I'm pleased to provide an update on how people in my community are benefiting from the Albanese Labor government's fee-free TAFE initiative. Through this program, not only are we helping Australians get ahead while easing cost-of-living pressures, we are also supporting training places in areas of high demand like the care, construction and early childhood and education sectors.
I was delighted to welcome the brilliant Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, to the Hunter recently, where we announced that over 150,000 Australians enrolled in a fee-free TAFE course in the first half of 2024. This takes the total number of enrolments in fee-free TAFE courses since January 2023 to almost 509,000 people and shows what a massive success this initiative has already been. I said on the day, 'Fee-free TAFE is changing people's lives.'
While he was visiting my community, I took Minister Giles to a Belmont TAFE where we spoke with students studying fee-free TAFE courses, including 21-year-old Nikita, a local tradie, who is studying to become a boilermaker and who was full of praise for fee-free TAFE. Nikita said, 'It is actually amazing being able to not have the stress of paying anything but still being able to learn and get all the knowledge I possibly can.' That endorsement from Nikita demonstrates that fee-free TAFE courses are changing people's lives for the better and helping them with the cost of living. Not only that but they are boosting jobs in critical sectors like manufacturing, ensuring we are meeting the challenges of the skills shortages in our country. As the Minister for Defence Industry, I know how critical it is to grow the manufacturing workforce in our country and I thank Nikita for her enthusiasm in becoming a boilermaker.
This approach contrasts strongly with that of the Leader of the Opposition and the coalition. The Leader of the Opposition has not said the word 'TAFE' in parliament since 2004. For context, this was the year that Shrek 2 came out. We have heard nothing from him about how TAFE changes people's lives and nothing about how it is helping our country. Instead, we just hear about his obsession with his fantasy to build nuclear reactors around the country, including in the Hunter. Since the Leader of the Opposition announced his policy in June there have been a series of earthquakes around Denman and Muswellbrook, right next to the proposed site of one of the coalition's nuclear reactors. You would think that would give them pause to reconsider this policy but it appears not. Much like in Shrek, where kingdom is caught up in a fairytale, the Leader of the Opposition seems stuck on this fantasy of his own. But unlike a fairytale, his nuclear dreams will not end happily ever after for the people in my community. Labor's fee-free TAFE, in contrast, is a real-life solution to a real-life problem.