Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to put on record my concerns about the Huon Valley Trade Training Centre in my electorate, which will be under threat should the Liberal-National coalition get elected. With federal Liberal plans to cut $230 million from round 2 of the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, for which we announced the successful schools late last year, my local community at Huon Valley high school is particularly concerned. It will also impact on the other schools who have worked really hard to secure the Huon Valley Trade Training Centre. Dover District High School, Geeveston District High School, Huonville High School and the Woodbridge School have pooled funding to construct a $6.4 million facility at Huonville. We now know that, should the Liberals get elected, this will not go ahead.

I am particularly concerned about comments by the Liberal candidate in my electorate which were quoted in the Huon Valley News. She said:

The Trades Training Centres in schools model, attaching a relatively small technical section at the back of a secondary school, is not the right way to deliver high-quality technical education.

That is from the Liberal candidate in my electorate. We are talking about a $6.4 million trade training centre. In stark contrast, in a letter to the editor of the Sunday Tasmanian a member of the community said:

The Huon Valley TTC will provide opportunities for Years 9-10 students in a range of industries. The biggest bonus is that the training will be locally based, with support from local employers. The retention hurdle of distance and city-based training will be removed.

Training opportunities in many of these industries do exist outside the valley, but not for aquaculture. While other states have thriving school-based aquaculture programs, Tasmania has none. Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck spoke at the recent AquaED conference about the value of aquaculture education yet his party’s policy is to scrap the only two potential school-based programs (another is planned for St Helens).

Industry bemoans the lack of school-based aquaculture training in Tasmania and … there are critical skills shortages in aquaculture yet very few young people enter the industry.

The Trade Training Centres are vital for addressing the retention needs of rural areas and skills shortages in crucial local industries, above all aquaculture. Any government which abandons this program now is not only short-sighted but selling short the future of our young people.

That was a local community member who is concerned that the $6.4 million Huon Valley Trade Training Centre would not be built should the Liberal-National coalition get elected. I know that my local community is very passionate about this trade training centre. They want it built. They have fought very hard for it and they have put in a very viable proposition for a range of trades—

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.