Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) 18:17 As I've said in this House previously, I'm a proud former TAFE teacher and a mum of two apprentice chippies, and that's why I take every opportunity to champion TAFE and to celebrate the successes of our wonderful TAFE students.
Just last week I was thrilled to meet two inspiring young locals from my electorate as we welcomed home the Australian Skillaroos from the WorldSkills international competition in France. The competitions shines a light on TAFE students like Michael Bowen, an apprentice at QinetiQ Air Affairs in Nowra, who competed in the industrial mechanics event. It celebrates on the world stage the excellence and innovation of TAFE students like Michael stage. I was also thrilled to meet gold-medal-winning Skillaroo Jyothi Collins, who works at Georgies Fine Jewellery in Batemans Bay and was chosen as the competition's jewellery expert of the year. How good is that? These two students demonstrate just how learning at TAFE can change lives and put young people on a pathway to success. Whether our kids or grandkids want to become a tradie, a child carer, a nurse, a computer programmer or even a cybersecurity expert, TAFE provides that opportunity.
Earlier this month I visited the Nowra TAFE campus with the Acting Prime Minister. We went into electrical and carpentry classes. We spoke with students and heard how fee-free TAFE is providing that bit of important financial relief and also allowing people to retrain. It's fantastic to see these classes booming in Nowra, and it was very reassuring to hear stories from the students about how and why they chose an apprenticeship and how fee-free TAFE is helping.
I'm really pleased to see that the TAFE certificate II in aeroskills is also fee free, encouraging local people to seek a career as an avionics maintainer to support defence industry jobs locally. Last month, I joined the federal Minister for Skills and Training to meet twins Najara and Harrisen, both first-year motor mechanic apprentices at Batemans Bay Automotive Repairs. The siblings travel to Nowra TAFE once a week and are looking forward to one day taking the helm of their family business. TAFE is providing them with the variety of skills needed to do just that.
We met Robert Beattie, a huge supporter of young people and TAFE, who has supervised an incredible 45 apprentice carpenters at Beach House Stairs at Batemans Bay. We chatted to apprentices Nathan, Nicholas and Brendan about how TAFE is helping them build the skills needed to meet gaps in the workforce. Seventeen-year-old Nathan comes from a family of tradies and is loving getting hands-on experience. As a carpenter, he's confident he will always have work. Our plan to make fee-free TAFE permanent, with 100,000 free places each year from 2027, will help regional kids like Nathan, Harrisen and Najara.
More than 4,400 people in Gilmore have taken up fee-free TAFE, and I am extremely disappointed that the opposition leader will not support our fee-free TAFE bill. They are showing their absolute disregard for young people and families in regional areas and are completely out of touch with the needs of young Australians. It is reprehensible that the Liberals are refusing to allocate a dollar towards the thousands of hardworking Australians who are getting the skills they need for the jobs they want. The shadow minister for skills and training, Sussan Ley, labelled this government's skills and training policy as 'disastrous'. She said, 'Fee-free TAFE sounds good, but is it working?'
Well, I have been on the ground talking with students and I have been on the ground talking to employers and apprentices, and I can tell you it is working. I have travelled from one end of my electorate to the other and listened to young people who are training at TAFE and listened to adults who are retraining and gaining new skills. I have been walking the streets of the villages and towns in Gilmore and talking to people who are reaping the real rewards of fee-free TAFE—young people like our Skillaroo Michael and apprentices Harrisen, Nathan and Najara. These are the people we are helping.
To answer Sussan Ley's question about whether it is working: yes, it is; our skills and training policy is most definitely working. I have just given a few examples of how it is working and how people of all ages are thriving in Gilmore because of TAFE. The Liberals have made it clear that they will scrap fee-free TAFE. As long as there is a Labor government, fee-free TAFE is here to stay.
