Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have heard it all. Technical trade schools used to be around when I was going to school. We had Granville Technical College. We had lots of technical colleges all across Sydney. Who closed them down? State Labor governments. And now they come back, saying that they are going to reintroduce them. Why are they going to reintroduce them? Because we have had the Australian technical colleges. The Australian technical colleges are already an outstanding success throughout Australia. The Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2007 aims to further ensure their continued success into the future.

This bill will increase the total funding for the ATCs initiative from $456 million to $530 million over the period of 2005 to 2011, to support the establishment and operation of a further three Australian technical colleges announced in the recent budget. This brings the total number of colleges to 28, spread over 45 campuses in areas of Australia with high numbers of young people and areas experiencing skill shortages. Of these 28 technical colleges, currently 21 are operating, with four more colleges to commence in 2008.

The three new colleges which are part of this bill will open no later than 2009. The level of funding available to support the establishment of these colleges will ensure that they are resourced to provide high levels of support to both students and employers who engage students as school based apprentices. The three new ATCs will be established in greater Penrith, northern Perth and southern Brisbane and are in addition to the current 25 colleges, one of which will be located in the Dobell electorate, which was only recently announced by the Minister for Vocational and Further Education, me and the member for Robertson. Just last week, $16 million of funding was assigned to this particular project, and students will be enrolling next year. This announcement is great news for the people of the Central Coast and puts the region at the forefront of the delivery of vocational and technical education for students in years 11 and 12. The technical college on the Central Coast is one of the 25 across Australia and it is being established where skills needs are high and we have a high youth population and a strong industry base. These are the parameters that define where the colleges go. These colleges will cater for local years 11 and 12, and students who wish to obtain their year 12 certificate can start an apprenticeship whilst still at school.

Eighteen hundred students across Australia are already benefiting from being able to do year 11 and obtain their year 12 school certificate. Eight thousand four hundred students are expected to be attending these colleges once they are fully operational in 2009. These students will finish their two years at the ATCs having completed a high school education and having already undertaken two years of training in their vocational career of choice. The courses are developed with industry input to ensure that the training offered will be relevant to local needs.

Last week, the member for Perth accused the Howard government of deliberately neglecting TAFE and instead funding a duplicate vocational training system. However, we heard the member for Swan say they will keep them. If we look at the member for Perth’s speech, he said that the Howard government is attacking states and territories in an area that has traditionally been their responsibility. Of course education has been their responsibility, but where they fail we have to come in and prop them up, as we do in so many other areas across this country.

Australian technical colleges are designed to adapt quickly to address regional needs directly through the input of local industry. There also seems to be deliberate confusion on the part of the New South Wales government. It claims that Australian technical colleges are competitors with TAFE. This is not the case. The ATCs are for year 11 and 12 students to complete their secondary education at the same time as starting an apprenticeship, joining the workforce and earning some money. TAFE on the other hand provides more for postsecondary students or more advanced certificates and diplomas. That was the case for me. I started my working life as an apprentice electrical fitter. I did the electrical engineering certificate at Granville tech for three nights and one afternoon a week for about four years and then went on to do postcertificate engineering subjects as well. The approach taken by the ATCs is to make sure that when kids come out of school they can move into a trade course. If they want to go on and do further TAFE training at an engineering level, they can do that. Then they could progress through to university.

In fact, at the Ourimbah campus those facilities are available for students to do that. The Central Coast manufacturers are the local consortia providing the technical college. They are the people who know what is needed by local industry. Many of the technical colleges have partnered with TAFE to assist with the provision of technical training, and that is a logical step. TAFEs have been around for many years in Gosford and Wyong and they have experienced teachers. I recently visited a TAFE and told the teachers they need to look at the ATCs as being a primer for TAFE. They tell me that students have to have remedial numeracy and literacy teaching. They have to teach them to read and write and do arithmetic before they can even do a trade course. The ATCs will put an end to that. Parents and grandparents on the Central Coast are pleased that their children will soon have greater choice, another option, to complete their high school education. The Central Coast ATC will operate as a business. They will be operating for 48 weeks of the year, just like a business. It is not the school based idea, where they have semesters and heaps of holidays; they will start off in a business environment.

