Tuesday, 17 March 2026

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Women) (18:09): I move:

That this house commends the Allan Labor government for restoring TAFE in Victoria with more than $16 billion in investment and legislating free TAFE, which has saved students more than $777 million in tuition fees.

What a run-up that was to debating this important motion. What we have seen in this place is those on the other side of the chamber literally lose their minds at the thought that we should have a policy debate in this place, because that is in fact what this notice of motion enables us to do. It enables us to debate matters of real concern to the people of Victoria. Again, with no disrespect to any of my colleagues that made a contribution on the bill that was previously being debated in the house, if I was out doorknocking in Romsey and I said, ‘Should I be spending my time in the Parliament talking about an omnibus regulatory reform bill or talking about the impact of TAFE on the lives of my constituents?’ I know what they would say, and they would say to me that they want to see me in this chamber advocating for investments in TAFE because, let us be frank, TAFE changes lives – there is absolutely no doubt about that. And it is always a great pleasure in my community to talk to and meet with TAFE graduates and for them to share with me their career journey or the opportunities that have opened up to them as a consequence of their TAFE qualification. The only reason they have got a TAFE qualification is because our government was elected in 2014 with a commitment to fix a system that had been absolutely decimated by a previous Liberal–National government.

I recall at the time – and I note there are no National MPs in the chamber, and I would not be here if I were them either; I would be so embarrassed – the former National Party minister for training Peter Hall, and colleagues might remember this, was charged with letting the TAFE sector that he was in charge of know about the cuts that were being implemented by the Napthine government. In a letter leaked to the Age, this is what he had to say. He said he considered ‘throwing in the towel’ over the cuts, and in his letter to TAFE directors, he said he shared their ‘emotions of shock, incredulity, disbelief and anger’. That was from their own team. This is what a former Liberal–National minister for TAFE had to say about the cuts that were imposed when they were last in government. But in keeping with what we have grown to expect from the National Party in this place, did Mr Hall resign? Did he stand on principle? Did he fall on his sword? No, he did not. He did not do the honourable thing; he held onto his job whilst he implemented the cuts.

I note the member for Evelyn is in the chamber, and I anticipate she might be speaking on the bill, because of course it was in her electorate that we saw something that was emblematic of what we came to expect from the Liberals–Nationals, and that was a locked chain on Lilydale TAFE. It was closed under the previous Liberal–National government, chained closed, sending a very strong message to the young people in her community: ‘Forget about pursuing a career or an opportunity getting a skilled career, an apprenticeship or a traineeship. Forget about that, because we are determined to close TAFE.’ In my own community of course there was a small outpost from –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, members are required to be factual, and the fact of the matter is that the Lilydale–Box Hill TAFE was opened in 2014 by the Napthine Liberal government.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): That is not a point of order.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I was outlining how in my own electorate of Macedon there was a small TAFE campus that was closed by the Liberal–National parties when they were in government. I will just speak briefly about two visits that I made last week, which were off the back of our government’s record investment in vocational education and training. Whilst not directly linked to TAFE colleges, this is about creating more pathways for students who are pursuing hands-on careers. I had the opportunity last week to visit the trades hub built by our government at Kyneton High School and the trades hub built by our government at Gisborne Secondary College, and I had the opportunity to talk to a variety of students who were going to pursue careers in carpentry, in metalwork, in engineering and in beauty therapy. It was a real pleasure and delight to meet these kids and know that only because of the investments that our government has made they will be able to pursue their chosen careers – careers, I might say, that those on the other side want to talk down all the time. We see in this place their disregard for working people. It is so evident in so many of the contributions that they make every day in this place.

