Just as TAFE is a proudly Australian story, it is a key to a better Australian future.
TAFE opens doors and gives Australians one of the greatest opportunities they have - not just to fulfil their potential, but expand it.
And in the process, Australia fulfils more of its own vast potential.
It is a home-grown solution to the skills gaps hampering business and hurting the economy.
Getting TAFE right means we're better placed to get the future right.
That is why our government is taking our commitment to free TAFE a crucial step further by making it permanent.
We will legislate to guarantee 100,000 free TAFE places nationwide every year.
That means more tradies to build more homes. More apprentices getting a start.
More carers to look after our loved ones, whether they're just starting out on life's journey or have a respectable bit of mileage on the clock.
And it will equip Australians to enhance their own skills and adapt to the economy as it keeps evolving.
What a boon this will be for Australia.
My government made it a priority to put public TAFE back at the centre of vocational education and training.
And our game-changing investment in free TAFE is already delivering results.
More than half a million Australians have already enrolled in free courses.
Crucially, one in every three places have been taken up by people in regional communities.
People are training to become electricians in Belmont. They're training to become nurses in Loganlea. They're training to become early childhood educators in Batchelor, Cairns and Frankston.
And, at the new TAFE Centres of Excellence in the Hunter Valley and Western Sydney, they're training for the good jobs that will help Australia manufacture things here at home again.
We've had 35,000 enrol in construction courses, 35,000 in early education, 50,000 in digital technology, and 130,000 in aged care and disability care.
Tens of thousands of jobseekers are getting a fresh start. Hundreds of thousands of young people are training for a new career, and older workers are training for a new opportunity.
These are not just numbers. Each one is a story of individuals and families. A story about the joy of achievement, and the satisfaction and reward of meaningful work. And it's a story about stronger, happier communities and a healthier, more diverse economy.
Our investment sends a clear message to each and every person enrolled: we back you. We support your education. We support your aspiration. And we want you to get that qualification to help build the life you want.
The positive, life-changing consequences of free TAFE are such a no-brainer that it takes an ideology without heart to oppose it.
Yet that is exactly what the Coalition parties have revealed about themselves through their snobbery and sneering at TAFE.
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said the quiet part out loud in Parliament this week when she said this: "It's a key principle and tenet of the Liberal Party: if you don't pay for something, you don't value it."
What an extraordinarily out-of-touch thing to say. They believe nothing in life can possibly be of any value unless you've got a receipt for it.
Tells you everything you need to know about what a profound and disturbing threat the Coalition are to proudly Australian achievements like Medicare and public education.
They don't back TAFE. They never will.
The truth is that no matter how high TAFE helps you climb in life, and no matter what opportunities you get to build a future for yourself and your loved ones, the Liberals and Nationals will look down on the very education that gave you a boost to get there.
I only hope they can open their eyes to the central place TAFE occupies in the Australian government invests in education, all Australians benefit.
This opinion piece was first published in The Canberra Times on Monday, 25 November 2024.
