Julian Hill
Bruce · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“We want people to aspire to home ownership and to get into the housing market, and yet for the past 20 years it has felt like, however fast they save on the treadmill, house prices just race ahead twice as fast—and that's what the data shows. The opposition's policy depends on who you ask.”
“For those listening at home, Narrabundah is a pretty wealthy suburb in Canberra. He was standing in front of a flat this morning that, in 2006, sold for $420,000. The asking price today is $900,000. He thinks that's not a problem. He thinks nothing needs to change.”
“One of the things that we've been hearing over the last couple of weeks, out in the community—I was at the Berwick market on Sunday morning; around Dandenong at lunchtime—is the question of house prices. What's going to happen with house prices with the government's tax changes? I want to make a couple of points.”
“The definition of insanity, of course, is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, which is what we see from the Liberal Party. Actually, I'm going to contradict myself; I'll finish on this point. They do have one policy for housing: super for housing.”
“Seven out of 10 for performance art. There were a few questions I was actually looking forward to responding to, but unfortunately the opposition chose to call a bunch of silly divisions and has eaten into the time, so we've run out of time. Proposed expenditure agreed to.”
“The truth is, from when the government was elected four years ago, debt is in a better place. It's lower, deficits are lower and the debt-to-GDP ratio is lower. The fact is—and you can see it in the budget papers in black and white—the budget is in far, far better shape than the mess that the Liberals left behind.”
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“I couldn't imagine my home city without Jewish Australians, without Jewish life, without Jewish culture and without their contribution to every domain of our national life for a century. I was the mayor of a council that covered half of the bagel belt in Carlisle Street and synagogues around east St Kilda and nearby. I attended a Shabbat dinner last Friday, just a few days ago, with my daughter. We spent hours with senior members of the Jewish community talking, eating, laughing, sharing, emoting and listening to each other. I'll say very clearly: Jewish Australians are not responsible for the actions of the Netanyahu government, whether they agree with them or not. With respect to Iran, what's happened is abhorrent. We've had a foreign regime effect potentially murderous and deadly attacks, criminal attacks, on our soil.”
“Antisemitism, like other forms of discrimination, is a stain on our society. It has no place in Australia, whether its antisemitism or hatred and violence of any form. Every Australian deserves to feel safe and respected, be it in their community, their workplace, their school or their place of worship, no matter their race or their faith. An Australian, to me, is anyone who's committed to our country, its democratic institutions and that basic principle of mutual respect for their fellow Australians, who may be very different and believe very different things, be it about God or world politics. We need to disagree agreeably about some things. As a personal comment, I grew up in Melbourne.”
“I'm saddened by the terms of this debate, by the motion and the framing. This is not a partisan issue. Antisemitism is an ancient scourge. It's an ancient hatred that's existed for centuries or, indeed, millennia—thousands of years. It's spiked and receded over time and places, but the awful reality is that, since Hamas's murderous terrorist attack nearly two years ago, we've seen a spike in antisemitism here in Australia. It's as real as it is debilitating. We see this in the Scanlon report on social cohesion that tracks these things over time, the world's longest longitudinal study in any country. We see it in the data on reported incidents from states and territories reflected in the special envoy's recent report, and we hear it in the lived experience of our Jewish friends and community members.”
“The amendments in this bill complement the amendments in the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025. I commend this bill—if not its name!—to the chamber. Debate adjourned.”
“Schedule 16 will contain the preferential rates of customs duty for imported goods that satisfy the rules of origin set out in the agreement. UAE originating goods not set out in schedule 16 will have a 'free' rate of duty. Australia has committed to reducing the rate of customs duty on most UAE originating goods to 'free', either at entry into force or over several years following entry into force of the agreement. Excise-equivalent goods—which are certain fuel, alcohol, tobacco and petroleum products—that are UAE originating goods will continue to have excise equivalent duties of customs applied, so they receive the same treatment as domestically produced equivalents. Finally, this bill also amends certain tariff concessions to maintain their scope and ensure that commitments made under the agreement are honoured.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Customs Tariff Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025 will amend the Customs Tariff Act 1995 to implement the preferential rates of customs duty for UAE originating goods to implement the free trade agreement known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Australia and the United Arab Emirates. These amendments, together with the amendments by the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025, will ensure that Australia fulfils its obligations as a signatory to the agreement and is prepared for the agreement to enter into force in Australia. This bill will insert a new schedule of duty rates into the Customs Tariff Act.”
