Thursday, 19 February 2026

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:37): I rise today to update the chamber on Labor’s commitment to public education for all Victorians. With the rising cost of living Victorian families need affordable public education they can rely on. That is why we committed to public TAFE at the centre of our training system, and we are delivering on that commitment. In 2014 we inherited a broken training system – less than half of the state’s training budget went to public TAFE. Dodgy rorts had spread, 22 campuses were shut, the regions missed out and fees were a barrier to training. Now Labor has rebuilt, and will continue to rebuild, public TAFE. We have lifted our share of TAFE funding to over 70 per cent. How did we do this? We did it through opening TAFE campuses, we paid TAFE teachers a fair wage, we invested over $600 million in TAFE campuses, we have invested over $16 billion in training – in baseline and new funding – and we have delivered free TAFE so Victorians can afford quality training.

Under our government our share of TAFE funding has been above 70 per cent every year since 2019. Under the previous government it fell below half; under us it is over 70 per cent. And the job is not done. We must protect public TAFE from more Liberal cuts. We must make it law that TAFE funding never again falls below 70 per cent and that free TAFE cannot be abolished. That is exactly what our free TAFE bill will do, because Victorian families deserve public education that they can rely on – a public TAFE system that cannot be cut. Only Labor will deliver this.