Tafe

Supporting apprentices, or voting against them?

Starting an apprenticeship means finding a couple of grand for tools before you've earned a cent. For a working family backing a kid through a trade, that's real money upfront, on top of everything else.

There used to be $5,500 to help with exactly that, paid in cash, tax free, across the apprenticeship. It was scrapped in 2014 and swapped for a loan instead – up to $20,000 of debt to pay back.

Twice since, parliament has had the chance to make TAFE fee-free. Both times, One Nation senators voted no.

• July 2025 – Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts and fellow One Nation senator Tyron Whitten all voted no to an amendment making university and TAFE fee-free. The same day, Hanson spoke against wiping 20 per cent of student debt – around $244 million in apprentice loans and $317 million in VET loans, gone for people already qualified and working.
• October 2023 – Hanson and Roberts voted no to the same fee-free TAFE proposal, two years earlier.

Construction is one of the trades free TAFE was built for, and every side of politics agrees Australia needs more houses built. Hard to do that without tradies, and harder still to become one while carrying debt for tools and training most other apprentices don't have to pay for.

Every vote here is checkable in a couple of minutes. Links below.