“The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties—and I acknowledge that you're the chair of that committee, Deputy Speaker Chesters—reviewed both the agreement and related supplementary investment agreement, and recommended they be ratified. I commend this bill to the chamber. Debate adjourned.”
“It will also enhance Australia's economic engagement with the UAE through strengthened trade rules that will help build upon our already healthy trading relationship. The amendments contained in this bill will establish, in the Customs Act, the rules-of-origin and document-retention requirements called for by the agreement. Those amendments determine when imported goods from the United Arab Emirates in accordance with the agreement may be considered to have originating status, called UAE originating goods, and be eligible for preferential rates of customs duty. Complementary amendments to the Customs Tariff Act 1995 are also required to provide for these preferential rates of customs duty applicable to UAE originating goods.”
“The agreement will give a competitive advantage to Australian exporters by eliminating tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian exports, by value, to the UAE. It is estimated that this will result in tariff savings of up to $135 million on Australian goods exported to the UAE in the first year, rising to $160 million as tariffs are progressively eliminated over five years. The agreement locks in access to services markets, and provides a framework to facilitate investment to support Australia's energy transition and Future Made in Australia ambitions. It will also improve certainty for exporters and importers, service suppliers and investors across the whole economy. The agreement will support a strong and diversified economy that will enhance the resilience of Australia's trade and investment to future crises.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025 amends the Customs Act 1901 to implement the free trade agreement known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The agreement will bring commercial and strategic benefits. The UAE is Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East. In 2024, total trade between the UAE and Australia was worth $12.3 billion. UAE investment into Australia rose to $14.7 billion in 2024, while our investment in the UAE rose to $9 billion, resulting in two-way trade of $23.7 billion.”
“This seems a bit more promising if you read the glowing online reviews. I'll read some. John lswanto from St Kilda wrote: The ICS team broke down my plan in a way that was easy to understand and helped me find the best providers to suit my needs. Another positive review was left by Numen Khan from Richmond, who said: They helped me set and achieve meaningful goals. A basic Google search though reveals all is not as it seems. Mr Iswanto's photo actually fronts hundreds of fake reviews globally, including as a student in London and the head of marketing at crown plaza sweets in Sydney. He's even a general project coordinator in Azerbaijan.”
“Unfortunately, though, they forgot to authorise their handiwork in breach of various laws and electoral regulations. The police remain on the case, so let's see who gets outed now. But I'll go back to Mr Safi, the man that the Liberal Party still thinks should've been elected to sit in this House. Turns out Mr Safi, the businessman, actually owns three NDIS providers. One of them, Willow Support Services, was registered to a residential address, yet the people living there said they had no idea about the business. They did, however, receive mail for it from time to time, which they put in the bin—exactly what the Liberal Party should've done much earlier with their candidate. Another business, No. 2 of Mr Safi's NDIS businesses, was recently deregistered for unpaid fees. But then there's Infinite Community Supports.”
“For the record, I don't have a husband, but at least they chose a nice photo of me. The broader community was appalled. It was personally unpleasant at the time, I will acknowledge. But my heart went out to all the young people grappling with their own identity who had to see that toxic rubbish in 2025. We weren't surprised by the banners and their vile WhatsApp groups—yes, we got the screenshots. An insider had tipped off, for months, that this was their central campaign tactic. Geniuses! I wish I could send whichever of their goons organised the banners a lovely thankyou note. Not only has it showed the broader community what they are really like but also their tactics generated generous donations and a hell of a lot more volunteers.”
“There was a Liberal Party truck, which we have a video of, that went around every night, rain or shine—it wasn't shining, because it was night—nailing hundreds of signs, literally hundreds, to trees, roundabouts, schools, churches park fences, and everything that didn't move. People called my office en masse—we've never had this before—enraged that Mr Safi's face had been nailed to their own fence in the night without permission. They even tied political signs to the RSL. You can imagine how well that went. Then one night massive banners that were homophobic appeared across south-east Melbourne, on freeways, overpasses and park fences right through Isaacs and La Trobe. They didn't know the boundaries; they were actually trying to capture people going in and out work—in some bizarre personal smear.”
