Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is National TAFE Day—a day when we should celebrate the role that TAFE has played within Australian society for many decades. In doing so, it is important to know that it is an organisation that has been of value and has been responsible for providing vocational training to tens of thousands of young Australians. Just looking at some figures, more than 1.15 million students were enrolled in TAFE in 2013, and I suspect that that may have decreased slightly. During that time, 480,000 people between the age of 15 and 24 attended TAFE, as well as 441,000 people between the age of 25 and 44, and 227,000 people over the age of 45. It provides an opportunity for people to update their skills, and it provides an opportunity for people when they leave school to undertake that first vocational training that they need.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen places in TAFE decrease, and we have seen teachers lose their jobs. The Smart and Skilled program in New South Wales has led to over 2,000 jobs being cut. Every day, we hear about cuts to TAFE, and every cut is a reduction of an opportunity for a young person and their future. Each time that governments go down this track it places more strain on our education system. The privatisation of TAFE is destroying it. Governments have slashed funding to TAFE. It seems that the Liberal and National Party governments do not like TAFE—every time they come to power, they take money away from TAFE.

More and more money is going to private colleges that do not provide the same standard of training as is provided at TAFE. Only this week we have learned that the government, in its green paper, outlines options which would see the Australian government walking away from every single dollar that it funds to VET. Now we have seen $2 billion cut from skills and training—including $1 billion for apprenticeships—by this government. I call on this government to really consider the role that TAFE plays. I will be talking to teachers from TAFE today, and I look forward to hearing their opinion on this government's performance— (Time expired)