Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They were going extremely well. There was a very cynical response from those opposite, but let us get it on the record—they closed them down. They did not replace them with anything. All they have done is decide to blame the states for their failure in the training sector.

I say to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship—who has been very kind to certain people in Wannon and I thank him for that—that I would love to take him down to my electorate to show him the ATCs in Warrnambool and Hamilton. He would then be able to see what grand institutions they were before they were closed, to hear about the wonderful training they used to deliver, to learn how industry backed them and supported them and to see how gutted the local communities are that those ATCs were closed down.

We heard the member for Farrer, the shadow minister, speak about what has happened to the Australian technical college in the member for Lyne's electorate—not forgetting that it was the member for Lyne who put this MPI forward. As the member for Farrer outlined, this government has closed, or attempted to close, that ATC in the member for Lyne's electorate. It is very good to see that the coalition candidate for Lyne is looking to make sure that ATC can continue to thrive and deliver excellent training.

We also heard from the member for Cunningham. The part of her speech I most enjoyed was when she started referring to the book, A Strong Australia, successfully launched today by the Leader of the Opposition. What an outstanding document it is and what a fantastic speech the Leader of the Opposition gave in launching it today. The member for Cunningham need not worry about downloading a copy; we will personally deliver a hard copy to her office so she can continue to quote from the book when she gives her speeches. It was wonderful when she referred to the mentions of education and training in the book—they show what very sensible policies we will have in this area. Those policies were superbly outlined by the member for Farrer.

Let us have a closer look at what our policies will deliver. Our policies will deliver an end to the red tape and bureaucracy which is killing this sector. In particular, we will sort out what the hell is happening in ASQA at the moment. It is badly underresourced, it is producing impossible time frames for training businesses to try and match, it is not getting back to those businesses so they can comply with the regulations this government has put on them and it is causing those training enterprises to suffer slowly. In all good faith, I ask the minister—and I have spoken to his office about this—to have a look, please, at ASQA and find out what is going on there. When you have dedicated training business trying to deliver products to the Commonwealth government, to state governments and to other organisations, you have to do your best to ensure that these businesses do not get closed down by red tape and regulation. That is what is happening at the moment through ASQA.

Something drastic needs to happen. I have met with businesses who want to do the right thing, who want to explain to the government what the problems are with the regulations governing the sector at the moment—but they cannot talk to anyone. They cannot talk to anyone to try and get these matters addressed. They are drowning as businesses because of this red tape. You have to cut that red tape. You have to cut it, cut it and cut it so that these businesses outside the TAFE sector can deliver proper competition to TAFE in the training sector. This is getting dire and it needs urgent attention. I hope the minister, in the time left between now and the next election, will seek to address this. If he needs some help, I am happy to talk to him about it and to discuss it with him in good faith—because something needs to be done in this area.

To sum up: all we have heard on this motion from those on the other side demonstrates that they are a policy-free zone. They have no policy whatsoever. All they can do is say, 'Everything is the fault of the states.' I remind them again that this is the federal parliament and that this motion talks about the current failure of the Commonwealth and the states to reach agreement on future funding of technical and further education. So let us hear from them about what the Commonwealth is doing to try and address this problem. What is the Commonwealth trying to do to address the problem that there has been no agreement on the future funding of technical and further education? We do not want to hear about what the state parliaments should be doing, because—here is a message for those on the other side—we are actually in the federal parliament. After five years, I had hoped that you might have realised that. I had hoped that you might have realised that the federal parliament has responsibilities—responsibilities in this sector in particular.

Our policy was outlined by the shadow minister in her excellent contribution. We will also look to address what this government did to Australian technical colleges and to seek as best we can to restore them to what they were—they were magnificent training institutions—before they were so harshly cut by this federal government. If you want to talk about cuts, let us talk about cuts to the ATCs. That is what we should be discussing here today and that is what those opposite should be focusing on.

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