“Others quietly explained to me that Mr Safi had access to significant mysterious funds which helped to fund his own campaign as well as his patron and mentors. Whatever their reasons, as a result, my community endured a toxic, nasty, negative campaign replete with misogyny, racism, homophobia, and good old-fashioned intimidation, largely at the hands of Mr Safi's associates. It was consistent, I suppose, with their national campaign, where they literally ran out of groups of Australians to offend and alienate with their culture wars. The serial and daily disregard for the law and community amenity in Bruce saw the most bizarre signage wars we have ever seen.”
“Over months, a number of local Liberal branch members—the small number of decent people they still retain—quietly shared their unease that someone so manifestly unsuitable to sit in our national parliament had been preselected by a party of government. As things progressed, they shared their deep dismay at the sort of campaign they were embroiled in. Nobody has ever properly explained why he was chosen. Some have concluded it was basic idiotic racism, a simplistic offensive view that if Mr Safi was the choice then all Muslim voters, and especially all Afghan voters, would automatically vote for him, as if they were Daleks with one brain cell that would vote along ethnic or religious lines, not Australian citizens with their own hopes or dreams and diverse thoughts and views.”
“A deep commitment to lying, dodging and weaving would be more accurate, as it became clear as the campaign unfolded. What my community endured during this campaign deserves to be recorded here. What happened in Bruce is bad for Australia's democracy, and it shines light on the ongoing failure of the Liberal Party, including its new leadership cabal, to face up to it, apologise, or reform itself. I quite liked and respected my three previous Liberal opponents—I did; I never heard from them again, but I did like them. But from the moment Mr Safi was mysteriously chosen to be the Liberal candidate, locals started calling, whispering and writing to me, raising serious concerns about his personal integrity and business dealings.”
“This time it wasn't the far-right Fraser Anning neo-Nazis, which we endured in 2019, or the Palmer cookers of 2022, and not even the One Nation folks, who actually turned up this time—last time they had a candidate from Queensland, no-one even turned up, but to everybody's surprise, they were very decently behaved. No, in 2025, the truly vile and disgusting behaviour, day in day out on the ground, emanated, radiated like a nuclear cloud from the Liberal Party—the supposed alternative government over there, or what's left of them, fuelled by their choice of the dodgiest major party candidates ever seen, Mr Zahid Atal Safi and the collection of largely intimidatory, discriminatory goons he surrounded himself with. Mr Safi and his party advertised him as 'a successful small businessman' who had 'a deep commitment to his community'.”
“Stretching from the rural shire of Cardinia through established greenfield areas of the city of Casey and the hyper-multicultural Greater Dandenong, and to touch the city of Monash, Bruce has the largest number of voters of any seat in Victoria and tens of thousands of future citizens as well. Whilst campaigns are always tough, this one was especially brutal. The Liberals and News Ltd were convinced they'd win Bruce. But it turns out the magnificent people of Bruce felt differently. We achieved the largest to swing to any incumbent MP in the country—9.31 per cent, thanks to the team. It was an incredible team effort due to hundreds of volunteers who lived their values. But this election wasn't just difficult; it was the most disgraceful and dirty campaign locals have ever seen. You might ask, why so?”
“I also acknowledge my friend the member for Fisher's work on mental health. I enjoyed greatly our time working on the defence subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Committee and elsewhere. I wish you a long and illustrious career serving in opposition on parliamentary committees! Here we are. We've survived the world's worst job interview; it's my fourth in a row! I give very grateful thanks to the people of Bruce. The defining characteristic of the Bruce electorate is its human diversity—people of every background, from literally everywhere, speaking hundreds of different languages every day, getting on with daily life together.”
“But the $315 billion of cuts are just the start, because he needs to cut a lot more than that to fund $600 billion of risky nuclear reactors that'll push up your power bills by $1,200—and goodness knows how much he needs to cut for the $10 billion bosses' long lunches giant tax loopholes. Peter Dutton is worse than Scott Morrison, and that's a big call.”
