McKell Institute, Sydney

Acknowledgements omitted

In this speech I want to talk about the role of skills and training in the success of what must be a long-term Labor government.

About what we’ve done, what we are doing – and what this means.

Contributing to building a future worthy of the Australian people.

Though this is a policy challenge first and foremost – I believe it goes to the heart of the political challenge the centre left confronts too.

This reflects the key point made by the Prime Minister in addressing the United Nations last year, in the context of a changing world order. 

There, he said this: ‘if our only response to every crisis is to insist that there is nothing we can do, then we risk being trusted with nothing.’

The Canadian Prime Minister Carney echoed this analysis in Davos in January, in which he stressed that ‘Nostalgia is not a strategy.’

He’s right – it’s not. It can’t be.

The politics of a better yesterday, tomorrow is a dead-end street.

It talks Australia, and Australians, down.

And it’s naive as well as defeatist to presume we can wind back the clock.

As centre-left leaders remind us, old certainties are crumbling. 

We can no longer rely on global stability.

Closer to home, the rapid development of AI, demographic ageing, intergenerational inequity and cost of living pressures challenge how we see ourselves and our prospects.

There’s a vital role for government to face these facts and to back in Australians to face the future.

To respond to the urgent pressures of the moment, while looking ahead.

In this regard skills policy is so important.

It inherently looks forward, not back.

Our skills and training system connects individual aspiration to our national goals.

And I think it can do even more than that.

Skills and training is an equaliser as well as an enabler – equipping Australians – both young and old – to navigate a changing world on their terms, while giving us, collectively, the best shot at achieving our potential.

Done well, skills policies strengthen the fabric of our democracy.

In these remarks, I want to focus first on what good should look like, in terms of our national approach to skills and training – then explore the wider benefits of getting this right.

In 2022, the Albanese Government inherited the worst skills shortage in my lifetime and a broken skills system.

There is, of course, a close correlation between the two!

Thanks to the work started by my friend Brendan O’Connor, we are turning this around.

The landmark National Skills Agreement is a vital framework for cooperation, setting out shared goals and the means to achieve these.

For Australia, and to benefit more Australians.

Jobs and Skills Australia is a national asset we can be proud of, delivering insight and analysis driving our policy work and deepening our national understanding of the changes in our labour market.

And demonstrating that our efforts are leading to the number of occupations in shortage coming down.

The ten Jobs and Skills Councils are industry-led tripartite bodies that bring together the breadth of perspectives necessary to maintain the currency of our skills, and a sense of shared ownership of upskilling and reskilling in a changing world of work.

It’s been three years since the national rollout of Free TAFE commenced.

And now, Free TAFE is legislated as an ongoing public good.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that Free TAFE stands at 742,000 enrolments, with course completions currently sitting at almost a quarter of a million. All of these in areas leading to good jobs in areas of need.

Hundreds of thousands of lives changed, as well as roles filled.

Like Naomi from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, who I met a few weeks ago. 

She was so proud to tell me about how her Certificate III in Individual Support is opening up a new career in home care. 

She saw the incredible work of carers and nurses who looked after her husband and mother during health challenges, and was inspired to follow in their footsteps.

Without Free TAFE, Naomi’s pathway wouldn’t have been possible.

Just one of thousands of stories of connection: back into education, into work or to a different job.

Made possible by government policy that really is life-changing, and to a politics with a purpose.

Last year at the National Press Club I set out three priorities that reflect my work as Minister for Skills and Training.

To break down the barriers that artificially divide higher education and vocational education and training.

To grow and enhance the role of lifelong learning in our nation’s success.

And to build upon the partnerships that drive progress in skilling Australia’s future.

Further to this, last year Skills Ministers agreed on three new areas of shared focus:

• better aligning training system capacity to the needs of critical sectors;
• strengthening the connections between VET and higher education, and
• building national AI capability to support effective adoption and boost productivity.

So, how are we going with all this?

In these remarks, I won’t try to cover everything but rather to highlight some key themes.

