Doorstop Interview, Adelaide

STEVE GEORGANAS, MEMBER FOR ADELAIDE: We look at different projects and different training programs which are based in Adelaide, and it's always an opportunity to showcase the great work that Labor is doing in collaboration with the state government, especially in the TAFE area and especially in skills and training. We are a defence building state and of course we're building defence frigates and submarines that will be built here. We're going to need lots and lots of skilled people to take up those positions, and of course TAFE offers those wonderful opportunities.

Since Labor's been in government we've seen more Fee-Free TAFE places. We've seen more TAFE places because we know that this is an opportunity for Australians to skill up and to take part in this wonderful build here in South Australia, the defence building and other areas as well. So today it gives me great pleasure to introduce first up Minister Andrew Giles who will talk to you a little bit more about this area.

ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Thanks very much, Steve. Look, it is great to be back here in Adelaide on such a beautiful day with you and of course with my friend and colleague, Minister Blair Boyer, for a really significant announcement.

Now, in my role as Australia's Minister for Skills and Training, I'm absolutely focused on working with all Australian governments and turning around a skills crisis that's holding us back, which has a particularly strong impact in South Australia for all the reasons Steve highlighted. All of these great opportunities here for South Australians can only be realised if we do a better job of enabling more South Australians to get the skills they want to do those jobs that we need that are so critical to our future. And that's why the National Skills Agreement is so important. A $12.6 billion Commonwealth investment, working with the states and territories to ensure that we're opening up more doors to more Australians, particularly of course South Australians, to get those skills.

And today's announcement is part of that agreement, a really important one, because we recognise we've got to do more to encourage more people to start an apprenticeship or a TAFE course, but we've also got to make sure they get every bit of support so that they can finish it. Today's announcement is a $37 million commitment that is designed to do just that. It builds on the understanding that is found within the South Australian VET system that Blair will speak to shortly, about finding more ways that recognise over a four-year apprenticeship, things happen in people's lives. People do need different supports. People come at their training from different perspectives and encounter different issues across their lives. We need to make sure that we're giving more people more help to get not just the start of their apprenticeship or TAFE course, but to make sure they get to the end of it.

This investment, this 50-50 partnership between the Albanese Government in Canberra and the Malinauskas Government here is about doing just that. I'll hand over to Blair in a moment to talk a little bit about the initiatives that the South Australian government is [indistinct]. I want to highlight behind me as well today, as well as Adam from TAFE SA, we have a couple of apprentices, because today's really about them, about making sure that everyone gets all the support they need to get not just a job, not just a qualification but a great career and a passion to contribute to the fortunes of this great state and to our nation. So Blair, over to you.

BLAIR BOYER, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, TRAINING AND SKILLS: Thanks Steve and thanks Andrew, and Steve's right, Andrew has made an enormous effort since taking on the skills and training portfolio to come to South Australia. He's done it on a number of occasions and I really appreciate his support, including today with this really important announcement which is really about what do we do to tackle the skills crisis which we are still slap bang in the middle of, a national skills crisis. We are not immune to it in South Australia and we have had historically low unemployment over the last couple of years, which of course is a challenge but it's also an opportunity. It's an opportunity for South Australians, particularly young South Australians, that if we can get them the qualifications that they need, there is a great job and there is a great career waiting for them.

But nationally, the completion rate across all forms of vocational education and training hovers at something like 50 per cent. About one in two make it through all the way from commencement to completion. And that is not sustainable. It takes a lot of taxpayer money that goes towards subsidising training courses. And if someone pulls the pin in year one or year two and doesn't walk into a job, it's essentially taxpayer money that's wasted.

So we have been focused here in South Australia, nationally with the support of Minister Giles, on what we can do to not just increase commencements, the number of people who are putting their hand up to start an apprenticeship or a traineeship, but also what we can actually do to increase the number who make it all the way through and complete and find their way into that job that we know so many employers in South Australia are desperately waiting for.