“Never before in the history of our Westminster democracy, in 120 years, have we had an opposition leader, the pretend, alternative Prime Minister, who is so arrogant, so divisive and so reckless that he's saying to Australians: 'I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do.' Well, he should get the response that he deserves from people for that kind of arrogance. He's like a cheap complaints line. He wanders around the country like a Harry Potter styled dementor spreading negative energy, fear, hate and division with not a single costed credible policy.”
“He tried to introduce a GP tax to literally destroy bulk billing and charge every Australian to go to the doctor, because, according to the Liberal Party, if you don't pay for it you don't value it. He even floated introducing a charge to go to the emergency department of public hospitals. That's actually his record. When we say this, when we remind Australians of what he's actually like and what he actually is, the Liberals say, 'You're running a scare campaign'. I tell you what's scary: the idea that the Leader of the Opposition is in charge of anything and is able to implement his $315 billion horror show of cuts to public services.”
“There's nothing that he's really for except for secret cuts, but there are some clues on what he wants to cut; you've got to follow the breadcrumb trail. He said that free TAFE is wasteful spending. He's opposed cheaper child care. He doesn't like those cheaper medicines that are helping with the cost of living. He's called for an election on Labor's tax cuts; he's been against the tax cuts, but who knows what he's for. You can also look at his record. If you're following the trail, he's against Medicare and the universal health system. When he was the health minister in that horror show period under Tony Abbott, $50 billion was cut from public hospitals. That's his record. They're the facts and numbers.”
“Last week the opposition leader, in his shambles of a show—I say 'shambles' because I can't say the other S-word that goes with 'show' here—reached a new low of disrespect not only to the people that I represent in south-east Melbourne but to every Australian. He announced his official policy where he literally will not tell the Australian people before the election what he's going to cut. His official policy now is—they're his words—he's not going to tell you about the $315 billion of secret cuts. He's asking people to vote for him but he won't tell them what he's going to cut. Literally, these are massive, secret cuts. You know what he's for: secret cuts. As Niki Savva rightly said in her column this morning, he doesn't have a single, costed, credible policy to put forward.”
“I think this is a really important bill. I think it goes to that first part of the success ingredient for a multicultural society—that we need to constantly review and, where necessary, strengthen the legal foundations and the protections for Australians whatever their background. To me, the great promise of Australian multiculturalism is that great Australian promise of a fair go —that everyone gets a chance to fulfil their human potential and live their life in our country free from discrimination no matter their faith, their ethnicity, their circumstances, how long they've been here or their identity. That's what this bill is about—protecting Australians. I commend it to the House, and I hope, as the ASIO boss said, we can lower the temperature.”
“We don't want to see the fight. You have your view; I'll have mine. We can talk about it.' We need to rediscover the art, in our diverse society, of disagreeing agreeably. I pay tribute to those interfaith leaders who are quietly looking at ways to start to bridge those gaps and restart some dialogue. It's been one of the saddest things to see—the breakdown of decades-old interfaith relationships over this conflict. As Minister Burke has said, if ever there were a time for the Muslim incantation—inshallah or God willing—it would be in response to the ceasefire and the current cessation of overt hostilities in the Middle East. Let's hope, for the sake of people in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon who are affected by this conflict, as well as Australians, that that holds. That's a bit of context.”
“We're standing in the centre of that and trying to, I think, do what the vast majority of Australians want, which is not to divide our society and not to see our workplaces, schools, sporting clubs, public transport and public events divided by a global conflict because people in the Liberal Party on the one hand and the Greens political party on the other want to try and chase a few votes by weaponising this conflict here. The vast majority of Australians sit in the middle. It's also true, I think, that most Australians think: 'Not my cup of tea, mate. You do your thing; I'll do mine.' But they don't like to see faith groups fighting. That's not part of our tradition. I think some of that rise in negative attitudes is actually explained by what is a pretty benign and decent response: 'Just don't bring that stuff here.”
