On Tuesday, shadow education minister Sarah Henderson let the cat out of the bag on fee-free TAFE. Speaking to a room full of voters in Geelong, Henderson complained that the government’s expenses on fee-free TAFE had cost the budget $1.5 billion.
“I am sorry”, she told the crowd. “It’s just not working”.

It’s not the first sign that the Coalition would make cuts in this area. Back in November, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley spoke on behalf of private vocational education providers who may not love having to compete with the Commonwealth.

Couching her remarks in the garb of Liberal Party values, Ley said “if you don’t pay for something, you don’t value it.”
It fell to Coalition spokesperson Jane Hume to hold the line yesterday, telling reporters that she doesn’t believe fee-free TAFE is “delivering on its promise”.

Here are a few key facts to clear things up on this matter.

In its first budget, the government allocated $871.7 million over 5 years for fee-free TAFE places in “industries and regions with skill shortages”. The commitment was for 480,000 places in the areas with the most acute skills bottlenecks.

Last year, the government promised in its budget a further $88.8 million to provide for 20,000 fee-free places in housing-related TAFE courses. Their promise at this election is to make 100,000 fee-free places a permanent part of the vocational training landscape.

Total Commonwealth spending on vocational education has risen during this parliament, but final budget outcomes have shown that the government spent $28 million less than budgeted for in 2022-23, and $114 million less than planned in 2023-24. Hardly a sign of fiscal recklessness.

Even if the Coalition were right about its $1.5 billion figure, that pales in comparison with other key tax concessions in the federal budget. Treasury has estimated that the capital gains tax discount (for individuals and trusts) cost the budget $19 billion in 2023-24.

So fee-free TAFE is not unaffordable. It’s also working, with more than 568,000 enrolments in the right skills areas so far.

Everyone deserves the chance to get a good education. $260 million for a few technical colleges for high school students is nice but isn’t enough to unclog Australia’s skills bottlenecks.