And this announcement today, $37 million out of the National Skills Agreement, a 50-50 contribution from the Albanese and Malinauskas Governments, will go towards more of that support that every training provider and every employer who has apprentices tells me they need more of. And that is that mentoring and support there. When things start to go off the rails, someone to put an arm around their shoulder and say, ‘what can we do to help you?’ Often it might be something that's happened in their personal life, it might be something from outside work. You see in those first two years, particularly in apprenticeship, that's when we see a spike in cancellations and withdrawals. But we know if there is support there for that apprentice or trainee, they can get back on track and they can complete. And I can tell you that although $37 million is a really sizable funding commitment from the Albanese and Malinauskas Governments, it pales into insignificance compared to the cost if we don’t increase our completion rate. The National Skills Agreement that was announced by Andrew’s predecessor, about $2.3 billion over five years, an enormous amount of money, and a lot of it going towards subsidising training courses. But when that subsidised course isn't finished by the person doing it and they don't find their way into the job, then that money has essentially gone to waste. So this is about us using that money more effectively and more efficiently.

In South Australia, it's about making sure that all South Australians get the benefit from this little window of opportunity we have with things like AUKUS decades of work, non-stop North-South Motorway, new Women’s and Children's Hospital, building thousands of new homes, delivering a second year of teacher-led play-based learning starting from January. Different projects, they all share exactly the same challenge: where do we get the workforce from? And this is a government, Andrew’s is a government which is focused on doing something at both ends of that picture – more people choosing VET as a pathway and knowing they don't have to go to university for a great career. More support to make sure if you do choose that pathway, we're going to make sure you get all the way through to completion and into that job.

I'll pass over now to some of our apprentices who are here who might be able to give a bit of a report. Adam, I might go to you first as the Acting Chief Executive of TAFE and then we've got some apprentices who can speak about why this kind of support is so important.

ADAM KILVERT, INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE, TAFE SA: From our perspective at TAFE, we are extremely excited about this funding opportunity, and thank the Commonwealth and state governments for their contributions and investment in the skills sector.

From TAFE SA’s perspective, we are measured by a range of indicators when it comes to success, but arguably, completion rates is one of the most important [indistinct] contributes towards jobs and contributes towards building the skills workforce we need to be able to build our defence industries and construction industries. The investment for TAFE SA requires us to deliver, the investment for TAFE SA will enable us to employ apprentice liaison officers that work directly with apprentices and their employment opportunities to be able to – sorry, I'll start again.

The funding that has been provided to TAFE SA is going to go directly towards employing apprentice liaison officers that can help us connect directly with apprentices and their employers to be able to maximise their completion in their training. That's very important. It will enable us to help them when they need extra supports. It will connect them towards extra student support officers that we have within TAFE SA. And it will also enable us to be able to map when they’re starting to fall behind and work with the employees to get them back on track. So, from that perspective, this funding is critical to be able to enable us to be able to invest directly in the apprentices and help them complete their studies with TAFE SA.

JUSTIN KOENIG, APPRENTICE: In my time already as an apprentice sparky, I've seen how difficult the trade school aspect can be. A lot of difficult maths concepts, a lot of difficult electrical concepts, and I've heard the stories of how people struggle or drop out and end up not finishing their apprenticeship for trade school reasons and other reasons. And I've had personal experience to see how the liaison officers at TAFE can help get you over the edge and just sort of pull in the strings and tighten up the edges to get through. It's been so helpful for me and I'd love to see more people have the opportunity to have a liaison officer assist them through and get them into that job at the end, that's what we all came in to do. And it was just [indistinct] to have something like trade schools, not being able to get to a class being the reason you can't get the job you want to do.

BOYER: Well said.

