Interview with Richard King - 2HD Newcastle

RICHARD KING, HOST: A lot of people like to hear that, more tradies to build our homes, we certainly need them.

The Minister responsible for overseeing this is the Minister for Skills and Training, that's Minister Andrew Giles, who's on the line. Good morning, Minister.

MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING ANDREW GILES: Good morning, Richard, great to be chatting with you.

KING: Yeah, nice to talk to you. How did you go in the Melbourne Cup yesterday?

GILES: Well, I've got to say I was a bit more focused on Question Time than the horse race, so that means that I didn't lose my money as I generally do.

KING: Yeah. Well, Michael McCormack, did a phantom race call, which was quite amusing, again yesterday.

GILES: Well, it's a great skill set. I think I agree with the Prime Minister though; that he can do it is amazing, but we could give him a bit of help with the content next time.

KING: Okay. A basic question: what's the rationale between 100,000 extra Fee‑Free TAFE places on an annual basis if you're re-elected next year?

GILES: What we've seen is extraordinary demand amongst Australians to get skills through Fee‑Free TAFE so far. More than half a million, in fact around 30,000 in the Hunter region have leapt at this opportunity, and these aren't just any skills, they are courses that we, the Commonwealth and the States have recognised as leading to jobs we need now and jobs we're going to need in the future; areas like construction, like the care sector, like digital industries, so it's been absolutely essential to get our skills moving, noting that when we came into Government we had the worst skills crisis in 50 years.

We know that much of what we want to do in terms of building Australians' future requires giving Australians the skills they need for the jobs that have been generating the economy. Fee‑Free TAFE has been an extraordinary success in that regard. We want to make sure that that continues in the future.

KING: All right. Immigration, certainly a very hot topic, and obviously Fee‑Free TAFE places, you can't train tradies overnight. In the meantime do we need to bring in more skilled workers to try and get our building and construction rate up?

GILES: What we really need is the workforce, and there will be a role for skilled migration. I think in the last year we issued the largest number of visas for construction workers ever, around about 11,000, and certainly the largest number in at least a decade. So that's making a contribution.

But we want to train Australians, we want to open the door to rewarding, well‑paid secure jobs in construction, which young people want, and particularly trying to get more women involved in the industry. So training Australians is critical, but there will be a role for skilled migration too, to deal with some of these temporary shortages.

KING: All right. Now these Fee‑Free TAFE places, the other part of the - well, one of the announcements made in Adelaide by the Prime Minister was this reduction by 20 per cent in HECS debt. That also, I gather, applies to TAFE debts as well, Minister?

GILES: Yeah, it does. The large majority of the debt is held by people who are studying or have been studying at a university, but there's also people that have taken out Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans or VET Student Loans, so it does help people studying trades courses as well as university degrees.

KING: Right. And look, the argument from the Coalition has been, "Oh, this is just a cash splash, you're throwing money out there", and the argument's been, rather than reduce HECS debts what would be better is to reduce the cost of higher education. What's your response to that?

GILES: Well, coming from the Coalition, that's a pretty odd argument as they of course increased the cost of higher education quite recently while they were in Government. So I think we can put that to one side.

I think the real issue here is we've got 3 million Australians with HECS debts, many of whom are doing it tough, and this decision to do two things, to wipe $16 billion in debt for them and increase the threshold for repayment will make a really big difference to enable people to keep studying and to really send a very strong signal that education is an absolute priority; it's the way in which we change lives individually and the way in which we build Australia's future.

And of course this builds on other changes we've made including to the rate of - proposed change to the rate of indexation, recognising that, you know, young people in particular as they're seeking to establish themselves in life and in their careers at the moment need a bit more help.

KING: I think Jane Hume's argument, the Opposition finance spokesperson, all you're doing is shifting debt from a small group of Australians to a much larger group, ie or eg, the rest of us taxpayers. What's your response to that?

GILES: Well, that's the opposite of the argument she put against our approach to deliver tax cuts for every taxpayer when we made that change at the beginning of the year. What we recognise in the Labor Party, and what this change recognises is when it comes to education, there is an individual benefit that the individual accrues by getting their degree or their trade qualification, but there's also a national benefit. We want to encourage people to be skilled up.