While I am talking about TAFE it would be remiss of me not to talk about the absolute transformation that our government’s investments in TAFE have made to the healthcare workforce in this state. We would not have the world-class healthcare workforce that we have here in Victoria if it were not for the more than $16 billion that our government has invested in TAFE. When I am out in our health services and I meet nurses who have completed their diploma of nursing, I am so proud of them and what they have achieved. Let me tell you this too: I often meet, again, constituents who have had the opportunity to undertake a diploma of nursing. While I do not want to generalise too much, I will say that many of the people that I have met who have undertaken this diploma are women who left school early, worked in a variety of jobs, got married, had children and then decided that it was time to pursue the career that they had always wanted, and that was in nursing. Their pathway to that is through a diploma of nursing and working as an enrolled nurse. It gives me great joy to meet some of these women later on who love their career so much that they decide to take the next step and head back to university to become a registered nurse. This is about creating opportunities and pathways for people who did not always realise the skills and talents that they had. Our investment is about unlocking the skills and talents that live in so many in our community, in communities who are held in disregard and indeed often contempt by those on the other side.

I also had the opportunity to head to the absolutely outstanding campus of Kangan Batman at Broadmeadows – what an extraordinary investment in Broadmeadows and the people of Melbourne’s north that campus is – and see the students there in the Health and Community Centre of Excellence. This is a purpose-built facility. The students train in simulated hospital wards and care environments that mirror real workplaces, with partnerships providing clear employment pathways. What I saw there, with the quality of the equipment and the passion for the students – it was absolutely one of the best experiences that I have had. What we know is these stories are only made possible because of the Allan Labor government. It is what Labor governments do. When the Liberals were last in power they sacked 2000 TAFE teachers, they shut 22 campuses and they ripped a billion dollars from TAFEs right across Victoria, and that is a complete contrast to our government.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I welcome the interjections from the member for Evelyn because apparently having this debate was a waste of time. But she has got very –

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: You were saying it was an absolute waste of time, so I do not know why you would be getting up, given it is a waste of time. I look forward to her engaging in a policy debate on this very critical issue.

Of course I have not yet mentioned our government’s commitment – now legislated – to free TAFE. Only a Labor government would even dream of such an idea. The member for Mornington is in this place, and I will never forget his inaugural speech. He talked about actually introducing HECS for high school students. Can you imagine what their plans are for TAFE? This is why we have to legislate in order to protect free TAFE and ensure that the sons and daughters of working families right around Victoria will always have the opportunities that they deserve to get the careers that they want and to contribute to our great state. I commend this motion to the house.

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (18:20): Well, well, well – if this Labor government was actually serious about the motion that it was putting forward today about its TAFE network, why on earth did their lead speaker, the minister, still have 18 minutes left to speak in her speaking time? Because she did not have much to say – she did not have enough to say. She had 30 minutes to speak but only made it to 10. There was a very long period of time that she had left to speak about the motion that she was so desperate to speak about, but she had so little to say that she sat down only a third of the way through her allocated time. That is just emblematic of this Allan Labor government – this tired Allan Labor government. After 12 years of the rule of this Labor government – 12 long years – they are tired and they cannot even speak for their full allocated time, which demonstrates why the minister just sat down with 18 whole minutes to go. She had that little to say about it.

The government wants to spruik its TAFE system. At the outset I will foreshadow that I am going to move an amendment to the government’s motion. I move:

After ‘fees’, insert the words ‘but notes the Silver review was scathing of the performance of Victoria’s TAFE system under the Allan Labor government and that real recurrent expenditure per annual hour in Victoria is the lowest in the nation’.

I absolutely love TAFE. We only spoke about TAFE a couple of days ago in this chamber, which is kind of funny – that the Labor government, totally bereft of policy ideas and totally bereft of a legislative agenda, has to move to this motion that talks about the Allan Labor government’s TAFE system, because we only just debated the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Free TAFE Guarantee) Bill 2026 only a few days ago in this chamber. All members have already had the opportunity to talk about the TAFE system in Victoria, yet here we are again, because this government is so tired they have nothing else to talk about. But I love TAFE. Those of you who may or may not have listened to my speech on the bill only a couple of days ago would have heard that vocational education and training is a critical part of Victoria’s economy, and in so many respects vocational education and training and the TAFE system are essential components of Victoria – certainly if we want to continue to grow our economy and maintain strong living standards. Lest there be any doubt, the Victorian Liberals and Nationals support a strong VET system that includes a TAFE network that delivers for students and for industry.