Firstly, I want to explore two aspects of our drive to secure a parity of esteem between VET and higher education pathways – the efforts we have been making to encourage more Australians to look to vocational pathways, and our progress to a joined up tertiary education system.

Free TAFE has a huge impact, demonstrating that when given the opportunity Australians will jump at the chance to pursue qualifications for careers that we rely on every day – in nursing and the care economy, in construction, manufacturing, tech and more.

Having TAFE at the heart of VET means having a trusted public institution delivering public goods at scale – touching lives and shaping communities.

And our efforts to reform apprenticeships are having a real impact. 

The Key Apprenticeship Program is a good example of targeted support.

Incentive payments are backing new apprentices to get their start in housing construction or new energy jobs – and their employers too.

It’s early days, especially for the housing construction stream, but we’re already seeing Australians take up the opportunities the program offers.

11,000 new housing construction apprenticeships in just the first six months.

And 17,000 new energy apprenticeships over the three years that program has been running – with a twelve-month retention rate sitting at around 88 per cent, higher than retention rates we’ve seen previously.

So: more carpenters, sparkies and plumbers to build the homes Australians need.

Meaning more apprentices building their skills at the forefront of new clean technologies.

We’re not doing this to return to an imagined good old days – it’s to carve out pathways to jobs of the future, making the earn and learn model relevant to contemporary circumstances. Easing cost of living pressures, recognising different ways of learning and centring on the apprenticeship experience.

Meanwhile, the interim Australian Tertiary Education Commission has been working at pace in developing a Tertiary Roadmap.

Reinforcing that parity of esteem, enabling learners to shape pathways that work for them in a changing world of work.

The Productivity Commission last year released their report into Building an Adaptable and Skilled Workforce.

It included a stark reminder of the cost of missing this opportunity – that in a year nearly a million Australians had sought to study for a non-school qualification but couldn’t primarily because of time and financial constraints.

A million Australians, frustrated in their efforts to take their education and training further.

The Productivity Commission highlighted how harmonising tertiary pathways can cut time and cost. For example, a Diploma to Bachelor of IT takes four years and costs $36,000. 

Under a harmonised system, it’s a year shorter and about $9,000 cheaper.

One example of significant cost and time savings – and addressing concerns of younger Australians around career progression in a jobs market they recognise as fragmented.

Progressing tertiary harmonisation, recognising that people’s different life courses mean different pathways and looking to boost our trades training capacity to respond to increasing demand with programs like the Key Apprenticeship Program are critical initiatives for individual pathways and to meet skills shortages that affect us all.

Now, we have more and more Australians looking to pursue nation-building careers – we must keep working to ensure their aspirations aren’t held up by systems that can’t keep up.

On partnerships, it’s trite but still important to note that the Commonwealth does very little by itself in the skills space.

It was the agreement of all Skills Ministers, for example, that led to the adoption of new areas of focus – and of course to the National Skills Agreement itself!

And something that’s fundamental is the approach we have taken to meeting our skills challenges is to link national priorities to individual opportunities.

As we seek to turn around a skills crisis a generation in the making, at a time when fiscal pressures also demand attention.

Looking forward, we need to get our federation working more effectively, building on the foundations of the NSA, and we need to make the most of tripartism.

Especially when it comes to AI in the workplace.

It’s not just the world around us that’s changing, fast.

The world of work is transforming too, particularly through technology. 

AI is changing how we work, and obviously this process has a long way to go.

I’m determined to put in place policies and measures that support Australians to navigate these disruptions on their terms.

No one should be left behind.

Because the Australian way demands a fair go.

And, frankly, without engaging workers in this process, we won’t secure the full gamut of the productivity gains AI can help us achieve.

As a recent United Nations report highlights, much of these gains remains dependent on how different countries prepare for and embrace AI. 

Ultimately, they put the success of this down to how AI fits in alongside strengthening the skills of a country’s workforce, how digital infrastructure is established to grow alongside change, and how competition and collaboration is fostered.

My colleagues Tim Ayres and Andrew Charlton have recognised this and are focused on our national interests being met – reflecting fairness, decency and progressive common sense.

Tripartite skills structures are so important in this regard.

