The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, and Treasury
Assistant Minister for Employment
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, DRIVE WITH JAMES FINDLAY
CANBERRA
TUESDAY, 15 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Liberals’ plan to cut Free TAFE.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Dr Andrew Leigh is the Member for Fenner, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Assistant Minister for Employment. Good afternoon to you Dr Leigh.
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Good afternoon James, how are you?
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Good thanks. Thanks for being here. Look, apparently free TAFE isn't working - is that true Dr Leigh?
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: I don't think that's what the half of a million Australians who signed up for free TAFE places have been saying James. I mean, if you've got somebody who's training up to be a nurse, that's saving them up to $15,000. If it's someone doing a Cert IV in IT, they can be saving over $4,000. Someone doing school-based education support, they can be saving over $3,000. So, these are important savings for people who are furthering themselves. Here in the ACT we've got thousands of people enrolled in free TAFE places doing courses such as construction, aged care, technology, early childhood - all the areas where we know we've got skill shortages in the economy.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: How many of these students are completing their levels though?
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Well the longer the course you’re signed up to, the longer it's going to take to complete. It's important to remember this program only started in 2023, so if you're doing a three year course then the number of people of people who have completed that course in two years’ time is going to be fairly low. And many of the people who are doing Fee Free TAFE courses are doing those longer courses where the qualifications mean that they are currently enrolled doing their studies and they will be coming out being productive members of society as they graduate. We've already seen over 100,000 graduate through the program. It's really critical. You know, you think about construction, where we’ve got a whole lot of skill shortages. We really need to be building more homes and Fee Free TAFE is one way of making that happen. I don't know why Peter Dutton wants Australians to be less educated. We ought to be boosting education levels and making it easier for people to get vocational education.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Okay so as you said, it's only started in 2023 so it's hard to say how many will have completed because they're still studying but as you said, 100,000 have completed. Do we have numbers on how many are dropping out then?
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: The dropout rate from TAFE isn't that large and what you need to do is to really be focused on how many more people are getting that additional training. We need to be increasing education right across the board. That's why we're making it easier for people to go to university, cutting back on the HECS repayments. If we're re-elected, reducing HECS debts overall for graduates. We recognise that making university more accessible and making TAFE more accessible is about being a clever country. We've got to be skilling up to face the challenges of the future. Peter Dutton would follow the Tony Abbott playbook. He'd be cutting back on education and cutting back on health because that's what he's got to do in order to pay for his $600 billion nuclear power plants.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Staying on this though, do we know how many of these 100,000 graduates from free TAFE and CIT have gone into the industry to work in the industry they've done the training for?
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Well, given that we've got full employment with unemployment at historic lows and youth unemployment at historic lows according to this new McKell Report, I would expect just about all of them.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: But Dr Leigh, do we have numbers on how many are still working in the industry for what they've done the training for?
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: The surveys of graduate employment tend to be better for universities than TAFE, but what we know is that a lot of people are using those skills, a lot of people going into the industries that they've trained for. Why else would you go ahead and get one of those valuable qualifications if you weren't planning to use it? And particularly in the area of construction, Canberrans who are looking to buy will have noticed the challenges that we're facing getting skilled workers into the construction sector.
We've got the apprenticeship bonuses that we've put in place in order to encourage construction apprentices stay on knowing there's those additional payments in place. That's really vital for addressing the housing supply challenge we've got in Australia. That housing supply issue is a big challenge for the nation. Peter Dutton simply wants people to be paying their landlords’ mortgage. Labor wants more people to be able to get in there and buy a home of their own, and that’s about increasing supply which is where Fee Free TAFE comes in and the construction trades.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Well look we’ve got to leave it there, but Dr Leigh thanks for clearing that up with us this afternoon.
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Real pleasure, thanks James.
JAMES FINDLAY, ABC CANBERRA: Dr Andrew Leigh there. Member for Fenner and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Assistant Minister for Employment here on Triple 6 ABC Radio Canberra.
ENDS