AMBER-JADE SANDERSON, WA MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TAFE: Thanks for coming today. It's great to be here with Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister and former local member of this patch. And today we are announcing new figures showing that West Australia is smashing it with Free TAFE and Free TAFE enrolments. Data released today by the Commonwealth shows that West Australia has excelled its targets by almost 400% when it comes to Free TAFE, this is well ahead of our target of 22,000 enrolments.
We can confirm that today, between the 1st of January 2024 and March 2026, we had 87,000 enrolments in Free TAFE in WA. This is real cost of living relief for West Australians, in this electorate, the electorate of Girrawheen, we have saved local students and their families around $7 million in that period.
This is genuine cost of living relief for West Australians. It is a meaningful opportunity for West Australians to take up the jobs of now and the jobs of the future. The most popular course at the moment in WA is the Cert III in Early Childhood and Care with 14,000 enrolments alone. That saves those students $3,500 on that course, and makes sure that we have qualified childcare workers supporting our parents and children in early childhood.
We are putting WA first, partnering with the federal government to make sure that West Australians are able to take up the opportunities that we are presenting for them. We've created more than 380,000 jobs. We're going to need more workers in clean energy, in defence industries, in advanced manufacturing, and of course healthcare and the care economy, Free TAFE is absolutely smashing it in WA, and West Australians are taking it up with gusto. I'll hand over to the Assistant Minister and have to take questions after you.
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Minister Sanderson, and our government, the Albanese Government, has always committed to making sure that we open the doors of opportunity. And when it comes to the success of Free TAFE here in Western Australia, we haven't just opened them; we have blasted them wide open.
What we see with some 87,000 Western Australians benefiting from our partnership with the state government on Free TAFE, is that people aren't just saving money when it comes to getting into the TAFE courses. They are getting the opportunity to earn more and keep more of what they earn when they then find themselves in work.
Because we have just been chatting to some of these plumbing students, and they are talking about starting their own businesses. They are talking about upskilling so they can earn even more, and they are really proud of the work they're doing. I said, 'oh, how busy is it here?' - I asked one of the lecturers. And they said, 'we're flat out.' And that is music to my ears, and it's music to Minister Sanderson's ears. Because what that means is that people are literally voting with their feet, voting with their feet, choosing Free TAFE.
And when it comes to WA, we know the WA stands for 'Way Ahead,' and we are way ahead on Free TAFE. I am so proud to see how well our partnership with the Cook Labor Government is delivering for Western Australia. And that's a credit to the students who voted with their feet. It is a credit to the TAFE lecturers who are delivering this world-class training here in Western Australia. And it is a credit to Minister Sanderson who has made sure that we have all of the support and the capacity to turn this commitment into real change here on the ground.
And I just think one last thing: when it comes to those 87,000 people. Those 87,000 enrolments that are here across Western Australia benefiting from Free TAFE, that is what we want to see. That is what Amber wants to see. That is what the federal and state Labor governments want to see.
If you look at the alternative, there are some people in the federal parliament who would like to not see 87,000 people in Free TAFE - they would like to see zero people in Free TAFE. That is the stated policy position of Angus Taylor and the Liberal Party, and it's also the stated policy position of Pauline Hanson and One Nation. They would abolish Free TAFE, destroy it, and hold back tens of thousands of Western Australians from the jobs that they rightly deserve and the skills that Western Australia needs.
[Questions to the State Minister omitted]
JOURNALIST: Your reaction to the Treasurer's comments today, following Roger Cook calling those on the East Coast 'clowns'?
GORMAN: Firstly, the Treasurer is up today welcoming some very welcome news, which is that we're seeing inflation continue to moderate. And I think for families across Australia, that's the news that they would be welcoming today, is that we are seeing that inflation is coming down. We know that it has been a really challenging time for households, not just across Western Australia but across the nation. So, firstly, I join with the Treasurer in welcoming that.
Secondly, I would just note when it comes to the work of the Productivity Commission, while I disagree with a range of their recommendations, I will note that their report has given me the outcome I wanted; which was a guarantee that WA's fair share of the GST is locked in, permanent, and it's there for the long term. It was really good to see the Prime Minister here saying what he has been saying since well before we were elected to government. Which is; that with Labor, WA's fair share of the GST is safe, locked in, rock solid.