Nine out of 10 jobs that are being generated in the Australian economy right now, Richard, require a post‑school qualification, about half of them university and half of them trade. We want to encourage people down that path so that they can get a secure future, but also so that our national future and prosperity is assured.

KING: Right. Just clarifying, if re-elected, you'll legislate permanent Fee‑Free TAFE courses, 100,000 every year.

GILES: We’ll put the bill in, in this term of Parliament before the end of the year, and there's a real choice for the Coalition here: are they going to federally support the extension of Fee‑Free TAFEs? It's a partnership between the Commonwealth Government at the moment and every State and Territory Government, Labor and Liberal. Are they going to do that, or are they going to cut this, are they going to say no, and slam the door to aspiration to the Australians like the 508,000 who've already embraced this opportunity?

KING: 14 past 7, Wednesday morning with Richard King. My guest, Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles. Look, I can't avoid the flight upgrades. I know this yesterday popped up that the WA Premier, Roger Cook, has admitted that he forgot to put on the register the fact that he does have membership in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge. He's admitted that, when asked though, several weeks ago.

Do you think it's much ado about nothing, all this kerfuffle about the flight upgrades, or do you think that there is a genuine perhaps conflict of interest if people are taking, particularly politicians, taking freebies for a company, particularly in that the thing that's been focused on is the refusal to allow Qatar Airlines further flights into Australia. Do you think it is an issue or much ado about nothing?

GILES: There's a few things, I think, to say about that. I won't comment on Premier Cook's circumstances. I heard of the report earlier this morning, but I'm just not aware of the details. I guess, for myself, I think what's really important is transparency, and that's something that the Prime Minister has demonstrated, something I think that's really important for all of us. I think transparency is absolutely critical to maintaining a sense of integrity in public life, and Australians are entitled to expect that.

But what I will say is this: that all the issues that people have been talking to me about in my community, and as I've been going around the country, they are much, much more focused on the things that Government is doing to assist with the cost of living, to make sure that Medicare is strong, and access to primary healthcare is there, that we have a plan for our future, than any of these issues.

KING: You've received a number of upgrades, which you've declared. I think Jason Clare admitted that he did solicit one for a private flight. Have you solicited any upgrades with Qantas?

GILES: No, I haven't, nor with ‑ and I've had a couple of Virgin too, they were unsolicited and have been declared. It's my practice to fly economy, so I guess that probably makes it slightly more likely.

I think Jason's circumstances, he's explained. They were quite unusual, related to a health issue.

KING: Yeah. The hot topic at the moment other than the Melbourne Cup yesterday is the US Election. We'll no doubt be getting some results probably by around about our lunchtime, and look, obviously as part of the Government you've looked at all the possible implications, ramifications, depending on who does win, and I'm assuming most people seem to think that if Kamala Harris does win, it will be steady as show goes, the song remains the same, and you've obviously, as a government, looked at the possible impact of a Donald Trump Presidency. What do you see as the major effect on Australia if Donald Trump is elected as the US President, Minister? 

GILES: Well, our relationship with the United States is fundamentally important, of course, to us and to the world, so this is an election that everyone will be watching very closely.

One thing that you will have seen, and Australians will have observed from his very first day as Prime Minister, is how adept Anthony Albanese has been at navigating relationships with critical international leaders, and you can see the work, obviously, that the Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, and the Deputy Prime Minister has done.

I'm very confident that - well, about two things; one, the American people, of course, are best placed to determine their democratic future, and they'll do so over the course of the next however many hours, and we'll all be paying close attention to that.

But the Australian Government will work closely with whoever is in Government in the United States.

KING: And Kevin Rudd will remain as our Ambassador to the USA?

GILES: Well, that's a decision, of course, for us, and I think they're quite clear about that.

KING: Yeah, all right. Thank you very much for your time this morning, Minister, and have a great Wednesday.

GILES: You too, Richard. Great to be talking with you.