Doorstop Interview - Melbourne
SARAH WITTY, MEMBER FOR MELBOURNE: I'm Sarah Witty, the Member for Melbourne and I'm here today in Prahran, where behind us we have a building site of 155 new social and affordable homes.
We know in Australia we need to build more homes, and we need the apprentices to do that. So I'm pleased to have Minister Giles with me here today to talk about what the Albanese Government is doing to support apprenticeships.
ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Thanks very much Sarah. It's great to be here with you, and before I start, can I say, while people see the extraordinary campaign you ran to return Melbourne to Labor, people perhaps haven't seen the extraordinary contribution you've been making each and every day, standing up for your constituents and their values in the Parliament.
So it's great to be standing here with you. And we're standing here to recognise that we are embracing the challenge of ensuring that every Australian can get the skills they want for the jobs that we need doing, including, of course, housing construction in places like here in Prahran, next to this really important development.
When we came into Government, just over three years ago, Australia confronted the worst skill shortage in half a century. And this was impacting every element of Australian life.
Free TAFE has been a big element of our Government’s response to deal with the skills shortage across our economy, and statistics released today demonstrate what an impact it is having. We now know that there have been 685,000 enrolments in Free TAFE around the country since 2023.
And we know that 190,000 courses have already been completed, many people are getting to work already. And these aren’t just numbers. These are lives that are being transformed and industries being supported.
Critical industries like early childhood education and care, like the care sector, and of course, like construction where there have been more 52,000 enrolments in construction-related courses, so we can, as Sarah was just highlighting, get on with building the homes that Australians need.
Free TAFE has been a runaway success but it can't be taken for granted because we are confronted with Sussan Ley leading a Coalition that is committed to cuts. Before the election Ms Ley as the Shadow Minister said, ‘if you don't pay for something, you don't value it’.
This was a statement that demonstrated complete contempt for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who’ve embraced the opportunities presented to them by Free TAFE. To get important skills and to make a contribution to our economy and our society.
But since the election it's become clear that she hasn't listened to what the Australian people said on May the 2nd and she hasn’t learned. Her comments to SEDA last week indicate that the Coalition is committed to cuts to programs like Free TAFE.
To cuts that are denying Australians the opportunity to get skills they want for jobs we need. It's very clear that only Labor will stand up for skilling Australia's future. Only Labor will defend Free TAFE and the opportunities it presents for hundreds of thousands of Australians.
JOURNALIST: Which specific courses have had the greatest take up?
GILES: The biggest take up has been in the care sector. We've had nearly 200,000 enrolments, enabling people to get to work in aged care and disability support and areas like that, that are so fundamentally important to improving the lives of Australians.
But as I said, there's also been a really strong take up of construction-related courses, including pre-apprenticeship places which are creating a great pipeline for our tradies of the future.
JOURNALIST: Minister if I can ask you about another matter, there are revelations in The Age newspaper this morning that the union leader backed by the Albanese Government to reform the CFMEU directed a subordinate to secretly meet alone with Mick Gatto.
Does the Government still have faith in the administration after those revelations?
GILES: These are really concerning reports and let me be clear at the outset that the Albanese Government takes a zero tolerance approach to any instances of criminality or other wrongdoing in the construction industry.
That's why we took this decisive and indeed unprecedented step to appoint the administration. I note that in respect of the allegations you’ve just referred to, that the administrator has already made a very strong statement in response to that.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Zach Smith should keep his job?
GILES: These are matters for the administrator, Mark Irving QC as I say has issued a very strong statement with respect to the allegations that you reported.
JOURNALIST: And Mick Gatto’s been a long time industry fixer, is he someone that union officials should be dealing with?
GILES: I think I've been clear in articulating the Government’s [indistinct] need to have a zero tolerance approach to the sort of conduct which led to the appointment of the administrator.
We recognise as a Government that there is a big bit of work, a big bit of cultural work that is required to do in the construction industry. That's why Minister Rishworth brought together industry figures, union figures and Ministers such as myself a couple of weeks ago in the National Construction Industry Forum, to demonstrate our resolve to ensure that this industry is turned around, that the Australian community can have confidence in.
JOURNALIST: So does the Government still trust this administration to carry out the job?
GILES: The work of the administration will take time, [indistinct] Mark Irving KC and his team have got a really critical bit of work to turn around the union, and indeed the culture in the industry more broadly.
ENDS