Not only am I passionate about TAFE and supportive of it, but so many of my family members and friends have attended and got qualified at TAFE and are doing well in their careers and are very happy. My brother completed TAFE, got his TAFE qualification and is doing very well – probably better than most of us. Most of my cousins went to TAFE in a variety of trades from automotive, manufacturing, bricklaying, plumbing, electrical and horticulture. So many of my family members have been involved in the TAFE system, have got qualified and are doing great things with their careers as a result.

I am also proud of the fact that in my electorate of Evelyn we have got the one of the highest proportions of residents with a trade qualification and one of the highest proportions of residents who are employed in a technical or trade occupation. I count many of them as my friends. Some of my good mates are sparkies; some of my good mates are brickies. Even my son is working in a trade at the moment. I absolutely think TAFE is a vital part of the education ecosystem and is something that we should work hard to strengthen. Whether it is the chippies, the sparkies, the brickies, people in health care and aged care, early childhood educators, hospitality staff or emerging farmers, we value these tradies, these skilled workers, but we absolutely need more of them. But on Labor’s watch Victoria has plunged into a skills crisis. We have an absolute skills crisis on Labor’s watch. For 12 ‍long years this Labor government has been in –

Steve Dimopoulos interjected.

Bridget VALLENCE: The minister at the table is laughing, but on Labor’s watch Victoria has been plunged into a skills crisis. For pretty much every sector you look at, under Labor there are skills shortages. There are skills shortages in early childhood education. The government may say that they want to open new early childhood facilities, but they cannot staff them because there is a shortage of early childhood educators. In nursing we have a shortage of nurses. The government, again, funds young people to enter and get qualified in nursing and then denies them an opportunity to be employed in nursing. It is outrageous. There is an absolute shortage in all of these areas. There is a shortage in construction. There is a shortage in engineering. There are shortages right across the board in every sector, and the Allan Labor government have allowed that to occur on their watch.

It is the Labor government’s own Victorian Skills Authority which has indicated that we will need an additional 373,000 new skilled workers to enter the Victorian workforce by 2028 and that we will need 1.5 million new workers by 2035 just to meet current demand, yet, for example, this government wanted to adjourn debate on the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2026 just moments ago and have so far failed to propose legislation with reforms to actually address the skills shortages and to demonstrate how they are going to find and deliver 373,000 more skilled workers in just a few short years time. They have not provided any plan for that. Their own skills authority has been telling them for years that we are hundreds of thousands of workers short, and yet time and time again this Labor government will say, ‘We’ve got free TAFE courses.’ That is fine, but it does not work if we are not actually translating that into qualified skilled workers to meet the demand.

The Labor government, we have to say, does rely heavily on Commonwealth funding to deliver its free TAFE initiatives. That is something that they will not tell you about. They say they fund free TAFE, but a significant portion of the funding – the vast majority of the funding – is actually funded by the Commonwealth government. The Labor government relies heavily on the Commonwealth funding to deliver its free TAFE initiatives. The National Skills Agreement entered into with the Commonwealth government in 2024 provides Victoria with a funding allocation of $3.1 billion over five years. The Labor government has previously indicated that the Commonwealth funding comprises at least a third of all its VET funding. So really the government will talk a big game when it comes to funding its TAFE network but conveniently brushes over the fact that a lot of this funding is coming from the Commonwealth government. In fact in the bill that they put before the Assembly last week, they spruiked the fact that they were allegedly going to allocate – some sort of great new policy idea ‍– 70 per cent of funding to the TAFE network. What they failed to say was that actually is just an obligation that they must meet in order to continue to receive the Commonwealth funding. It is a hurdle that they must meet in order to receive that Commonwealth funding. There has been no uplift in funding for TAFE or free TAFE under this Labor government at all.

Again, this government will try to spruik that free TAFE has been a game changer. Like I said, I support TAFE. I think we need a strong TAFE system, but the reality is that completion rates under the watch of the Labor government remain stubbornly low. As I said, Victoria is facing a skills crisis. The government might talk about enrolment rates. Some of the speakers may get up today and say, ‘We’ve got X number of Victorians enrolling in TAFE,’ but I dare them to say how many Victorians are completing TAFE and getting those qualifications that we need them to have to be part of our skilled workforce, because in 2024 the Labor government conceded that only 53.7 per cent of free TAFE students had completed their courses since the free TAFE program began in 2019. Let me repeat that for you: since this government introduced free TAFE in 2019 – it talks a big game about its free TAFE program – just over 53 per cent of people have completed the courses. I would love to see far and away more people completing the courses.