ABRAHAM THOMASBABU, APPRENTICE: I'm a second year as my journey doing apprenticeship on TAFE. I struggled as a first year, sometimes I even feel like quitting my apprenticeship because of the book work and that, but as my first year I got a lot of help and I got good support and that. And hopefully next year I'll get more support and reach. Everyone's good and TAFE is good for me. And yeah, I love it and I love my apprenticeship.

BOYER: Well said. Very good, gentlemen. Questions for Andrew, me, apprentices, Adam?

JOURNALIST: Just want details, Minister, [indistinct] sand.

BOYER: That’s fine, go for it, yeah.

JOURNALIST: Just give us the latest update.

BOYER: Look, we’ll provide another update online like we have each day, later today. We're starting to get through them quickly now, which is good. Had more contractors come on so we can do pick-ups and do more of the deep clean. So, I'm really pleased with the progress we're making given the magnitude of the job. It is a really, really big task.

The Deputy Chief Executive of the Education Department assures me that it’s the biggest clean-up we've ever had to do in the education system in South Australia, and it's true. So we're getting there. We're going to keep communicating with parents, keep making information available online.

But I want to be clear about how big a job this is given, in the end, we’ve got close to 500 sites just in the public system that had this sand in some way. And that would be the case right across Australia, this stuff is so prevalent. Officeworks, Kmart, Target on shelves, available cheaply, nobody thought there’d be an issue with buying it.

So, it's a huge job but I want South Australian families to be reassured we are taking all this very strong advice from our regulator. I think that would be the gold standard of what we South Australians do about it, what we're doing to provide safe works advice to make sure that we can look families in the eye and say, it's safe, we've cleaned it up and it's back to business as usual.

JOURNALIST: Is it possible to say how long you think the process will take or how much time?

BOYER: Listen, we're going, I'm loathe to do that [indistinct] unless that time changes. But we are certainly going through the pickups of the sealed stuff very quickly now and we are speeding up the deep cleans. So, soon I'll be able to give more accuracy on that, because in the last two days we've been able to sort of onboard more contractors who are licenced to do the work. So we're actually speeding up, not slowing down. So we'll make it all public.

From what I've seen we're the only jurisdiction that's listed every single site publicly and updated that. So we're being absolutely transparent about it [indistinct] could be. I think it's a good thing because I want to let parents know that they should have confidence that we are taking it real seriously.

JOURNALIST: And you've been leading the call for a national inquiry, that's been backed by the ACT now. Do you think that the Government is going to take that more seriously?

BOYER: Listen, the first thing I'd say is I welcome the comments of Minister Rishworth yesterday to say that this stuff's going to have to be tested next time it comes in. That's good. I still think we need an inquiry on it too. I think there are questions that need to be answered about how it got in, a bit more information about what we'll do to stop it coming in again. So what Minister Rishworth said is excellent.

But also a bit of consistency perhaps around how different states and territories are managing it. I think you get a situation where you've got a parent from one state who looks across the border and says, ‘why are they doing something different to us?’ The product is the same, it’s coming from the same place in their jurisdiction. A bit of consistency is good, I'd like to see that too. I'm going to keep calling for it because, putting all those things aside, we're going to have a really big bill that are part of the education and this thing is done.

JOURNALIST: Is it a level playing field? Like, in terms of standards are our standards a lot higher or expectations?

BOYER: I think ours, I think South Australia's have been the highest, I suspect. And I think what we have been required to do is a big gold standard. It's a good thing for South Australian parents, but there will be a very, very big cost attached to that. And we are, as I said, biggest clean-up we've ever had to do, we're throwing everything at this to make sure we can do it quickly, safely. We’re trying to make sure that young people don't miss out on the last three weeks of the 2025 school year as well. So, no, we're jumping over a very, very high bar here.

JOURNALIST: Would you welcome some money from the feds then? If it’s –

BOYER: The answer to that is always yes. It’s always yes, [indistinct]

JOURNALIST: Do you think that is fair?