As well, the colleges provide a dedicated focus on technical training while ensuring students get the literacy and numeracy skills of a year 12 certificate. Labor likes to talk about encouraging students to complete year 12. When it comes to the crunch, it is nothing but empty rhetoric. We see so many kids coming out of high school with numeracy and literacy issues. It is time for Labor to put students’ interests first and stop their practice of the last 30 years in talking down the trades. We need to reach a point where a high-quality technical education is as valued as a university degree.

Even though all of the states have closed down dedicated technical schools, we are pleased that most have subsequently decided to follow the Howard government lead and reintroduce technical schools and colleges. They are set up to cater especially for students who have strong technical and creative talents, and they are a huge success due to the quality of the facilities and teaching staff and the very close guidance and involvement of industry. This is the model for the ATCs that is working very well. They have also restored links with industry and restored pride and prestige in technical training so that a high-quality technical education is as prized as a university degree. The unique set-up of the ATCs gives local students the chance to undertake trade training and academic subjects and is also a fantastic opportunity for our region. It is also a great opportunity for local employers in the region to work with education providers to establish a college that responds directly to the needs of local industry.

Students at the Central Coast college will be offered trade training in engineering, construction, electro-technology, automotive and commercial cookery. When students at this technical college finish year 12 they will be one-third of the way through an apprenticeship, they will have completed the year 12 certificate, they will have worked on state-of-the-art equipment and they will have had two years of real experience in the workplace, earning as they learn. Many local students will benefit from this ATC over the next three years. The new technical school will follow the success of the 21 colleges already operating around Australia.

The recent signing of the funding agreement for the Central Coast is an excellent demonstration of the partnership between industry, educators and training providers to ensure that young people in the Central Coast region are given training relevant to local needs. The establishment of the college has been warmly welcomed by local communities, businesses and industry and this is reflected in the industry representation on the governing board.

The establishment of the college has been fully supported locally, as seen through association members, including Albany International, Kitchens of Sarah Lee, ADC Krone, Gibbens Industries, Masterfoods, Adhesive Research, Gosfern, Thermit and Pacific Labels. These industries are further supported by the involvement of Australian Business Ltd, the Master Builders Association, the NRMA, the Gosford District Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others in the area. They have all either taken part on the interim board or lent their valuable support to achieve this fantastic result.

It is a shame, however, that the New South Wales state Labor government have once again demonstrated their complete disregard and ignorance towards meeting the needs of the Central Coast and local residents. We have had so much opposition in the past few years to establishing this technical college. The state education minister, John Della Bosca, referred to it as a ‘failed experiment’. However, they were going to be involved in providing the educational component for the Central Coast ATC. Of course, that was in the run-up to the last election in March. Then they decided in Macquarie Street to overrule the memorandum of understanding that was provided by the Central Coast department of education. The week before the March election they decided they would set up technical colleges at Wyong and Gosford. What has happened since? Very little. What are they going to do? Not much at all. They had an information session a week or so ago. They are now talking about providing technical training for only two areas of interest in the area. Mrs Della Bosca, who is Belinda Neal of course, is running as the federal candidate for Robertson. She was parachuted in, like the other two Central Coast union heavyweights that are running for election to the federal parliament. She was saying that the Howard government had failed to establish the college. But had she asked her husband she would have been informed that the stalling of the Central Coast ATC was purely the business of the state government and their total intransigence. Just before the recent election they had their spoke in the wheel and we have not seen much else from them.

It is quite disappointing that the New South Wales state government is too busy playing political games to recognise the importance of this fantastic educational opportunity in giving the young people of my electorate the choice to study at an ATC and get a head start in their working lives. Instead, it means that local young people on the Central Coast are being denied an opportunity to study a trade, while people in other parts of New South Wales are allowed to make a choice. In fact, the early ATCs in New South Wales were established using the Catholic education component. As the member for Moreton said earlier, New South Wales and Western Australian fought the introduction of these ATCs all the way. However, there was a decent response and good cooperation in Victoria—and also in Queensland, I believe. It is also disappointing for the local businesses that are working as a team to establish a college that will respond directly to industry needs led by the hardworking Central Coast Manufacturers Association. They will be pleased that after all these years it will finally start.