So, we have had a good national debate about the GST. More importantly, though, we have come to a really good outcome, which is a guarantee for Western Australia. I was always confident of that, but it was great to have the Prime Minister here this week in Western Australia to confirm it once again.
JOURNALIST: How are your federal counterparts taking that news from the Eastern states that the Prime Minister was [inaudible]?
GORMAN: I was in Parliament the week after the Productivity Commission report was handed down, and there was no one on my side of politics who was out there saying that should we pick up those recommendations and run with them.
My colleagues - and I have had a lot of conversations with them over the years - recognised the importance of the WA economy. We brought the entire ministry over. We had a ministry meeting just over 24 hours ago where we talked a lot about the importance of the WA economy and Premier Cook was able to come and say once again thank you for our commitment.
And not just on the GST. I mean, you think about what we are talking about today with Free TAFE. The GST is the baseline, right? The GST and a fair share of the GST for WA is the baseline, but it's not the limit of our ambitions.
We add Free TAFE on top of that. We add the investment in Henderson on top of that. We add the hospitals funding on top of that. We add our partnerships, including the partnership about looking at whether we can get a fuel refinery here in Western Australia on top of that. We are ambitious for this state, and a fair share of the GST is the baseline, it's not as far as we want to go.
JOURNALIST: Do you make any criticism that the premier's comments were too personal when it comes to [inaudible] of the Productivity Commission?
GORMAN: Oh look, it's a passionate discussion, right? And my job in the federal parliament is not to police the democratically-elected premiers of the various states or the Chief Ministers of the territories. I respect the Productivity Commission and the work that they do, it's really important work. But they just provide advice to government. They do not provide outcomes; they provide inputs. And I have disagreed very strongly with the recommendations that they put forward.
And everyone will choose their language in their own way. But one of the things I like about Australian politics is that sometimes we go really hard, we say exactly what we think. And then once we've had a disagreement and we've got an outcome - and in this case, a fantastic outcome - we move on. And that would be my advice to the Productivity Commissioner as well.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the prime minister should have gone down to Secret Harbour while he was in town?
GORMAN: No, I think the prime minister did an excellent piece of work when he was here. A piece of work that has been called for for many, many months in terms of making sure that we do have those clear plans for Henderson. And in terms of doing what I always knew he was going to do, which is to say what he said many times about WA getting our rightful share of the Goods and Services Tax pool.
Now, it is a state by-election. Obviously, as a West Australian, I have been down there. I have thoroughly enjoyed supporting my friend Georgia Tree in her campaign, as have few of my other West Australian federal colleagues. But the Prime Minister is very clear that when it comes to state by-elections, and there are so many around the country. You know, you think about the number of elected officers we have in the state parliaments of the six states and two territories. It is not the normal practice, and he outlined that very clearly.
JOURNALIST: Are you certain that the 'East Coast friends' will not gang up against WA again, not for a while, or do you still expect that they will still try to snatch it? Try to snatch the GST?
GORMAN: Oh, look, every state and territory are going to advocate for their interests. That is part of how a federation works -
JOURNALIST: So do you think it will continue?
GORMAN: I am going to give you a bit of a lesson about the federation, Ivan. So let me finish.
[Laughter]
GORMAN: This year, it's the quasquicentenary of federation. It is a really exciting time; 125 years of Federation. And if you think about that, we have had a lot of different debates about how we make sure the Federation works for everyone. But what we see time and time again is that when we come together on the big things like education, we find solutions that lift everyone up, and that is what we are celebrating today. You know, 87,000 people going through Free TAFE in Western Australia is not just good for those students. It is not just good for Western Australia. It is good for the nation. Because they go on into productive businesses where this is the engine room of the national economy, and we are making sure we have got the skills to power that engine for the future.
So you know, states have got to advocate. I respect that. I expect it. That is what they are elected to do. It is a good thing. And we have got excellent advocates like Amber-Jade Sanderson, Roger Cook, and I think Deputy Premier Safiotti is also out having a meeting with the Productivity Commission today.
