Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the value of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) in providing young Australians with work experience and literacy and numeracy skills which in turn prepare them for further training and employment; and

(2) considers that the decision of the Victorian Government to cut VCAL funding will particularly harm disadvantaged and disengaged students who are encouraged by VCAL to remain in education and to benefit from practical education and training.

As a local MP I have had the pleasure of working with schools in my electorate to promote education. I come from a family of educators and I have benefited greatly from my own education. I have seen firsthand how important training pathways are for young people in our community. That is why I was proud when the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning was introduced by Labor in Victoria in 2002. The legacy of that decision is that today there are over 430 secondary schools, TAFEs and other training organisations which deliver VCAL to more than 20,000 students. VCAL aims to improve student retention. It is a Labor initiative which is particularly aimed at students who might go on to TAFE or an apprenticeship.

Mr Paul Desmond, Principal at St Francis Xavier in Beaconsfield in my electorate, has said:

We're in our fourth year of VCAL and young men and women are finding it a great pathway into their career futures ...

At a time when we are trying to respond to the national skills shortage and skill up more young people, VCAL is critical, so it is absolutely shameful that the Victorian government has decided to cut $48 million from VCAL coordinators. The cut to funding will kick in from the start of 2012. It just shows how totally out of touch the Victorian government is when it comes to education. These funding cuts will directly affect the coordination of VCAL programs. At the moment VCAL coordinators do things like develop curriculum and assessment materials and build partnerships with local learning and employment networks and with other organisations, but the Victorian government does not think that is important. Indeed, in the Melbourne Age on 9 September 2011, the Victorian skills minister is reported to have stated that funding to VCAL coordinators was no longer needed. He said that the number of VCAL students had 'plateaued'. Interestingly, the 2009-10 annual report of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority notes something slightly different. They said:

What is remarkable is the striking and steady growth in VCAL programs since their inception five years ago; clearly a major need has been identified and continues to grow.

The Victorian skills minister thinks that VCAL demand has plateaued and yet the Victorian government's own agencies recognise ongoing and growing demand for VCAL. This is absolutely extraordinary. The federal government has made a point of trying to encourage young people to stay in education longer. We are trying to ensure they get the skills they need to enter the workforce or go on to further education and training. We have provided around $470 million to assist Victorian students in skills development. We are providing around $135 million for youth transition and around $238 million for trade training centres. We have also increased support for families with teenagers by around $160 per fortnight from 1 January 2012 so as to encourage 16- to 19-year-olds to stay in school or vocational education. So in January 2012, we are giving financial support to families to encourage teenagers to stay in school and training. But what are the coalition government in Victoria doing in January? They are cutting funding to exactly the programs that Labor in Victoria set up in 2002 to keep kids at school and in training longer.

The schools and institutions affected in my area include Berwick Secondary College, Boronia Heights College, Emerald Secondary College, Kambrya College, Mater Christi College, St Francis Xavier Beaconsfield, St Joseph's Regional College Ferntree Gully and Upwey High School. Apart from listening to local representatives like me, I think it is important that this place listen to the voices of the young students who are affected by these decisions. Here is what Candice Thomys, a student from Narre Warren South College, had to say about the cuts:

VCAL is like a second opportunity at an education for students who do not feel they can do VCE. This is our future. I think the government really needs to rethink its decision.

Let us also hear from some principals and teachers who have made known their views on the cuts to VCAL. Michael Muscat, principal of Kambrya College at Berwick in my electorate, said:

We need to keep these students at school but these cuts are diminishing the way we do that effectively. Unless we offer meaningful quality programs these kids will walk. We are taking funding from kids who most need it in the education system.

Speaking about the VCAL cuts, Mr Gary Keet, VCAL director at St Francis Xavier in Berwick, said:

It's going to make it difficult for us to go out to visit students when they're on their jobs.

So why is the Victorian government messing with a successful program and breaking something that Labor had fixed?