I would love to see a vastly higher proportion of Victorians completing their TAFE courses, getting their qualifications, getting into the workforce, getting into industry and being part of Victoria’s economy. That is what I would rather see. I really, truly hope that not a single member on the government benches will say that that is some reason why we would not support TAFE or free TAFE. That would be absolute rubbish. We want to know these completion rate figures precisely because we want to find ways to improve and to support more students to complete their courses and get qualified to be part of our economy. Since the Labor government conceded back in 2024 that only 53.7 per cent of free TAFE students completed their courses, they have been very reluctant to say anything about how many people are completing their courses. This is particularly concerning. The Silver review remarked on this, but I will get to that a little bit later.

The latest Productivity Commission’s report on government services, issued on 10 February 2026, confirmed some pretty damning figures and statistics. The Productivity Commission’s report on government services only last month confirmed that Victoria under the Allan Labor government continues to have the lowest rate of students completing VET qualifications per capita in the nation, with the exception of the ACT, with student satisfaction levels at or below national averages. Real recurrent VET expenditure per annual hour in Victoria has plummeted by 18 per cent, from $23.70 per hour in 2020 to $19.44 per hour in 2024 – we are the lowest in the nation under this Allan Labor government. Real recurrent VET expenditure per person in Victoria has decreased by 6.7 per cent, from $403 in 2017 to $376 in 2024. The number of TAFE provider locations in Victoria has collapsed, from over 6000 in 2022 to just over 1800 in 2024. That is a 71.3 per cent reduction in the number of TAFE provider locations.

The minister in her speech liked to talk of the past. She liked to talk of 13 years ago, well before I even ever thought of being a member of Parliament. Potentially my colleague the member for Warrandyte might have been in the same boat then. We were not even on the horizon of being members of Parliament back then. The minister likes to live in the past, saying that at that particular time the government of the day was making some changes to the TAFE network. She tried to be very political in doing so, but again, as I will say, she is living in the past. That was some 12 or 13 years ago. We are talking about today. We want to strengthen the TAFE system today. The Labor government clearly does not, because the number of TAFE provider locations in Victoria has collapsed by over 70 per cent. There are 70 per cent less places to go and get your TAFE qualification under the watch of this Allan Labor government. The government members will not talk about that, but that is a stark figure that we should all know about.

The number of government-funded training providers in Victoria has dropped from 456 in 2020 to 423 in 2024, a 7.2 per cent decline. Government VET funding paid to non-TAFE providers was cut by $37.3 million from 2018 to 2024, with non-TAFE providers only receiving 25 per cent of all VET funding. The reason I refer to non-TAFE providers is, whilst I understand this motion is about TAFE, our non-TAFE providers, our registered training organisations, form an important part of the overall vocational education and training system in Victoria. In fact that is so much so that their completion rates – I do not have the figure in front of me – are hovering around more than 80 per cent, so they are doing something right. It is not to say they are doing something different or better; it is that clearly in the registered training organisation sector they are doing something right, because they are attracting students and students are fulfilling their course over a number of years, completing their course, getting qualified and getting into the workforce, earning a crust and contributing to our economy. That is unlike the TAFE system under the Labor government, where people are enrolling in their course but are not completing it. Nearly half of all students do not complete the free TAFE courses under the Labor government. So whilst the government will spruik their free TAFE system – and we are not saying that that is an issue for them to do so – the issue really is that only just over half of the people enrolling in a free TAFE course are actually completing it. I think that that is the sign of a broken system under Labor. The Silver review found this, and that is why I moved an amendment to this motion:

After ‘fees’, insert the words ‘but notes the Silver review was scathing of the performance of Victoria’s TAFE system under the Allan Labor government and that real recurrent expenditure per annual hour in Victoria is the lowest in the nation’.