You know: advocate hard. We are in the business of advocacy, and I'll never criticise someone for putting their view forward. It is an essential part of our democracy and the democratic freedoms that we have had as a Federation for 125 years.
And indeed, you know, West Australia might have been the last to choose to join the Federation, but aren't we lucky that just over 125 years ago Western Australia chose to join - because it has made our nation so much stronger?
JOURNALIST: You said it's not normal practice, but the Prime Minister did go to Rockingham and campaign for that by-election. Is it because this is looking like a much tighter race?
GORMAN: When the prime minister was down there in Rockingham, he was opening a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, and thankfully now all 137 of the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics that we committed to have been opened.
And I did an event on on Monday with Mark Butler, and I asked people in the room. I said, 'Who has been to a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic?' About a third of the room put their hand up, and they've been a huge success.
And so, the Rockingham Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, I'll say to all of your viewers, is open for business seven days a week, open early, closing late, and all you need is your Medicare card.
JOURNALIST: When you were down there on the prepoll, hold what were your takeaways? They were surprised by just how many orange volunteers there were?
GORMAN: Oh look, at a pre-poll you always have a lot of people, and I was pretty happy with the Labor contingent that was down there. And I happily put on my Georgia Tree shirt and had a chat to a large number of people who were coming through to exercise their democratic rights.
The observations I had were: firstly that Georgia Tree has done an incredible amount of work. She has worked so hard. There is a lot of pressure on in a by-election, and I know how hard she has worked. I came in at a by-election. It is different because there are not as many contests all happening concurrently. She has done an extraordinary job, and I commend her. And I commend the team behind her as well.
My second observation is that people were coming in and just wanting to get in and vote, and thankfully they were get able to get in and out pretty quickly. And I really welcome the work the Electoral Commission have done to make that possible.
And the third thing, and this is probably the most important, was that everyone was being really respectful to one another, regardless of their political differences.
And I really want to ask, whatever party people are from, as we have pre-poll for the next few days and then election day on Saturday, I want to ask that everyone shows that same level of respect. We are a democracy, and that means we decide our differences at the ballot box. We don't do it by arguing with one another at pre-poll. We don't do it by people getting into altercations.
I want everyone to treat each other with respect. Because that is how we respect the voters who are at the heart of our democracy. And that's what I know our team's been doing. And it is what I expect from everyone, whatever colour T-shirt they wear. It doesn't cost anything to be respectful on voting day.
JOURNALIST: One of the big issues we've heard from voters is immigration, even though it is a federal issue. Has the federal government done enough on that issue to allay concerns?
GORMAN: I noticed the reason that immigration has been in the discussion the last few days is because of the huge amount of confusion in the One Nation political party, where they don't know what their own policy is.
Which I would have thought, with Senator Hanson having been in and out of politics for 30 years this year, I would have thought after 30 years you would have a pretty clear immigration policy. That she could have written down and maybe handed to her other colleagues that she's brought into the parliament. She handpicks these candidates; she could maybe at least make sure they're all on the same page when it comes to migration.
Of course, what we want to do is make sure that we have a migration system that is fit for purpose for what Australia needs in Australia's interests. That means making sure we have got those settings exactly right, and they do change over time as different things happen in our economy. We have been really open about that. Minister Burke will have more to say in the weeks ahead, but the reason people are talking about migration right now is because of the absolute policy chaos in the One Nation political party.
JOURNALIST: Are you expecting a bit of a, I suppose, a very difficult difficult decisions to be made because there's a lot of pressures to try to cut the numbers even further?
GORMAN: Oh, every decision that you make in political life is difficult. If every decision was easy, that would be wonderful. But even the decisions we make about the priorities that we have when it comes to things like choosing to invest in Free TAFE and the choice that we made to legislate to make Free TAFE permanent, they are not easy decisions because we have to make priorities and make choices.
But that is the reason that people like myself, Amber-Jade and others put our hands up is because we want to go out and listen to our communities, have the conversation across the broad spectrum of the Australian economy, and the make the right decision to take our country forward. Thanks, guys.