My question is directed to the Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education. Given the fact that there has been no increase in TAFE funding for 13 years, and the Government has saved considerably after being given support for fee-free placements from the Federal Government, will the Minister be diverting the money saved into TAFE and increasing the TAFE budget quantum?

Mr STEVE WHAN (Monaro—Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education) (12:09): I thank the member for Ballina for her question. Last week I was pleased to visit the Wollongbar TAFE with the member for Ballina, the Lismore TAFE with the member for Lismore, and the Kingscliff TAFE with the member for Tweed to see some of the fantastic work that is going on there. I will talk more about those campuses in a moment. I assure the member for Ballina that this Government has engaged in the difficult process of reversing the neglect for TAFE that we saw over many years from those opposite. This year we have seen a real increase in funding for TAFE. Government members inherited a situation going into this year's budget where the forward estimates left to us by members opposite saw a reduction from $1.996 billion to $1.801 billion for TAFE. That is a $196 million decrease in the forward estimates for TAFE, which is why we intervened to increase the TAFE funding.

We were then able to sign the five-year National Skills Agreement with the Commonwealth, which Opposition members failed to secure in their time in government. It guarantees a minimum of $2.8 billion in Federal funding for our skills and TAFE system over the next five years. I am happy to announce that, following the signing of the national agreement, the Government was able to add additional funding for TAFE in the half‑yearly budget review. That means that not only have we completely filled the former Government's shortfall and pulled TAFE back from the funding cliff that Opposition members quite deliberately left it on when they were in government, but also we were able to see a record 2023-24 operating budget of $2.131 billion for TAFE. That represents a 6.8 per cent increase on the financial year 2022-23 operating budget and an increase in the actual expenditure from the previous year as well.

The overall skills budget has increased under this Government by 6.33 per cent in recurrent funding, which is a strong achievement given the parlous financial situation left to us by members opposite. We can all be very proud of that. In visiting the North Coast TAFEs the other day, I was really impressed to see the range of work that is going on, and particularly to hear from the amazing staff at the Wollongbar TAFE campus about the role that that TAFE and the Kingscliff TAFE played in the flood operations in the area a few years ago. It is quite sensational to see the work they did as evacuation centres and as places for the emergency services to reside while they were there. I congratulate all those staff.