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion put by the member for La Trobe refers to a valuable alternative program to years 11 and 12 offered in the final years of Victorian secondary schooling. The member said that VCAL funds have been cut, but that is quite simply misinformation. In reality, there is no reduction to actual student funding for the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, commonly called VCAL. In fact, the student resource package which funds each student undertaking, among other things, the VCAL program, increased by 8.5 per cent in 2010. So what is going on? I would suggest that this Labor government is scrambling to find anything it can to say about education to cover up some of its most appalling funding cuts across the nation, let alone what they were doing state by state when in government in places like Victoria.

I will go to some of those cuts in a moment, but let me stress that the eight-year-old VCAL was reviewed in April 2011. VCAL coordinators and financial officers were surveyed as part of the review, which was undertaken by the University of Melbourne as an independent and expert institution. What they found was that eight years on from the establishment of VCAL, these so-called establishment grants were redundant. In fact the moneys were being used for a whole range of other activities—for example, for travel and for buying equipment or clothing for students, including things like boots, aprons and hairdressing equipment. There was some part-time coordination. All of these are quite useful and worthy causes, but they are not uses for which the funding was originally intended. So some eight years on, these establishment grants were redundant.

We need instead to look quite carefully at funds for the continuity of other important programs like the Victorian Certificate of Applied Education. One of the serious problems that Labor left for the Victorian coalition government was year 11-12 programs with only one year's funding, year by year, giving schools no sense of how they could invest in those programs. One of the most important things the coalition government in Victoria has done is give ongoing funding to some of these most significant causes—for example, the Victorian Vocational Education and Training program in schools. This program was literally lurching from one year to the next under Labor but now has ongoing funding with an injection of $32 million from the Victorian coalition government.

When students consider the VCAL course, they are encouraged to take it if they need work-related experience or extra literacy or numeracy support. I keep asking myself and others why it is that we can have so many students getting to years 11 and 12—that means they have been in school for at least 12 years—with inadequate literacy and numeracy. These various courses are somewhat like 'parking an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff'. I strongly recommend that the federal government and all of our state governments look closely at the years of schooling our students are undertaking only to arrive in their final years with inadequate literacy and numeracy, without work-ready skills and without the confidence or competency to take up apprenticeships or other vocational education and training or, indeed, employment opportunities.

This is a serious problem that Australians now face. I am so pleased we at last have a coalition government in Victoria that is addressing these issues and not simply lurching from one year's funding to the next, as the Brumby and Bracks governments did in relation to, for example, the Victorian Vocational Education and Training programs. I am concerned that this government is trying to deflect from problems like the living away from home allowance debacle. Let me tell you that, in Echuca, only half the number of students who usually apply to go to university have done so this year. That is because, with Labor's backflip, they still do not trust that their living away from home allowance is really going to come through. This is a legacy we have of a Labor government nationally, but also the legacies we now have in states like Victoria which suffered under Labor for so many years. I want to commend the coalition government of Victoria for looking closely at where the funds do go—for not simply parking ambulances at the bottom of cliffs—and for being comprehensive and systematic in saying, 'Where should funds be put,' and applying those funds appropriately. (Time expired)

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

Is the motion seconded?

Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Today I rise to hold the Baillieu government to account for their outrageous $48 million cut to the VCAL program. The VCAL program was established in 2002 to provide an alternative pathway for young Victorian students who wanted to continue in education but wanted to pursue an education that was better fitting their needs and their desires to go to TAFE to pursue a career and an apprenticeship. This $48 million cut will lead to VCAL coordinators, the mechanism for providing support for students in this sector, across the state being substantially reduced.

VCAL has played a very large part in training Victorian students, particularly those that wish to pursue an apprenticeship as a part of their vocational education opportunities. The Gillard government has recognised the importance of providing alternative pathways, particularly through record investment in our very innovative Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, which has led to trades training centres being funded across Victoria to help support young students who wish to this gain an opportunity in a trades related area. Indeed, in my own electorate we have provided some $5.5 million for the Coolac cluster of schools to help support those particular students, providing an opportunity for students that has not been there before.

