Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to once again focus on the Abbott government's cruel cuts to education. We have seen this government cut money from the whole spectrum of education. There has been a range of cuts, including to early years education, and cuts to the childcare benefit and family day care—a whole range of nasty cuts in that area. It does not stop there. There have been cuts to schools. There have been cuts to trade training centres. There have been cuts to vocational education and, finally, cuts to higher education. It does not seem to matter what area of education you might study or work in, it has not been spared from the Abbott government's cuts.

This is a very far cry from their solemn pre-election commitment of 'no cuts to education'. That was a solemn commitment made by the now Prime Minister, but he seems to think that the more times he breaks his promise, the less people will notice. We know that is just not the case.

Last week, I visited a number of different educational institutions that have been affected by these cruel cuts. I have already spoken about a number of those today in the parliament, but I would like to talk about Rose Bay High School which I visited with the member for Franklin. I had a wonderful tour of the school and I thank the principal for that tour. This school wanted to get a trade training centre. They were ready to get a trade training centre. They had their proposal ready to go but, without notice, this government has cut $950 million from the trade training centre program. This means 650 schools throughout Australia, like Rose Bay High School, will never have the opportunity to get that money.

I spoke to the Principal of Rose Bay High School about the impact that would have. He said that he had seen the benefits in other neighbouring schools, and what money would allow him to do is partner with those schools to offer a really good vocational education pathway to so many students. This is a school that has grown significantly as a result of another school in the local area no longer running, so they are desperate to offer more vocational pathways. They are trying to go ahead with funding their own trade training centre but it is difficult and has to be done in stages. They are very disappointed that this money is no longer available and they will not be able to offer as broad a range of vocational education as they had hoped to.

It seems incredibly mind-boggling that the government is walking away from the trade training centre program. I have called on them many times to reverse this decision. It is unfair. We need strategies to really address this, especially in the state of Tasmania where we see high youth unemployment.

While I was visiting Tasmania I visited the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies along with the senator for Tasmania, Senator Lisa Singh. The institute plays a key role in research into the Antarctic and has a number of PhD and master's student programs that are offered in conjunction with the University of Tasmania. They work very closely with the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre which is housed in the same precinct.

Last week, or maybe it was the week before, we heard the Minister for Industry say that cooperative research centres could well be folded without any notice. That is a real concern for that cooperative research centre which does research not just into industry, but into how we can best adapt as a community—research into the human cost of climate change and how we can best ensure we are working towards an adapted environment in the face of climate change. We also discussed the higher education reforms which will not only cut money from undergraduate students but also from higher research students.

These are just some of the examples that are hurting Tasmania. I call on the government not to continue to cut education; keep your election promise and make no cuts to education. Do not keep cutting. (Time expired)