Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The South Australian Marshall Liberal government is determined to dismantle the TAFE sector in South Australia. When it came into office in 2018, the Marshall government immediately closed down several TAFE colleges, including three in my region. Now it wants to cut the number of courses currently provided by TAFE and outsource those courses to private training providers, some possibly from interstate. At a time of widespread skills shortages, after hundreds of millions of dollars were rorted by shonky training providers in the past, and after billions of dollars were cut from training by the Morrison government, the Marshall government wants to make it more difficult and ultimately more expensive for skills training in South Australia. Whilst there are credible private sector training providers, particularly those run by industry sectors, TAFE's accessibility and credibility make it a preferred trainer for many employers and employees. The South Australian Marshall Liberal government is obsessed with its ideological privatisation agenda, with no concern for job losses or the loss of services. The TAFE cuts are short-sighted penny pinching by a government that has no vision and no strategy to rebuild South Australia, at a time that South Australia desperately needs confidence-building political leadership.