Mr MARLES (Corio—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence) (14:41): I thank the member for her question. Yesterday, I met with Patrice Caine, the world head of Thales, a global defence industry prime, which, in Australia, builds our iconic Bushmasters, and we've just selected them to produce 155-millimetre ammunition. On Tuesday, I met with Charles Woodburn, the global head of BAE, who, of course, build Australia's Hunter class frigates. Together, these two companies employ more than 10,000 Australians in high-skilled, high-wage jobs. Be it Thales or BAE, Australia's defence industry is growing. Indeed, in the last financial year, we spent $22 billion on Australia's defence industry, and that is a record. But the real challenge is finding people with the skills, and that's particularly the case for BAE, who, in partnership with ASC, will build our future submarines. That is why we are establishing a skills and training academy at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide. What underpins all of that is a robust public TAFE system with free TAFE at its heart. That's why this government has committed to that—100,000 free TAFE places each and every year from 2027, building on the 500,000 places which have already been taken up since we came to power. Mr Thompson interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Herbert is now warned. Mr MARLES: Now, we know that those opposite think all of that is a complete waste of money. Indeed, it would appear that the alternative skills minister of this country thinks that TAFE is just a waste of time, and, when it comes to the Leader of the Opposition, he barely uses the word 'TAFE'. AUKUS, quite apart from capability, will be one of the great industrial endeavours in our country's history. Just as the Snowy Hydro transformed our economy in the fifties and sixties, building submarines in the decades to come will take Australia's industry into the future. The coalition think that this can be conjured up if they dance around the fire a bit more—chanting their slogans, yelling into the echo chamber and issuing press releases—but we understand that this future will be built on people—people with skills acquired at TAFE. So TAFE is now becoming a critical enabling capability of our national security, which is being completely supported by the Albanese Labor government.