Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill 2023 and the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Amendment Bill 2023. The coalition will be supporting these bills. These are sensible reforms which the coalition developed whilst in government.

The Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill causes the Trade Support Loans Priority List to lapse; amends the act to empower the minister by legislative instrument to determine, having had regard to any relevant advice given to the minister by Jobs and Skills Australia, a new Australian Apprenticeships Priority List; and amends the act to provide that a qualifying apprenticeship is, among other things, an apprenticeship through which a person is undertaking a qualification that leads to an occupation or qualification specified on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List. These changes will mean the skills minister can expand the program's access to people who, through their apprenticeship or traineeship, are undertaking qualifications that lead to occupations experiencing skills shortages, such as occupations in the aged-care, disability care and childcare sectors.

We know that apprentices and trainees are doing it tough right now. The price of their groceries, their fuel and their electricity are all going up, but their wages aren't. Enabling more students to access this support will be critical to more apprentices completing their studies. The Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Amendment Bill 2023 updates references in the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Act 2015 to 'Trade Support Loans Act 2014' with 'Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans Act 2014' to align with the rebranding of trade support loans to Australian apprenticeship support loans. As I stated, these are sensible reforms which improve the scheme. The coalition began the scheme and started these reforms. We will see them through.

Some stakeholders, however, have raised concerns about the consultation process which the minister's office conducted with regard to the bill. However, they remained broadly supportive of the passage of the legislation. Stakeholders noted that the minister's office did no external consultation whatsoever. Indeed, the government's explanatory memorandum seems to admit that they did no further consultation and have broadly accepted the coalition's reforms without amendment. I'm grateful for the government's acknowledgement that our skills policies were working. The government must think so, considering that they've taken our policy and decided it was so good that no further consultation is necessary. They were able to do that because of our extraordinary work in the skills and VET space.

The coalition committed more than $13 billion to the skills sector, including a record $7.8 billion in our final financial year in office. We protected more than 530,000 apprentices and trainees through our wage subsidies announced since the pandemic hit, with total pandemic apprentice wage subsidy support reaching more than $7.9 billion. Most importantly, we delivered a record 240,000 trade apprentices in training, the highest since 1963. That is a strong record to stand on, as Labor seems to be doing, and we will support them when they bring forward good policy such as this. I thank the House.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill 2023, a critical step taken by the Albanese government to remove barriers that hinder Australians from accessing life-changing education and training. Our government is working to remove the barriers Australians face in accessing education and training and to ensure that Australians from all backgrounds and cultures are supported to achieve their full potential. At the heart of this bill lies a pivotal provision: the expansion of the Trade Support Loans program to encompass non-trade occupations for the very first time. To reflect this expansion, the bill renames the program to Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans. The Trade Support Loans Amendment Bill 2023 continues the critical work of the existing program by facilitating the expansion of the Trade Support Loans program to nontrades, including those in the care sector and in other occupations predominantly taken up by women, including early childhood education. I think we can see this in the broader context of the work our government is doing to ensure that there is greater equity and equality in workplaces, homes and communities right across Australia.

I know how important this work is, with many thousands of constituents in my electorate of Chisholm employed in these sectors, including the more than 1,100 people engaged in aged and disability care and the 1,050 people engaged in early childhood education and care. Indeed, I've visited people who are training in these professions at Holmesglen TAFE and have met with many, many workers in these professions across my electorate, not only when I was campaigning but also in the 12 months I've been lucky enough to be the member for Chisholm.

We know Australia is facing the most significant skills shortage in decades, and the measures in this bill are practical measures that our government is taking to extend financial support to more apprentices and trainees. And of course we've also got the fee-free TAFE program, which is opening doors and opportunities for so many people across the country. The Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans will support people to continue and complete their qualifications so they can gain secure work in areas of greatest need for the economy and in our communities. Trade support loans are an interest-fee, income-contingent government loan to support Australian apprentices to meet their everyday expenses while they undertake an apprenticeship. As an incentive to complete training, those who complete it will receive a 20 per cent discount on their loan.

Since their introduction in 2014, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations estimates that TSLs have helped over 167,000 apprentices who may otherwise have struggled to complete their apprenticeships. Eligible apprentices can access a maximum of $22,890 over the life of their apprenticeship, paid monthly payments in arrears. Loans are tapered through an apprenticeship, with the highest payments at the start of the apprenticeship, importantly, to reflect the lower wages early in an apprenticeship. Eligible apprentices must opt into the scheme every six months and can opt out at any time, ensuring that apprentices don't take on loans inadvertently.

This bill does amend the Trade Support Loans Act 2014 to expand access to income-contingent loans to more Australian apprentices and trainees working in high-priority occupations of skills need as informed by Jobs and Skills Australia. For the first time, as mentioned earlier, this will include non-trade occupations and, importantly, will have the flexibility to include those in early childhood education, aged care and disability care. It is really important that this amendment does this, because it does reflect that broader commitment that our government has made to ensuring that all professions are remunerated and supported as they should be—and let's be honest: these have been, for too long, professions that have not been supported adequately, largely because of the nature of these professions as feminised professions dominated by women workers.

This legislation will achieve flexibility by replacing the existing trade support loan priority list with the new Australian Apprenticeships priority list. The outgoing priority list restricts access to the loan program to qualifications in a limited group of trade occupations, with the outdated list not being updated since the scheme was implemented, and that was quite some time ago. The outgoing priority list no longer aligns with the range of Australia's current and future skills needs. The new Australian Apprenticeships priority list will be determined, at a minimum, on an annual basis and will expand the occupations that have access to the program, including to non-trade occupations. This gives flexibility to open the financial support to occupations in high skills need in the care sector such as enrolled nursing, personal care assistants and therapists.

Importantly, this extension will assist many women. As we know, women predominantly take up non-trade apprenticeships and traineeships, and data suggests that 76.8 per cent of women in apprenticeships and traineeships are in non-trade occupations.

In determining the new Australian Apprenticeships priority list, the bill requires the minister to have regard to the advice of Jobs and Skills Australia. This is to ensure that the priority list is responsive to current, emerging and future skills and training needs in the workforce. Jobs and Skills Australia will determine the Australian Apprenticeship priority list by leveraging expertise from economists, data scientists, analysts and researchers. This legislation will have the additional flexibility of providing discretion to the secretary of the department to accept late applications for loans if appropriate in the circumstances. This could include, for instance, where an administrative error or exceptional circumstances have disrupted an eligible apprentice's loan application. It's a safety net that ensures apprentices don't miss out on immediate financial support unnecessarily or unfairly.

This bill and the new Australian apprenticeship support loans program will join reforms we've already introduced to help Australia and Australians to meet our current and future skills needs. Our government is working with our partners, including the states and territories, to rebuild and modernise our vocational education sector. We're delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational education places this year, with more to come from next year. I'm so proud to be able to support this bill, a bill that will help more apprentices with cost-of-living pressures while they train and that will ensure more apprentices enter meaningful occupations in current, emerging and future skills needs for Australia's economy.