Address to Business Western Sydney, Unlocking Potential: Skills and Schools in the West

I am a western suburbs kid with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. 

I think it grew there when I got to uni and I saw how the other half lived and what the other half got. 

It’s what got me involved in the Labor Party. 

And what drives a lot of what I am doing now, in this job. 

I grew up in Cabramatta in classrooms full of kids from all around the world. 

One of those kids was a boy named Corey. He was a refugee from Vietnam.

He was the tallest kid in Year 7 and one of the shortest in Year 12. 

Why? He was five years older than the rest of us. 

His mum changed his age.

I only realised it a lot later what she was doing. 

She knew how important education was, and she didn’t want Corey to miss out. 

I don’t want any of our kids to miss out. 

I am the first person in my family to finish high school. 

The first to even finish year 10.  

When my mum and dad were growing up it wasn’t what most western suburbs kids did. 

Almost no one went to uni. 

That started to change in the 70s with Whitlam.  

And it changed even more in the 80s and 90s. 

Today most young people finish school.  

And about 50 percent go on and get a uni degree. 

But that divide between east and west that I noticed at uni still exists. 

More young people still finish school in the eastern suburbs than the west. 

And a lot more have uni degrees. 

The split is not uniform though. 

More young people have a uni degree here in Parramatta than parts of the North Shore. 

More than 62 percent. 

But you don’t have to drive far from here to find a different story. 

In Mount Druitt it’s 32 percent.  Fairfield it’s only 25 percent.  In Liverpool it’s 34 percent. 

In Cabramatta, where I grew up, it’s 30 percent.

Now you work in business. 

You know skill shortages are real. 

I suspect you also know that in the years ahead more jobs are going to require more skills. 

At the moment about 60 per cent of the workforce has a TAFE qualification or a uni degree. 

By the middle of the century that will be about 80 per cent. 

That’s a big jump. 

And the only way that happens is if it happens here. In places like Western Sydney.

More people finish school here.

And more people go to TAFE and uni here.

That’s what I am focused on. 

That’s what the Universities Accord is all about. 

That includes a number of things. 

First, I’m funding a big increase in university bridging courses.

These are free courses that help people who aren’t ready to start a degree to get ready. 

We are putting about an extra billion dollars into that over the next 10 years.

Second, is setting up university hubs in places like Fairfield and Mount Druitt and Macquarie Fields and Liverpool. 

This will make it easier to go to uni closer to where you live. 

Third, is opening the doors of our universities to more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

From 2027, if you’re a kid from a disadvantaged background and you get the marks to do the course you want, we will guarantee a place for you at uni and provide you with extra help to get you through. 

Fourth, is joining up TAFE and uni.  Making it easier to move between the two and get the skills you need. 

None of this is enough on its own. 

If we want more people to get more skills at TAFE or uni, first we need more people to finish school. 

When we were kids something pretty incredible happened.  

The number of kids who finished high school jumped from about 40 percent to about 80 percent. 

That helped create the businesses and the jobs we have today. 

In the last ten years though, that percentage has gone backwards. 

Not everywhere. 

It’s happening in public schools. 

It’s dropped from about 83 percent to 73 percent.

The agreement I have signed with Courtney and every other Education Minister is fundamentally about turning this around. 

It’s the biggest new investment in public schools by the Australian Government ever.

In Western Sydney it’s worth about an extra $1.4 billion over the next 10 years.

And it’s not a blank cheque. It’s tied to reform.  

That extra funding starts next year. 

The reform has already started. 

It’s what you would expect, a focus on basic literacy and numeracy.

And tutoring.  What we call small group tutoring.

Taking kids out of a classroom of 30 and into a classroom of 3.

Helping them to catch up.

We are also making changes in child care. 

I am sure you have seen some of the horrific news in Victoria and here in NSW. 

We are making changes there.  

But not just there. 

State Governments are building more preschools in schools. 

I have got a billion-dollar fund to do more of that. 

That will help more kids start school ready to learn.

And we are also making sure that from next year every child who needs it will get access to the Child Care Subsidy three days a week. 

That will make a big difference, particularly for a lot of kids from poor families who currently miss out on it. 

All of this. All the changes to unis, to schools, child care that I have talked about here, are for the whole country.

But I hope you can see the inspiration for it here in Western Sydney and the benefit I hope it will make. 

For the economy here.

For businesses here. 

But most importantly for the people who live here. 

For our community. 

Let me just leave you with this. 

In Vaucluse – 34kms east of here – the average life expectancy is 86.

In Mount Druitt – 23 km west of here – it is 70.

16 years less.

The average person in Mount Druitt lives 16 years less than the average person in Vaucluse.

In the same city.

About an hour apart on a good day.

How is that right?

Education alone can’t fix that.

But you can’t fix it without it.