I listened intently to the member for Murray's contribution and wish to point out that under Labor's trades training centres millions of dollars have been provided to schools within her electorate under this very innovative program. I note that the member for Wannon has also now entered the chamber. Labor has provided record investment across a number of sites to help students in the Wannon electorate access trades training.

This outrageous attack by the Baillieu government on the VCAL program will deny many Victorian students the opportunities that trades training centres and programs like VCAL provide. I want to place on the record that Australia does have a skills deficit. The VCAL program and the trades training program are critical for helping Victoria meet its training needs into the future. However, I am not surprised that the Baillieu government has slashed funding to this program—a program that has provided millions of dollars of assistance across south-west Victoria to help support students in their desires to pursue a vocational style career.

Labor federally and at a state level has a very proud record of providing educational opportunities for all students, whether they be students who wish to pursue a university career or, indeed, whether they be students who wish to explore a trades career. VCAL and Labor's trades training programs are critical in supporting them. I call on the Baillieu government to stop spinning and actually get out there and help support young students across Victoria in trades training. We have a skills shortage in our state and in many other parts of Australia. The VCAL program, working in conjunction with Labor's trades training agenda, is critical in providing all students every opportunity in school and then later on into a career.

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

I rise today a little perplexed, a little confused. I just cannot understand why in this House we are debating this motion on the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning. I could understand if they were doing it in the Victorian parliament, because that is where it belongs. It would seem there are two reasons we are here today. The first is that the federal Labor government thinks that the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria is an embarrassment. They obviously have no confidence in Daniel Andrews. They think he cannot do his job, so they have had to come up here and try to do it for him.

This comes after 11 years of state Labor government. They governed under some of the best economic conditions that the state has known and they have left a legacy of waste, mismanagement and failure. I have not heard from the other side any mention from state Labor's rule of Myki, the desal plant, the regional rail link—all monuments to incompetence and failure of state Labor. There has been no mention of that. In education Labor left a giant black hole with no money for cleaning, utilities or maintenance in BER buildings and no provision to demolish resulting unwanted buildings. Is this why Daniel Andrews will not debate this in the state parliament? Is this why he has sent it up here to the federal parliament.

When the Baillieu government came to power they found basic services in education with no ongoing funding. I hope we will hear that mentioned. The program for students with disabilities had no growth factored in. Vocational education and training in schools was a lapsing program. I hope we will go into all this detail, because obviously Mr Andrews cannot do it for himself in the state parliament. If that is not enough, I hope we will be able to mention, at some stage, federal Labor's carbon tax and that costs will rise for every essential service, including education in the Victorian system.

It might not be that federal Labor is embarrassed here about Daniel Andrews and think they have to do the job for him; it might be that they are embarrassed about their own performance federally when it comes to education and therefore have decided to create a big smokescreen so that they can try and take the eyes of the Australian public off the complete failure which is the federal education policy that we see in all areas.

I am happy to go into a lot of detail. When it comes to independent youth allowance, we have seen an embarrassing backdown—sadly, two years too late, because it has left a two-year cohort of regional students who are going to miss out on vital funding so that they can get access to a tertiary education. The Victorian government have embarrassed the federal government when it comes to early childhood learning, and I think this is where this motion comes from. We have the universal access policy, which is causing so many problems. We saw last week that the first three-year-old kinder program was going to be closed down as a result of the federal government's policy. And we are hearing all the time about four-year-old kindergartens being under pressure, especially in regional and rural areas.

We have also seen the federal government rip money out of occasional care, which is causing an occasional-care crisis, especially in Victorian. This is also where, I think, this motion comes from: federal Labor are embarrassed about what they are doing to early childhood learning in Victoria. Then there is the quality assurance framework and how it is putting child-care fees up, especially in Victoria. These are the three areas in early childhood learning that we have heard nothing about.

