Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): My adjournment is to the Minister for Training and Skills. The action I seek is that the minister provide me with an update on the impact of our free TAFE program on young people across Melbourne’s inner north who are looking to access new skills and career pathways. Young people today face very real challenges, challenges that are impacting not only their quality of life but also their hopes for the future. Finding a decent job, owning a home, having stability and support to pursue their passions and aspirations—these are not givens for this generation, and for nine long years under the coalition government young people in Australia have been virtually invisible. Here in Victoria we have a different approach. Labor is working to give our young people opportunity, stability, equality and hope. With huge reforms in youth mental health, more social and affordable housing, better protections for renters and real action on climate change, we are changing the future for our young Victorians. We are investing to drive up wages and address casualisation, and we are protecting workers through reforms like our historic wage theft laws and sick pay guarantee. But one of the most transformational things we are doing is through free TAFE.

We now have over 60 free courses under this program targeted at our state’s key skill shortages. These are pathways to secure, decent jobs, jobs that deliver on our nation-leading reform agenda, including in aged care, allied health, nursing, disability, early childhood education, mental health and youth work. Valuing these skills and supporting young people to follow their passions and train for these jobs is all part of our plan to create more prosperity in this state, and since 2019 Victorians have saved more than $204 million in tuition fees and more than 87 000 people have benefited from starting a free course. Locally we have students at Melbourne Polytechnic learning new skills in building and construction and horticulture right here in our suburbs. The latest course to become free is Auslan. How awesome! This will help more people start a career as an Auslan interpreter and build a stronger, more inclusive Victoria in the process. When this was announced last week it hit home with many people in my community. One local family reached out to share their elation, saying, ‘This announcement will hopefully lead to not only greater interest and skills in Auslan in the community but also support families building their ability to communicate with and teach their deaf and hard-of-hearing children’. That is the power of a progressive, committed Labor government. While those opposite have taken every opportunity to trash TAFE and left the sector decimated, we see the value of investing in Victorian skills, so we are getting on with the job of supporting young people to access opportunities, grow our economy and deliver a brighter future for Victorians.