It is precisely because Helen Silver AO, who was engaged by the Labor government to conduct a review of various parts of the Victorian public service, as part of her review was quite scathing of the performance of the TAFE network under the Allan Labor government. The Silver review found that there were significant areas for improvement. Again, this is not to say that Silver was saying we should cut the TAFE network or anything – as a matter of fact, that is something that we are not saying either ‍– but there were considerable issues that the Silver review wanted to highlight. The Silver review was highly critical of the performance of the VET system and stated:

Performance of the VET system is mixed, with continued skills shortages in priority industries, completion levels lower than the national average, and student satisfaction at or below national averages. The system also has financial challenges: the Review understands financial viability remains an issue for several TAFEs.

That is not me saying this. That is Helen Silver AO in the review she was asked to do by the Labor government. It is the Silver review that found these issues, that uncovered these issues, that publicly stated the criticisms of the performance of the TAFE system under the Labor government. The Silver review went on to find that there was scope for financial efficiencies that could be realised within the TAFE sector. I will get to that in a second, but it will be interesting to see if the Labor government will say anything about this. How will they respond to Helen Silver and her review in relation to the TAFE network? We know that they have already accepted a number of recommendations of the Silver review, and I call on the government members contributing to this motion today to confess whether they will take up the recommendations of the Silver review when it comes to the TAFE system. As I say, the Silver review was extremely critical – scathing I have to say – of the TAFE system under the Allan Labor government.

The Silver review did find that there was considerable scope for financial efficiencies to be realised in the TAFE sector, notably accelerating shared service reforms. Silver found that each TAFE had its own student system, meaning there were duplications in costs and processes. This also impacted adversely on service delivery and student experience. Silver recommended that TAFEs should pursue shared service reform. That sounds like cuts. That sounds like cutting things, cutting services to students, rationalising under this Labor government those services and having less people to deliver those services.

The Silver review also considered mergers and that a number of TAFEs should merge into a single entity. Interestingly, we know that is already happening under Labor. We already know that across the north and north-east of regional Victoria, in places like Shepparton and Wodonga, these TAFEs, or ‘GOTAFE’ as they are called, have already been merged under Labor. Labor likes to talk about having TAFE, but they are already merging TAFE under this government. As I said, even pre-empting the Silver review, this Labor government is merging TAFEs, It is taking courses from in-person courses to online courses. It is limiting that face-to-face experience for students. It is cutting courses in some parts of Victoria, particularly regional Victoria. That is to the detriment of those Victorians that live in those regional communities. Even though we know Labor is already merging TAFEs, the Silver review quite clearly suggested and recommended that TAFEs should be merged into a single entity, saying that this could result in $200 million in savings. I would like to know from government members speaking on this motion today if they will implement the Silver review’s recommendations in this regard, or perhaps they will hasten their rationalisation of the TAFE network under Labor.

Silver also found that there was significant underutilisation of assets across the TAFE network and recommended that these assets be sold. I will just repeat that: Helen Silver, engaged by the Labor government, in her review recommended that TAFE assets be sold. Which Labor government member will be courageous enough to stand up today to say which TAFE assets they are selling off? That is clearly in their plan, because the Labor government engaged Helen Silver AO to conduct the Silver review, and the Silver review states that TAFE assets should be sold off.

So which assets is the Labor government going to sell off from the TAFE network? Which assets in the TAFE network will Labor sell, further causing a decline of TAFE? Revenue from the disposal of these assets, again, Helen Silver is suggesting, would be approximately $525 million. Given the state of the economy – that debt is nearly a quarter of Victoria’s economy, at $160 billion in the midyear financial report tabled on Friday a week ago – and given that debt trajectory and the significant level of debt that this government has because it has an expenditure problem, I think it is going to be looking for every avenue when it comes to savings. So watch this space as to which parts of the TAFE network the Labor government will be selling off.

Members interjecting.

Bridget VALLENCE: I am reluctant to take up interjections, but members are talking about the Lilydale TAFE. To make sure there are no mistruths, to make sure that the Labor government do not spout anything that is not true and is misleading, it was a Liberal government in 2014 that opened Lilydale TAFE. Let that be on the record, because that is the fact of the matter.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): I remind the member for Evelyn that it is unparliamentary to take up interjections.