“We've unpicked that a bit. We did it informally. I've talked a bit about this in speeches. The reality of life in modern Australia is that global conflicts and global events do impact daily life here. We're a globally connected society. What happens in the world impacts our communities, be it through family, friends, loved ones, social media, care for homelands and so on. That said the vast majority of Australians don't want global conflicts to rip apart our society. I've called out repeatedly what the Greens political party have done, spreading lies and active disinformation. Again, at the other side of the political spectrum, they've trying to profit electorally, harvest a few votes—it has been a difficult time to govern.”
“To be glass-half-full, what it showed last year was actually no change in the headline measure of social cohesion. Pleasingly, despite all of the strains on society, the percentage of Australians who support our multicultural society, support its character and celebrate their identity as Australians didn't show a major change. I think it went from about 85 to 81. That's a canary in the coalmine. You don't want to see that stuff go down. But what we did see was a significant rise in the number of Australians holding antisemitic views, and, actually, an even more significant rise in the number of Australians holding Islamophobic views. That's what the data said. They're two particular indices that, for obvious reasons, they've measured for some years. We saw a correlating rise in negative attitudes towards people of faith generally.”
“The government is committed to protecting the entire community from those who want to promote extremism or hatred or incite violence. There's no place for that stuff in our diverse society—none whatsoever. As I said, I decry the politicisation of this. I'll touch on some aspects of the bill. Actually, no, I just want to say a little more on that point on social cohesion. The Scanlon Foundation's work is actually the longest-running longitudinal study examining social cohesion that we've found anywhere in the world. It's not perfect—people can critique the methodology, and that's perfectly legitimate—but the fact that it's longitudinal, even if you want to argue about the questions, means it does give you a year-on-year comparison to see how things are going.”
“There's racism. The Anti-Racism Framework released by the Human Rights Commission last year called that out. In my community, I don't have a large Jewish community, though I was mayor of a council, I think in the member for Macnamara's electorate, which has the largest Jewish community. We have old and close connections with the conservative and the progressive elements of the Jewish community, if you want to call it that, despite some of the rubbish that gets written in certain media outlets. But in my community, it's Islamophobia. We've seen, since the conflict in the Middle East, more public abuse and personal intimidation of mainly Muslim women going about their business. They'll be shopping with their kids and get abused in the street. There's homophobia. It's all the forms of discrimination that this bill seeks to address.”
“It's a serious issue, and I know the member for Wentworth and the member for Macnamara over there feel this as much as or more than anyone in this parliament, given what you two have experienced in your community. It's a serious issue, and it shouldn't be politicised. They call for laws on doxxing. They don't like to talk about the fact they voted against the laws on doxxing last year, despite calling for them. Despite the fact they're still trying to claim credit for them, they actually voted against them. So let's see where their vote lands this time. They weren't in favour of this legislation late last year. Let's see how they vote now. The strains on our social cohesion are real. The horrific series of antisemitic incidents in capital cities is probably the most visible sign of that. But there are other forms of discrimination.”
“What we saw with that rotten government—and the now opposition leader was right at the heart of this nasty little tawdry campaign—was a spike in racism. People with black skin got abused on public transport. In my community, Muslim women had headscarves ripped off. Sikh guys had their turbans ripped off. Jewish people were bagged in the street for showing the articles of their faith. The leadership lesson I took was: 'Don't be like the Liberal Party. Don't try to divide the community and chase votes based on dog whistling.' Sadly, that's what we're seeing. The Attorney-General rightly described the Leader of the Opposition's disgusting attempts to politicise antisemitism and chase votes as grotesque.”
“I arrived in Canberra bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and full of good ideas, and I was shocked to discover that the then government's main legislative priority—which consumed the then government party room, with Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison and the whole rotten cabal of the IPA—was to weaken the Racial Discrimination Act. That's what they came to Canberra to do. They don't like to talk about that now because the Labor Party worked with the Jewish community and the multicultural communities of this country to fight and stop the then Liberal government weakening the Racial Discrimination Act. It's a shameful moment in our history, and the leadership lesson I learnt then was that the words that are said in this parliament and the things that leaders do in this country have real-world impacts.”
