Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As one of his first acts as the new Victorian Premier, Denis Napthine last week announced that he would provide the state's TAFE sector with $200 million over four years. Some media reporting described this announcement as the partial reversal of what the Victorian Liberals cut from the TAFE sector last year. This announcement is not a reversal. Fifty million dollars a year does not come close to covering almost $300 million a year. And, if the Premier thinks it will fix the mess created when his government slashed $290 million a year from the TAFE sector, he is mistaken.

At the Gordon Institute of TAFE, in Geelong, the jobs of 90 staff have already been lost, nearly 30 courses discontinued and students left in limbo part way through their studies or with the courses they had hoped to start no longer available. The Victorian Liberals have made a hash of this issue, but the funding they are proposing for innovation and structural reform will not make up for the cutbacks to operational funding.

As Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews said last week, this is nothing more than an incentive scheme to force TAFEs into financially independent models while allowing the government to close and sell off campuses. The public should be very concerned about the Victorian Liberal government's management of the TAFE sector. Last year, the Minister for Higher Education and Skills, Peter Hall, was reportedly deeply disappointed by the cuts his government was making. But last week there was no sign of those misgivings from Mr Hall, who jointly announced the Victorian Liberals' TAFE plan alongside his Premier.

Australia's TAFE sector operates at the coalface of industry training, identifying areas where there are skills shortages and building skills across a range of industries. The TAFE sector also provides education and training opportunities for students from a range of backgrounds and with a range of educational needs. As a result of last year's funding cuts, many of the courses lost are in industry areas like hospitality and retail where women are highly represented.

I have spoken before in this House about the value of the Gordon to Geelong and its region. The Gordon's history is very much embedded in the history of our city. It has been training and skilling our workforce for more than a century. It has responded to changing times and changing industry needs. Despite extremely difficult circumstances, it has continued to do that. It is to its great credit that the Gordon has worked extremely hard this year to offer new courses in the health and business sectors. That is an outcome that should be applauded. Through its policies, the Victorian government should not be attacking the Gordon but rather should be supporting the Gordon to do what it clearly does best: serving the needs of the Geelong community.