Because if workers aren’t brought into the discussion about how AI can augment the work they do, we simply won’t realise potential productivity benefits on the one hand – and will deepen alienation and suspicion on the other.

Research from Jobs and Skills Australia shows that businesses get the best return on AI when they involve their workers. 

Because workers need confidence that they are not just training their own replacement but are contributing to the business’ ongoing success.

Amanda Rishworth is looking closely at this through the tripartite AI Working Group, bringing together unions, government and employers. 

Getting them around the same table to work through the risks and develop shared solutions – together.

This is just one of the ways our Government is looking at our current workplace frameworks and legislation, to ensure they are fit for purpose for the expansion of AI in the workplace.

And our Jobs and Skills Councils promote the experience and understanding the workers have, and so enable a genuine stake in the effective adoption of technology.

I’ve spoken before of the opportunity that Future Skills Organisation is leading through their partnership with Microsoft. 

Their Skills Accelerator AI project only launched in August last year, and yet we’ve already seen a promising start through projects bringing together business, VET institutions, unions and employers to identify, test and evaluate ideas that will shift the dial.

It’s one thing to assert that generative AI will augment rather than replace most jobs, another to make this real to workers in their workplaces.

So, as we seek to ensure that, across all industries and settings, our settings enable workers to effectively upskill and reskill in ways that reflect their understandings and respect their concerns about how change is to be navigated. 

A good society is a place where no one is left behind.

Too many Australians have been – and, unsurprisingly, they tend to be those who are looking to populist alternatives.

I’ve previously expressed my concern that there are around one in five Australian adults who’ve missed out when it comes to developing the foundation skills they need to navigate much of daily life.

But this estimate is inadequate and outdated in two respects. 

Firstly, the figure I just cited – our most recent – dates back to 2012, because the Coalition withdrew Australia from the PIAAC global research pact. 

Our Government has sensibly rejoined the pact, with results from this current round expected in 2029, while Jobs and Skills Australia is due to report on a national survey of literacy and numeracy skills later this year.

Secondly, the skills a worker and a citizen needs are changing.

Technology is at the heart of this.

Not only is it the case that digital skills are now every bit as foundational as traditional literacy and numeracy, but the evolution of AI necessitates urgent attention.

Foundation skills are about much more than connecting people to the labour market.

It is an economic necessity to equip Australians to participate in the labour market, of course. And to get our productivity moving, to secure our living standards.

But it is also a moral and a democratic imperative that we ensure that everyone can make sense of a changing world and be enabled to make informed choices.

About the news in their feed.

The response to their prompt.

Decisions made affecting them.

Fundamentally, about being empowered and being connected.

Understanding AI, and understanding how to use it safely as well as productively, is a core ambition.

More generally, our commitment to lifelong learning means standing with and for Australians so that change isn’t simply something that happens to them – it’s a process they can be part of navigating.

No one left behind.

Right now, many Australians are focused on immediate cost of living pressures, and struggle to see the path ahead.

Younger people feel – understandably – the weight of intergenerational inequality.

We – decision-makers – can’t ignore this, nor wish it away.

So the choice for those in politics is how we respond.

In the Albanese Government, we don’t think this is as good as it gets.

Through the decisions we’ve taken, we know we are making a difference.

Getting wages moving and more people in work.

Delivering urgent care clinics and making bulk billing a reality once more.

Securing tax relief that’s fairer.

Cutting student debt.

And investing in Australians through early education and childcare reforms; implementing Gonski’s vision for equitable schools funding; the ambitions for tertiary attainment set out in the Universities Accord – and our plans to skill Australia’s future.

We’ve made progress but our foot remains firmly on the accelerator.

We have to keep going, to restore the promise Labor and the labour movement have focused on since the 19th century – to enlarge our national prospects, and to expand the prospects of every Australian.

With more than 9 in 10 new jobs requiring tertiary qualifications, and with digital connections so fundamental to everyday life, a relentless focus of skills acquisition and development through lifelong learning underpins all our ambitions for Australia, and Australians.

Evidence has shown that boosting foundation skills leads to greater earnings for individuals, and that it also boosts GDP and productivity.