“When we face stresses and strains on our social cohesion, which I'll touch on in a moment, as we are at this time in our history, we've got to look at all aspects of that formula. Where do we need to strengthen our legal regimes and our protections? This is a good example, where the government is of the view that we need to strengthen the legal protections and the regimes which exist to protect people from hate speech and to allow people to be themselves, whatever that means, and to be safe in the community. It means investing, as the government is, but it also means thinking about leadership. I learnt a really important lesson in my first six months here, in 2016.”
“It is investing to allow people to celebrate and cherish their cultural traditions, to pass them on, and, importantly, to share them with the broader community. Again, that takes investment. But in my view, the magic ingredient, the secret sauce, of success is leadership at all levels—political leadership, faith leadership, interfaith work and community leadership. Day in, day out, it's the community leaders, the volunteers and the people on committees and organisations who do that work of building our social cohesion and maintaining it. Social cohesion is not an end state; it's inherent in the word 'cohesion'. 'To cohere' means to come together. Social cohesion is a dynamic process. We can't take it for granted.”
“This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Whitlam Labor government's introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act, having abolished the last vestiges of the old racist White Australia policy. That act has stood the test of time laying the legal foundations but it alone has not been enough; there are other things that we've had to layer on in that task of trying to maintain a cohesive society in the face of all this diversity and these conflicting views. Second, as you would know, Deputy Speaker Payne, is investment. Often that's helping new people settle in. The member for Banks over there also represents a diverse electorate. You have to sometimes give some people a bit more help than others to get on their feet and set up life here and succeed.”
“Part of the thesis of that book was observing that, if you look through history, most diverse societies—the Ottoman Empire and other places we could mention—were actually run by authoritarian rulers. The notion of a modern liberal democratic polity existing with the level of human diversity that we have—be it faith, linguistic, cultural or ethnic—is actually a very new notion; it is, some would say, only decades old in the whole of human history. So the jury's out. People in 200 years will look back and see how we did. Hopefully there'll still be a peaceful, democratic, diverse society that we've bequeathed to them, to those who come after us. But we can't take our success for granted. Success, in my view, has three key attributes. First is legal foundations and political intent.”
“They will provide protection to Australians right across the community from hate speech and from those who would urge violence. I'll make a couple of contextual remarks though. I believe we're the world's most successful multicultural society—one of the most diverse societies on the planet. We can run a bit of a book with Canada, but I'll claim we're the most successful! But just being a diverse society is not the same thing as being a successful multicultural society. We can all think of countries that are diverse that are not successful. Indeed, the member for Wentworth recommended a book when we caught up for a cup of tea last year, and, I will admit, I didn't finish it over the summer, as I promised—I'll give you this confession now!—but I did get through another couple of chapters.”
“No Australian should be targeted because of who they are or what they believe, and the government has worked diligently to introduce this legislation to create new criminal offences and to also strengthen the protections against hate crimes within existing criminal offences. The bill will create new criminal offences for directly threatening the use of force or violence against a group or a member of a group. I've had a lot of emails from people who are a bit confused asking, 'Does it protect this characteristic or this group?' Importantly, these offences will protect groups or members of groups distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin, or political opinion.”
“These are always, rightly so, contested bills in a democracy because, when you're measuring one set of rights—and some would rightly say freedom of speech is of critical value in our society, but freedom of speech is not unlimited. It never has been. You can't incite people to violence. You can't defame people. You can't breach national security classifications. In any decent society, there have always been some limits to freedom of speech, and, in this case, there are a complex set of things that we balance. But it is a significant piece of legislation. Let there be no doubt at the outset that the government is committed to protecting the community from those amongst us who would promote extremism, violence or hatred or seek to incite violence. That's a values based commitment.”
“From the outset, I really want to pick up where the previous speech left off. I commend the Attorney-General for bringing this bill to the House. It hasn't been a quick thing. I know, from hearing the Attorney-General report to the government caucus room and to caucus committees and from talking with colleagues about the development of this bill, which was introduced last year and extensively considered through the proper parliamentary processes, that this is something that he is rightly personally proud of and has put a lot of careful intellectual thought into with extensive consultation. These are complex areas of legislation, as we know, because they intersect with state and territory regimes and balance competing rights.”