I could then go on to Australian technical colleges. What did federal Labor do to Australian technology colleges? I had two fantastic technical colleges in Hamilton and Warrnambool. The government gutted the funding to them and they are still not providing proper funding for those technical colleges.

So I think this motion is as a result of the second reason: federal Labor are embarrassed by what they are doing in the education sphere. They have put this motion up to try and throw a smokescreen at the Baillieu government. Face up to your own policies and try and defend them rather than picking on a state government.

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

I just remind members that it is not my decision; it is a decision by government. So please speak through the chair.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Didn't that five minutes of diatribe show how embarrassed the member for Wannon is? He is out there trying to defend his mates who have cut $472 million out of education. As he scurries like a rodent from the chamber, he should learn and remember that this government delivered the most amount of funding for education—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order. I ask that that offensive term be withdrawn.

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

I do not think that was necessary. If you do not mind, apologise, thanks.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will happily withdraw for you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

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

Thank you.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There can be nothing more important than giving our kids education and skills to give them the best opportunities in life and providing the best pathways and choices for kids. That is why it came as a shock to many schools right across Victoria that the heartless and incompetent Baillieu government have savaged our kids' futures by slashing $48 million from the VCAL program.

While the Victorian Liberal government is slashing $48 million in education and training support for young people, the Gillard federal Labor government is investing a record $472 million to help Victorian school students get the skills they need. The Liberal government needs urgently to reconsider its decision to cut funding to the VCAL coordinators' program. These cuts will directly affect some of our most vulnerable young people. When students leave school, they need to possess the skills necessary to meet the workplace demands of a modern vibrant economy. These cuts will seriously put at risk young people's ability to gain these skills, reducing their access to practical, hands-on, work-related experiences and learning programs tailored to their individual needs.

VCAL is a more hands-on vocational certificate, generally taken up by students moving to vocational education and training. These students are our tradesmen and so forth for the future. We know that VCAL is more flexible and adaptable for students needs than VCE, and it can bring together a range of different modules that can be adapted to suit students.

Our government, the Gillard government, is committed to providing young people with the option to pursue high-quality, industry-standard training while they complete high school. This not only helps to build a skilled and productive work force but also encourages young people who may not to go on to university to stay at school and finish their education. We have invested some $238 million in 40 trade training centres in schools across the state, as well as another 135 million under the National Partnership on Youth Attainment and Transitions.

We are investing $2.5 billion over 10 years to enable every high school student in Australia to have access to a trade training centre. Three years into this program we have already funded more than a third of schools—that is $1.03 billion in 288 projects benefiting over 900 schools. Thirteen schools in McEwen are benefiting from the Australian government's Trade Training Centres in Schools Program. Let's compare that to the last Liberal federal government, who delivered three. They delivered three across their 11 years.

We have, in Yarra Valley, the polytechnic TTC. The Yarra Valley Polytechnic Trade Training Centre is receiving some $3.6 million from this government. The lead school is Healesville High School and the two cluster schools are Upper Yarra Secondary College and Worawa Aboriginal College.

We also have the Central Ranges TTC. It is a huge investment in a regional area that was affected by bushfires but neglected by the state Liberal government and the former federal government. The schools in the Central Ranges TTC cluster have received $11.3 million from the Gillard government. The schools in McEwen that are part of the TTC are lead school Broadford Secondary College and cluster schools Alexandra Secondary College, Assumption College, Seymour P-12 College, St Mary's College, Wallan Secondary College, Whittlesea Secondary and Yea High School. There is also Euroa Secondary College, which is in the electorate of Indi. We also have the Lakes South Morang P-9 School, which is part of the Peter Lalor Trade Training Centre and is shared across electorates of McEwen, Scullin and Batman.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I know you are aware that young people in rural and regional Victoria face particular issues making the transition from school to further education, training or employment. They have more limited access to a range of education, training and employment positions by virtue of having smaller and fewer schools and local training providers, limited public transport, and reduced family income. That results in fewer employment opportunities.