This is likely to increase through the proliferation of AI.

And confidence in social and community life, as well as in accessing economic opportunities, is fundamental to a sense of connection and inclusion.

To belonging.

The Labor approach to skills is about empowering Australians, to bring out our best.

But there’s another path.

That of cynicism.

And pessimism.

Reactionary populists here and around the world are taking that path.

One Nation and those in the Liberals and Nationals cosying up to them seek to exploit real sentiments of frustration in people who are, or sense they could be, being left behind.

Without offering anything by way of vision, much less policies for the future.

Calls from the likes of Advance and Senator Price to ‘make Australia Great Again’ sum this up.

Andrew Hastie, too, who wanted an economic portfolio but who always turns to the divisive rhetoric of imported culture wars.

Senator Hume, apparently a moderate, who effectively admits defeat when she floats preferencing One Nation.

The Liberals and Nationals borrow from populists in the US, the UK and Europe because they have run out of ideas.

And out of confidence in the unique promise of Australia.

When we have a story that is not only stronger, it’s ours.

At its core, the Albanese Government’s approach to skills and training says that we’re for Australia, and Australians.

Fundamentally, to ensure that every Australian believes that they matter, they are listened to and that our democracy works in their interests.

Our opponents have always looked back – as the Prime Minister has often observed, that’s fine for them. The problem is that they want to drag the rest of us back with them.

Nostalgia can’t be the answer – it’s defeatism pretending to be patriotism.

This is not to suggest that history doesn’t matter. 

Being proud of our country should mean being able to see it as it was, as it is – and how good it can be.

Taking on board the lessons of our past, without airbrushing the bits that might feel uncomfortable.

Because things like the White Australia Policy, the denial of citizenship to First Nations Australians and myriad discriminations against women all happened.

For several decades, the labour movement has been at the forefront of efforts to redress those injustices.

By understanding how we got to be here today, we can better prepare for tomorrow: to defend the very idea of a fairer future, that we get to make ourselves, on our terms.

That idea, the possibility of progress, is so important.

It’s what our opponents are determined to undermine, or to deny.

It’s what my approach to skills and training is all about.

Connecting aspiration to opportunity, giving people the capacity to navigate change with confidence – it’s nation building.

It’s community strengthening.

It’s empowering.

Rejecting the destructive and divisive notion that our future has already been made for us.

Because it hasn’t.

The antidote to cynicism and pessimism is hope.

But this can’t be something that’s abstract – it has to be tangible.

As Free TAFE has been, opening doors that otherwise would have stayed shut, for people like Naomi.

Doors to new jobs, new careers and new possibilities.

All of these making a difference to our fellow Australians.

More homes, better care, self-reliance.

There’s no silver bullet to a fairer future but skilling Australians can play a big role.

Through our approach to skills we say to Australians, young and not-so-young, that we are on their side.

That we believe in them.

And through the measures we put in place, that our democracy can work – for them.

That real concerns and anxieties can be first listened to, and then addressed.

By public institutions that effectively respond to real needs – our TAFEs.

Trust in institutions is more important than ever before, given the scale of the changes countries and communities are navigating.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians have, or are experiencing the impact of Free TAFE.

Gaining skills, gaining confidence, gaining connections.

And building trust in a system that they can relate to.

A trust that paves the way to a sense of their potential.

And our potential.

A future to be excited about, not resigned to.

The point Prime Minister Carney makes is the choice we face is whether to submit to power or to seek to constrain and shape its exercise. 

He’s right.

Do we – as our opponents would have it – look for someone to blame?

Or, do we look for someone and some way to help?

That’s always been the path to the light on the hill.

As our Prime Minister also said at the United Nations: ‘More than ever, we must choose to succeed together rather than risk failing alone.’

Choosing to succeed together.

Committing to a future that is made by and for Australians.

Realising by far our greatest national asset – the Australian people, in all our diversity.

Recognising and responding to the challenges of inequality and insecurity by redistributing power by supporting everyone to get the skills they want, and need.

For a good job, a decent life, and to make a contribution to our ongoing Australian story.

ENDS