“I'm not holding my breath. They have this bizarre ideological opposition to universal services. They have this stated opposition to the concept of free TAFE. Well, we have a different view, and it's one part of the very clear choice that Australians will have at the election. They have opposed every single cost-of-living measure that the government has put forward—no, no, no, no. Well, this government believes in training. We believe in skilling Australians. It's good for the economy. It's good for people's wallets and household budgets. It's a choice. I back free TAFE.”
“They can be more nimble in responding at times to industry or business training needs, but they don't invest in the regions, the outer suburbs and those critical, high-value courses for the economy that might have high capital costs. That's what TAFE does, and it's important. So I say unashamedly that TAFEs are valued and trusted public institutions. They're trusted partners in our communities. They lead in innovating teaching and learning practices. They support students in succeeding and assist industries in developing skilled workforces. There's a TAFE in nearly every community across Australia, and every community across Australia deserves access to great vocational education and training. I really encourage at least a few members of the opposition to use their brains, do the right thing and support the government's bill.”
“The private sector is also important, but it's part of the ecosystem that hangs around the backbone. The Liberals have a fundamentally different philosophy. They don't respect the TAFE system. They don't respect public TAFEs. They don't understand the value or importance of TAFEs in our local communities. They've shown time after time with flawed reforms that they will go for cheap and fast training over a well-supported and trusted VET sector with TAFE at the heart. The Minister for Industry and Science is sitting here and nodding furiously. TAFE is the core of the training sector. That shouldn't be a controversial proposition. Saying that is not anti every private provider. There are some fantastic private providers that innovate.”
“I want to sort of puncture the illusion here. The stereotype is that the Liberals are all for private and that Labor are all for TAFE. That is not my view. I'll put it on the record. I think TAFE is the backbone of our training system. I'm not ashamed to say it. It does the heavy lifting. It invests in the heavy capital courses that the private sector will not invest in. It's a market failure if you think that the private sector is going to do all of that. That's just a fact. It's TAFE that invests in the regions, in particular. It's absolutely critical for access and equity, for outer metropolitan areas and for the regions. Private providers are not springing up overwhelmingly in those areas. TAFE is critical. It is the backbone of the training sector.”
“But I dare the Leader of the Opposition, who must be skulking around the building, watching on TV, walking past or having staff keep up with what's going on, to come in here and say the word 'TAFE'. The Leader of the Opposition, the purported alternative prime minister of the country, has no policies. Well, he does have policies: they're for giant cuts, but he won't tell you where or what, so he's got a secret policy. He hasn't said the word 'TAFE'. He has not uttered the word TAFE in this chamber, in this parliament, for 21 years. He could come in here and say TAFE today. Nothing bad is going to happen. It's not scary. Millions of Australians go to TAFE. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition at least says TAFE. She calls it 'wasteful spending'. But, there you go, the Liberals don't respect our public TAFEs. There is a kind of stereotype.”
“But it's also consistent with their record in government in that wasted decade of decay, dysfunction and division. There were 22 energy policies. It ripped to bits three prime ministers. The Liberals presided in that decade over the second biggest skills shortage of any developed country in the OECD, and yet, despite all of the noise and the rhetoric, they still failed to land a national agreement with the states and territories to build Australia's skill base. There was an absolute crisis in skills, construction and trades—a 50 per cent shortage of workers—and they still failed to land an agreement with any of the states and territories. Worse than that: they actually cut $3 billion from the VET system and TAFE when they were in government.”
“They have been consistent this term in opposing cost-of-living help, because it's not just free TAFE; they opposed the tax cuts, spoke against—we were going to have an election, apparently, last year. They called for an election so that people could have a say on Labor's tax cuts for every taxpayer. They opposed cheaper medicines. They opposed the $300 energy rebate for every household. They opposed the caps on wholesale gas prices. They opposed cheaper child care—more wasteful spending, according to the opposition. They oppose free TAFE. In fact, along with free TAFE, if they'd had their way over the last 2½ years, every Australian household would be $7,200 worse off. That's the sum total of them saying no, no, no, no, no to every cost-of-living measure that the government has put forward.”