Currently, in the region of Hume, 65.2 per cent of rural and regional students complete year 12, which is 17 per cent lower than the statewide average. So you would have to ask: why would the Victorian Liberal government cut VCAL? VCAL is an opportunity for Victorian kids to lift that state average and give them every opportunity. Both I and the Liberal member for Seymour attended the Central Ranges LLEN launch of the Hume Regional Youth Commitment. One has to wonder: does the Liberal member understand the importance of this project? Has she actually got a clue? This cut is probably the cruellest cut of all because it is a cut to our future generations' opportunities, and there is no worse thing you can do to your kids than cut their educational opportunities. It is an absolutely disgrace that they would say: 'Oh, you don't need coordinators; kids can find any job they want. They don't need help or assistance. You don't need to make sure that they get the opportunity to go to each company and get the education that will set them up for the future.' It is a joke and an embarrassment, and the Victorian Liberal government should be condemned for their actions. (Time expired)

John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the member for Murray and the member for Wanham, I am confused as to why this parliament is taking the time to debate an issue that is entirely within the jurisdiction of the state parliament of Victoria. Nevertheless, it does provide an opportunity for us to put on the record our commitment to the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning. It is a tremendous program. It gives the opportunity for young people who are not necessarily academically qualified to pursue an academic tertiary career but want to use their hands or get on with pragmatic and practical learning on the job.

Just recently in Sea Lake, the national banks made a major commitment to the Sea Lake Secondary College to enhance the opportunity for, particularly, young males to experience applied learning with regard to agriculture and machinery. This is not a discussion about the benefits of VCAL but a political opportunity for the federal Labor Party to divert interest from its own shortcomings as a government.

The Victorian government have made very strong commitments to VCAL. The problem they have is in response to a review of VCAL coordination funding which was tabled in April this year. That report itself raises questions about the funding of the coordination. It makes the point that VCE and other tertiary programs do not have a funded coordinator in place, and, on the basis of equity, it makes a strong point. The Victorian government have simply responded. They have not withdrawn funding from VCAL at all, as members on the other side have been asserting. The report I refer to, which is from April 2011, makes a statement that one of the striking aspects of the study involved documentation of a very imperfect relationship between coordination funding and reported allocations to the coordination role at a school level. The real objective is to make sure the funds get to the coalface, to the direct benefit of the students at the coalface.

It is interesting to confirm that funding has increased by 8.5 per cent since the introduction of the Baillieu-Ryan coalition government, and enrolment is expected to continue from 2011 to 2012. So the government is quite aware of this but it wants to make funding go more directly to the coalface, to the students, to make sure they benefit directly.

I think that the member for La Trobe and other Victorian federal members sitting on the government benches have created a diversion from their own inadequacies, not just in regard to education but across the board. The ineptness of the government with their focus on excessive, unabated borrowings and unaccountable spending has raised the problem of how to raise the money to fund such an outrageous program. Their answer to that is a tax. They tax, borrow and spend. That is the Labor formula, it seems, and that is what the Baillieu-Ryan government in Victoria has inherited, a basket case of mismanaged programs.

I will mention just a few of those programs: the desalination plant down at Wonthaggi; Myki, with billions of dollars sunk into programs that did not provide a benefit; and the north-south pipeline, transporting my constituents' water to service Melbourne, with billions of dollars wasted on something not even needed. It just seems that the Baillieu government has inherited what coalition governments inherit all over the place. It will be a challenge confronting our side of the chamber, when we resume responsibility of the Treasury benches after the mob over there have finished, to find a way for every dollar to get spent wisely and properly for the benefit of the recipients of those programs. This list is a classic example of a government that wants to make sure that the millions of dollars that it makes available for education get spent properly and adequately and that the people at the end of the chain benefit. I do not support this motion at all; I think it is a red herring and the government members on the other side should focus on their own inadequacies.

Debate adjourned.