Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Not one person opposite has dared to even address the issue that we have raised here on this side, and that is the leaked COAG document exposing the fact that this government wants to take over TAFE. They keep talking about the great things they think they have done, and we will get to that in a moment. But not one speaker has actually commented on the fact that one of their own mates from New South Wales, a Lib, has leaked and gone public with the fact that this government wants to take over TAFE. And why do they want to take over TAFE? They are trying to cover up the fact that under their watch there has been an explosion in the shonky sharks and dodgy operators in TAFE. Under their watch, VET FEE-HELP has gone from having about $700 million in debt to having $1.7 billion in debt—in 12 months.

Rather than getting real on cleaning up the sector, this government has said: 'Fine; we'll take it over. That way we can bury what's actually going on. Because we have a track record in doing that, we won't have to confront the states and talk about TAFE. We won't have to talk about funding.' They are also not talking about the billions of dollars of cuts—$2 billion worth of cuts from the skills portfolio and $1 billion cut from apprenticeship support. That is one way to silence the states: take it completely off them. Well, the states are not buying it and the Australian people are not buying it, because if there is one thing the Australian people really do care about—and the Victorian Liberals learnt it the hard way—it is their TAFEs.

In Bendigo, in regional areas, when the former Liberal government in Victoria took the axe to TAFE and cut funding, they said, 'We're all going to be equal.' Vocational providers, whether public or private, were to be treated equally and funded equally. But what we saw was a collapse of the Victorian TAFE system, because the only providers that will deliver the skills needed in the regions are the public providers. But under the former, Liberal, government's model, you had to have X number of students and the course had to break even for the TAFE to be able to afford it. So, in Victoria we saw course fees going up, students dropping out, people being sacked and TAFEs closing. That is what happens under the private model that this government is proposing that the states adopt.

Learn from Victoria's mistake; learn from the Victorian Liberals: it does not work. We need a public education system in this country, a public TAFE system, to ensure that we have the skills we need today and in the future. When we are delivering TAFE in this country we are saying to young people, when we fund it properly, 'There will be an apprenticeship program for you, if you want to work in the trades; there will be a decent hairdressing apprenticeship for you, if you want to have a career in that field.' But currently our students do not know whether they are signing up for a course that is legit. This government has confused that by cutting so much funding from the sector. And rather than getting serious about restoring funding to the public sector, they are saying, 'We'll just take it over and leave it up to the market.' That is so classic of the Liberals: 'leave it up to the market'.

We know what happens when you leave it up to the market, because of what happened in Victoria when their mates were in charge there. Since the Labor government got elected they have stepped in and actually saved the Bendigo TAFE. They have handed them a lifeline. They advanced public funding to help save that public institution. There is a long way to go for the Bendigo TAFE. They were forced to merge with Kangan Batman to try to keep some of their campuses and courses open—$320 million in an advance payment to try to save Bendigo TAFE. And they are not the only one. TAFE after TAFE in Victoria has been saved, because the Victorian people said, 'We do not like the Liberals' plan when it comes to vocational education, when it comes to higher education.' The same will happen at the federal level.

This government, if it is serious about vocational education, will put the money back. They will not leave it up to the market. They will not continue to encourage private enterprise to get involved in TAFE. The fact is that people expect a strong, robust, vibrant TAFE sector that partners with industry. Our young people today deserve an opportunity to have a good career, good skills and an education that can deliver them. The apprenticeship system today is not even a shadow of what it used to be. Young people today do not have access to the apprenticeship opportunities of the past. This government needs to drop this plan, come clean and tell the truth about its agenda for vocational education.

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