Bridget VALLENCE: Thank you for your guidance, Acting Speaker. It is a fact of the matter, and it should be on the record to categorically ensure that no Labor government member today seeks to mislead the Victorian public in their contribution in that regard.

It is so funny that this government is so bereft of policy ideas. They fail to have an adequate legislative agenda such that they only had two bills on the program for this week and only introduced one bill this morning. They have such a weak legislative agenda that they need to find ways to fill up the time, fill up the space. This is the people’s house. We should be spending time talking about things that are most important to Victorians at the moment.

I am not denying that a TAFE education or a TAFE qualification is important to many young people. As I said earlier in my contribution, so many people I know, so many of my family members and my friends, are TAFE qualified and have fantastic careers as a result. But there is a crime crisis gripping Victoria, we have a debt crisis gripping Victoria and we have a housing crisis in Victoria, and they are the matters that Victorians want to hear us debate in the Assembly, in this Parliament. They are the matters that Victorians demand their parliamentarians find solutions for, not rehash old news about the government’s free TAFE program. This has been a policy of the Labor government for many, many, many years. We only debated a bill about free TAFE just days ago in this chamber, and here we are again talking about free TAFE.

I might add that I have only just been on the phone to the Minister for Skills and TAFE’s office this afternoon. I have only just been on the phone to three members of the minister’s office this afternoon who, despite the fact that the Labor government put the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Free TAFE Guarantee) Bill 2026 on the Legislative Council business program this week, have just told me that they are bumping it from the Legislative Council government business program to a subsequent week. So it is curious that we only debated it in the Assembly as a bill last week and we are now discussing it as a motion today but the government are bumping it from their program in the upper house. It is curious. I am not really sure what is going on. Clearly the Labor government are tired after 12 years. Heaven forbid that Victorians would have to suffer 16 years of this Labor government. They are so tired they cannot work out what they are doing with a legislative agenda.

On a final note, with the 40 seconds that I have remaining – and I remind members that the minister had 18 minutes left and sat down; she had nothing more to say – I want to give a shout-out to our TAFE teachers. They are fantastic, our TAFE teachers, absolutely. Under this Allan Labor government, TAFE teachers are forced to work unpaid overtime. TAFE teachers had to fight for a reasonable pay offer from this Allan Labor government. They have been forced only as recently as this year to work unpaid hours by this Allan Labor government, and that is shameful on Labor. I give a shout-out to all the TAFE teachers who train our skilled workers.

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (18:51): It is a pleasure to speak on this motion, and it is a pity that the member for Evelyn did not take a leaf out of the leadership of the manager of government business, who yielded the floor for her colleagues to make a contribution also. And what generosity that was compared to the absolute oxygen-thieving thing we just saw for the last 30 minutes. You know, when we came to office, what we actually saw was TAFEs closed. We saw student numbers declining. We saw the financial viability of TAFEs on a downward spiral. In fact, just to remind people, because this is where the journey began, the Liberals sacked more than 2000 TAFE teachers. The Liberal Party did. They shut 22 campuses and ripped $1 billion from TAFEs across Victoria.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, just to ensure that we are factual in this debate, how many TAFE teachers are quitting under this Allan Labor government today?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): Member for Evelyn, what is your point of order?

Bridget Vallence: To be factual and ensure that all facts are on the table.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): There is no point of order.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: There were closures of TAFEs at Lilydale, Greensborough and many other places. But it was not just the closures, it was the courses that were cut, the teaching expertise that was let go – hundreds and in fact thousands of TAFE teachers who had another two, five, 10 years to teach Victorian students were let go by the Liberal–National–One Nation coalition. They were being cut from horticulture, tourism, automotive businesses, music, cooking, event management and IT. They were just absolutely spiralling out of control. In fact the number of students in apprenticeships and traineeships was down by 40 per cent from 2012 to 2014.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, just to make sure that we are direct and factual, horticultural courses were cut under the Labor government at Burnley.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): There is no point of order.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: There was a 40 per cent decline under the Liberal Party in student apprenticeships and traineeships in two years – a 40 per cent decline. Enrolments at TAFE dropped by 33 per cent. It was just extraordinary. So what we did was we opened closed TAFEs. In fact the former minister for education James Merlino reopened Lilydale TAFE in February 2016. So let us not believe the rubbish we hear from the opposition. As much regard as I have for the member who just spoke in her personal capacity, she was being absolutely mendacious in her commentary on the past. How could James Merlino open a TAFE if it was already open? We opened TAFEs. We augmented existing TAFEs. I went to I reckon about a dozen openings of buildings and facilities at Holmesglen TAFE, my local TAFE, in the first three or four years. That was because of the bounty the TAFEs got under our government. We arrested the decline in student enrolments, and the trend has been increasing ever since. But we went further, and this is something that those on the other side do not get – do not understand. We went further. When you believe in education, you act on it. The member said that she believes in TAFE I think about 17 times in her speech. She believes in TAFE. Oh my God, you could have fooled me.

