Jason Clare and Julian Hill.

It follows last year’s Council meeting in Sydney, where Minister Clare and I welcomed Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Education, to discuss a range of challenges and opportunities in our education and skills systems.

Since the first meeting of that Council, Australia and India have been building on our bilateral education relationship. This includes:

• completing an agricultural skills mapping project in India;
• continuing to implement the Mechanism for the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications, to expand institutional partnerships and educational mobility; and
• establishing a new STEM research fellowships program for women.

All of this is a demonstration of the interest from both Australia and India to deepen our ties and find ways to work more closely together.

This isn’t only in the skills space – our Government is also seeking to expand our existing trade agreement with India to build on the benefits of our existing agreement, and I know this is something that Trade Minister Don Farrell has identified as an important opportunity for both countries.

Australia and India are close partners, and I’m looking forward to discussing how we can collaborate even more effectively to bridge critical skills gaps and strengthen our relationship.

I thank the Australia India Business Council for facilitating this important discussion and wish you all the best for the rest of the event.

ENDS