Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He did not mention it member for Cunningham. I would have respected him more if he said, 'I'm opening this great centre, but it's the last one in your region because we have cut the funding.' But no; sadly, he did not.

We find out in the federation green paper that they have got a secret plan to cut another $1.8 billion in vocational and education training by withdrawing all federal funding to this area. It is a great tragedy, and that is why it is so important to be debating this on National TAFE Day. I say happy National TAFE Day to everyone.

Hunter TAFE in my home region is the largest regional TAFE. It has got 60,000 enrolments across 15 campuses. Unfortunately, it is under real pressure. Glendale TAFE in my electorate has had all its metal trades training centre courses stripped out even though my electorate is the centre of metal trades in the region. The member for Shortland was commenting before question time on the threat that Belmont TAFE is under, which would be a most egregious decision if that TAFE was closed because of the short-sightedness of the state New South Wales Liberal government and the federal government.

This government has an appalling record not just on training but on providing the jobs and supporting the jobs for people to come into. They killed the automotive industry—50,000 direct jobs gone and another 200,000 indirect jobs gone. They are killing the naval shipbuilding industry. We saw another 160 jobs go at Forgacs in Tomago yesterday—a tragic story. BAE in Williamstown is under threat.

This government does not care about jobs. It will mouth that it does, and I accept that individual members over there have a genuine commitment to growing jobs in this economy. Unfortunately, they are members of a government that has lost its way. They are members of a government that does not show a commitment to job creation. Unfortunately, they are not the ones who will suffer. It will be the young people in this country who will suffer. It will be the TAFE students. It will be the 18.6 per cent of young unemployed people in my region.

It is a great tragedy that we are having to have this debate. It should be a unity ticket. We should be talking about coding. We should be talking about skilling up teachers. We should be talking about venture capital. That is all in Labor's plan. Instead, we have excuses and blame shifting from the government—a government that is not genuinely committed to job creation.

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