Thursday, 6 February 2025

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (17:32): (999) I rise to raise a matter for the Minister for Skills and TAFE regarding the government’s savage funding cuts to Skills First training programs. The action I seek is for the minister to accompany me to visit workplace-based training providers in my electorate, particularly in the early childhood education and care sector, to discuss the impact of these devastating cuts and how remedial steps can urgently be taken to ensure the sustainability of providers adversely affected. Training providers have had Skills First contracts cut, with some reporting a reduction from 700 funded places in 2024 to just 20 in 2025 in critical areas such as health, aged care and disability services. A number of providers have had their course allocations completely wiped out, with zero funded places in 2025.

My office has been inundated with emails from concerned students and providers in my electorate who are bearing the brunt of these reckless and brutal cuts. I would like to share just two extracts from correspondence which illustrate the real-world impacts of this government’s decisions. A student enrolled in a workplace-based early childhood education course wrote:

Our sector is facing critical workforce shortages and unprecedented demand. Without viable training providers delivering workplace-based training, we will be unable to address this urgent need.

Funding cuts threaten this vital training model, impacting students and services, limiting employment opportunities, and forcing room closures that will leave families without essential childcare.

A provider, TheirCare, expressed similar fears:

I am at risk of having to limit child numbers, close rooms, and potentially shut down our service – leaving families and communities without care for their children. Early childhood education is at the centre of the care economy, which keeps parents of young children at work.

It is delivered almost entirely by women. I urge the government to reverse these funding cuts to protect the quality of care for our most vulnerable.

The statistics confirm those concerns. Under Labor the number of registered training organisations in Victoria has been slashed by over 50 per cent since 2014. Thousands of young Victorians aspiring to start their career in health, disability care, engineering, food processing, welding, business and financial services, manufacturing and so much more have had their dreams dashed by the Allan Labor government.

Despite the government’s boasting, Victoria’s vocational education and training system is the lowest funded of any state in Australia. This is not just a policy failure; it is an economic and social disaster, potentially. The minister must act now to reverse these reckless and savage cuts, restore funding to registered training organisations and ensure that students and businesses in key industries can access the training they desperately need. I urge the minister to listen to the sector, listen to the students, do what matters and reverse these cuts before the damage becomes irreversible.