When you believe in something, your budget output and your budget capital investment match your beliefs. Otherwise you are literally just lying – that is what you are doing. The fact that she stood there with a straight face and said, ‘We believe in TAFE’ 17 times and ‘My cousin’s uncle’s brother’s wife is a TAFE graduate’ – it does not matter, mate. None of that matters. What matters is: do you put your money where your mouth is? We did for tens of thousands – in fact hundreds of thousands – of Victorians. Not only did we rebuild the TAFEs, unlock the gates and invest in TAFEs – in buildings, in facilities, in people – but we also then created a pipeline of infrastructure projects across hospitals, schools, public transport and roads for those same TAFE students to then graduate to a job in the construction economy. That was good for the community. We have got new hospitals, we have got new schools, we have got new public transport and we have got new roads. In my electorate the community benefited in spades – level crossings removed and new train stations right through Hughesdale, Oakleigh, Murrumbeena, Carnegie and Clayton. When I was a kid those stations did not have escalators and did not have digital screens telling you when the next train was coming. This does not just happen because you believe in something and do not follow through. We followed through. We have built all that for the community. We have built it for the economy. The economy is far more productive because all of that is productive infrastructure. We had the workforce to be able to build it.

You know what else we did? We painted the circle right around. We completed the circle. We said to all those major contractors on major projects, ‘You will put on a percentage of apprentices on your jobs,’ because we wanted those apprentices to get a job. We wanted to train them from TAFE into the workplace and back to TAFE and back to the workplace. We have done this right through. We have done this with the health sector. We built the infrastructure, the hospitals, and we also employed more nurses and we employed more doctors. We provided accessible free courses for nurses to come into the workforce. This is what happens when you are ambitious, you are bold and you have values: you build an entire sector. You close the entire loop: the workforce, the infrastructure, the accessibility and the fee reduction or fee waivers. You build an entire sector in health, in transport and in construction. In my own portfolio of tourism there are tourism courses that we have provided free. We provided a free certificate III in tourism, certificate III in hospitality and certificate IV in outdoor leadership and a diploma of hospitality management. Since 2019, 129,000 women have benefited from free TAFE, and 57,000 regional Victorians and 22,300 people with a disability. This is what happens when you actually care about and believe in what you are saying and what you are doing.

But I cannot expect much different, to be honest, from the Liberal–National–One Nation coalition. I do not expect anything better. They have always been divisive. They always divide. They seek to divide based on your humanity. They seek to divide whether you are gay, whether you are Muslim, whether you are anything else, whether you are a woman. They are not builders. They do not build. Do you know what my grandmother used to say to me before she departed?

Matthew Guy interjected.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: ‘The louder you get, the more the factual inaccuracies are on your side.’ The member for Bulleen can talk as loud as he likes. His record is appalling, as is his party’s record, on TAFE closures, on hospital closures and on railway closures. They have no right to come in here and pretend they have built the Victorian community. They should be embarrassed walking into this motion. They should be embarrassed walking into a motion on free TAFE. They would not even know what free TAFE was. They voted against anything that resembled access and equity for the Victorian community, from TAFE to hospitals. They are absolutely reprehensible. Do you know why? Because none of their family or friends are really TAFE people. Their friends and family are Oxford and Cambridge graduates. They are St Kevin’s and the –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I am required under sessional orders to interrupt the minister.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.