We need to talk about skills.
Skills shortages are making it more expensive to build a home.
We need more homes and more tradies because Labor let in one million migrants without a plan to house them.
Anthony Albanese’s ‘solution’ is called ‘Free TAFE’.
You have to understand this simple slogan means, because what Labor is doing is pretty sneaky.
First up, TAFE is not shorthand for all skills and training. Not all tradies go to a TAFE.
TAFE is just the state government run trainer, just like public schools.
TAFEs and public schools are important but we don’t force all our kids to study at public schools. HECS isn’t just there for students who study at public universities.
So every time Labor says ‘University and TAFE’ what they mean is your choices under Labor are University or TAFE.
We don’t think that is fair, and we think it creates all sorts of problems for our country.
Around 80 per cent of Australians who get a skill each year study somewhere that is not a TAFE.
By taking a TAFE-only approach, Labor has made it harder to train the tradies we need.
Labor’s TAFE-only approach is part of why we’ve lost 80,000 apprentices and trainees since they took office.
So when we talk about skills it needs to be about more than just ‘TAFE’.
The other thing we need to address is that “Free TAFE” is not free.
Anthony Albanese has attacked me for making the point that the Liberal Party believes that you do not value something unless you pay for it.
It’s a statement that has hit a nerve in Labor ranks.
The thing is, calling a policy or service “Free” doesn’t make it free.
Free TAFE has cost taxpayers $1.5 billion since Labor took office and has delivered a graduation rate of just 13 per cent.
Free TAFE isn’t free. We have all paid for it.
Yes, Australians value free access to emergency healthcare but we all pay around $100 billion for hospitals every year.
We value the NDIS but it costs us $44 billion a year.
Australians value these things, and we pay for them.
It’s the right thing to do but it doesn’t make them free.
There is an attitude at the heart of Labor that by calling something free you make it free.
We know that is just not true.
Australians deserve a government that respects their tax dollars.
It won’t be long until you can make Labor pay and vote them out.
[ENDS]