The abolition of technical colleges by the states has meant that over the past few decades our young people have lacked training skills and pathways. The price we have paid is the current severe skilled trade shortages we are experiencing in many of our key industries. As a community we made a big mistake, turning our back on technical education, as we closed dedicated technical high schools and treated vocational training as a second-class career. This was all done under state Labor governments. General high schools in Australia provide an excellent general education, but they have a strong academic focus. It is important that students with strong technical or trade skills are given the opportunity to develop these special talents, while also being given the opportunity to obtain their year 12 certificate. In 2004 the Howard government introduced the ATC program in response to the greatest mistake made in education over the last 30 years. These 28 Australian technical colleges are designed to elevate the status of technical education and provide dedicated technical and vocational training for students with these wonderful talents.

Despite the legislation only passing parliament in 2005, the initiative has gone from idea to reality in a remarkably short space of time, with 21 ATCs currently operating at 33 campuses—all operating within 18 months of the legislation being approved. A number of states, including Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT have followed the lead of the Howard government and have established similar facilities. It is estimated that by 2009, with the combined commitments of the states and the Howard government, there will be around 70 technical schools around Australia with enrolments of between 25,000 and 35,000 young Australians. This will make a serious contribution to the skilled workforce that Australia will need for the future.

Let us look at Labor’s problem with the ATCs. The system that operates at these schools is much like that of private schools. The teachers will be on AWAs—that dreaded process that the Labor Party hate. They want to destroy them. The principals will have choice in employing teachers. Teachers will be paid on performance. And, of course, they will not need the union bosses; they will not need the union intransigence to cause the problems that we see in schools. Members opposite have spoken about the duplication of schools.

Recently, on the Central Coast, the New South Wales minister for education, John Della Bosca, threatened public school principals when they wanted to attend a meeting in my office with the federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop. Initially, we were going to hold a forum of teachers, from across the 55 schools on the Central Coast, at a public school. The night before, we got a message to say, ‘No, you can’t hold a forum in a public school,’ so we moved it to my office. The next morning, my staff rang around and invited the teachers to attend a meeting in my office. By midday, while we were touring the area with the minister, teachers were ringing in and apologising, saying that they had been leaned on by John Della Bosca. They were threatened, so they could not come to my office and meet with the federal minister for education.

This is the Labor approach of typical union bullying—threatening teachers so that they could not come and meet with the federal education minister. And this is the bloke who then wants to say, ‘The ATCs are a failed experiment.’ Of course, before the state election, they decided: ‘Technical colleges look like they’re going to be popular, so we’d better bring them back on. We’d better say that we’re going to have a technical college in Wyong and Gosford.’ It is typical of the rhetoric we hear from the other side.

It is just like the broadband proposal, with the whole deal involving bringing back the union heavyweights. They want to have broadband run partly by government and partly by private enterprise. Why? Because, as is the case with a lot of the utility businesses, they can demand that these employees be union members. We see it right across the country, with union heavyweights coming in. They have even displaced some members on the other side. The member for Blaxland, who knows a bit about communications, got the chop so that another union boss could be brought in. In my area, there is a blow-in from Victoria. They could not find enough seats down there; they had flicked too many of the sitting members, so Greg Combet is coming up north, to the seat adjoining my electorate. They could not find a seat for him in Victoria, so they deny Labor members on the Central Coast the opportunity to select their candidate, and they get told who the candidate is going to be.

This is the sort of thing we can expect from Labor. We can see why they are vehemently opposed to these ATCs—because they do not meet the aims of the union bosses. That is the issue with them. We hear all of this claptrap about skills shortages. Those shortages were created under state Labor governments. It started when they closed down technical colleges. This discouraged businesses from employing apprentices. In the time that I did my trade, there were a number of companies who used to be the leaders in taking on apprentices. They made it so much more difficult for employers to do that that this government decided to use employers in the setting up of technical schools, so that in each region they can decide what trades need to be supported. In Dobell, the Central Coast manufacturers are the group that will be running the ATC in that area. I will give them every encouragement to continue what they are doing. I am very pleased to support this bill.

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