Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He is such a good bloke that Tony Moore wrote a story about him in this morning's Brisbane Times. What did he decide? To save $300 in a TAFE course which provides life skills for disabled people, he wanted to cut the course. Each week it costs $300 for one teacher to provide skills in learning how to live for people with disabilities. The course was cut. That was this morning. Maybe there is a hint here. We need to have a huge public campaign because, by this afternoon, with the efforts of the Mayor of Ipswich—Paul Pisasale, a fine man who did great work during the response to the floods—the new headline is 'TAFE course closure decision reversed', because people are screaming, and they need to be screaming. We all need to be screaming right up and down this eastern seaboard so they hear us out in the west and get the idea that we cannot continue to allow the elevation of dollars and cents above people, which is happening on the east coast. We need to make sure that our essential institutions for TAFE education are maintained.

In Ipswich, for example, there was a fantastic course called the 'Skilling Queenslanders for Work'. I am indebted to the member for Blair for this information. This program was cut on 16 July, a very short-sighted response by those would cut TAFE funding—those who would cut everything. On 23 July, the Deloitte Access Economics report came in and was absolutely glowing in its praise of a program that had just been cut by the Newman government. This is a program that was said to have put $6.5 billion into the Queensland economy, raising $1.2 billion in tax revenue and adding 1.8 per cent to consumption in the state. We know that this program helped long-term disadvantaged people get jobs. In fact, there were 8,000 jobs for long-term disadvantaged people created in this program and, overall, 57,000 jobs. What did Campbell Newman do to it? He cut it. Let us look at that very simple number: 82 TAFEs have been cut to 44—and the story continues.

We have seen the story in New South Wales and Queensland; let's look at Victoria. Cuts to the Victorian VET sector have been absolutely ruthless. You cannot rip $300 million out of the TAFE system without it having a dramatic impact on the delivery of skills and training. Unfortunately, we are seeing that impact fall heavily on disadvantaged individuals and communities who cannot access the VET programs that they need. VET programs train our electricians and childcare workers. These are just two fields that require high-quality education. These are people looking after our children and putting wires into our walls. If we are going to have a safe place to live, it must be underpinned by an outstanding VET sector, and Australia can be very proud of what we have enjoyed until now. But, if the Liberals opposite get a hold of this place, and they get their hands on the federal budget, we have only seen a warm-up act of what is to come. It will be slash and burn, with no concern for people and no concern for the future of young people, who need access to high-quality, highly-enabling education that our TAFE sector offers.

In summing up, I indicate once again that those opposite have only one plan: to cut education, to cut training services for Australia, to cut the productivity of this nation and to disconnect themselves from the recommendations of great industry groups like AiG and ACCI, who are trying to get somebody on the other side to listen and are saying, 'Keep TAFE alive.' (Time expired)

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