BOYER: I would like to see the companies who made the stuff and allowed natural asbestos to get into a product that's made for very young kids to be contributing to all this cost. That's where I think money should be coming from. People can make this stuff and market it, export it, winds up in our shelves. They make an absolute motza of it and then they walk away while the rest of us do the clean-up and have to talk to worried parents about it.

My own kids go to a school that's got this stuff. So I feel this is a parent and as the Minister for Education. So I plan on, as soon as I can, giving more detail around exactly what the cost is for the deep cleans, for pick-ups, for air testing in places where we have to do that. They all come with a cost that will have to be borne, ultimately, by the South Australian taxpayer.

JOURNALIST: Schoolies.

BOYER: Yes.

JOURNALIST: What is your message to school leavers who are planning a party?

BOYER: Listen, it's a time of great excitement and celebration. I remember that from when I finished high school, and that was 25 years ago. I just want people to be safe and enjoy it. Don't be, in 10 years’ time, looking back on this weekend thinking I really wish I hadn't done that. Make decisions that are good for you and good for the mates around you. Make sure it’s a time you can look back on it in the future and say that was so fun and enjoyable, didn't do anything stupid.

Hopefully the weather's good, people have a great time. We've expanded the bus service more than we ever have, we have free bus pick-up from not just metropolitan areas but regional areas so young people can get there without having to drive. Just think about your mates, think about the decisions you make. Make sure next week when it's over, you look back and say that was all fantastic.

JOURNALIST: There was an incident on 30 October I believe in regards to a private school child, a year one student, who was left behind after an excursion. This has happened recently in a public school as well. What's your concern with this? Do we need to have a look at protocols surrounding both public and private schools with excursions?

BOYER: I'd say, protocol wise, the protocols are very clear. That's not to minimise what's happening at all. These are serious things. If it was your child, you'd be asking questions. I get that and I've had to answer those questions as a Minister for Education before.

But also, say, having, knowing educators and staff as well as I do after four years of this job, there'll be someone there who's feeling really, really terrible today about what took place. Our staff do empathise and take it on board when mistakes like this happen. So although it's serious, it's looks to me like the school has responded in a serious way, and that's a good thing.

JOURNALIST: It's pretty terrifying. What's your reaction after hearing it?

BOYER: Oh, of course it is. If it was your own child, you’d be worried. When I hear that as Education Minister, it concerns me too. I understand the natural reaction about things like that, particularly when those children are young.

But I've heard the response of the school, they've notified parents, that's a good thing, transparency is a good thing. Because, yes, you have to fess up to something unpleasant that's happened, but you can also build confidence to say, here are the things that we're putting in place to make sure it doesn't here are the things that we're putting in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. When you don't do that, in that vacuum of information for parents, I think, more and more worry grows. So that's the right response, but of course, we never seek to minimise the impact these things have.

JOURNALIST: Just one final question on this. The demand for those specialist cleaners, are you confident that you have enough staff to work through this workload?

BOYER: I am now. A couple of days ago my answer might have been a bit different because we have a limited number of them. I think every state and territory would, because they have to be licenced to deal with this product. And that's the right thing. It can't be just anyone coming in to pick it up or anyone [indistinct]. The Department of Education and Department of Transport have done some excellent work to get all of those on board and now we are doing [indistinct] off the shelf.

The good thing is, very soon we’ll be able to look parents in the eye and say, your school has been thoroughly, thoroughly cleaned to the highest standard. But yes, it's been, this has been a really challenging week for us. It's been a very challenging week for me, I have to say, dealing with this. The asbestos word is, puts the fear of God, I think, into everybody, I understand that. Despite the fact that this is really low risk, the public reacts in a way that you can understand. And from my perspective, the question that a lot of us will be asking is how, 22 years after we passed national rules to say no product with asbestos can come into this country, does a of naturally occurring asbestos that's made for kids wind up on the shelves of major retailers like Target and Kmart and Officeworks? I'd like to [indistinct] answers.

ENDS