Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I welcome the opportunity to add my voice to those already heard in this place concerning the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2007.

The purpose of this Bill is to implement a 2007-08 budget measure for the establishment and operation of three additional Australian Technical Colleges.

These ATCs, Scheduled to open by 2009, will cater for approximately 900 students and will be located in Northern Perth, Southern Brisbane and the greater Penrith region of New South Wales.

Labor supports the Bill in the interests of movement towards alleviating Australia’s acute skills shortage, but continues to hold reservations about the present and future effectiveness of what has already been exposed as a—characteristically—cynical and politically motivated scheme.

Labor’s Shadow Minister spoke to a second reading amendment on 7 February and again on 9 August this year, expressing his concerns…concerns about the program’s value and effectiveness, but also its inefficient and very costly implementation to date at the expense of an already established—though neglected—vocational training infrastructure.

I, too, have previously addressed the issues related to the Government’s hasty policy making and implementation with regard to skills training.

There are 21 ATCs currently operating. Four more are to open in 2008, with the three new ATCs to commence operations in 2009.

Current estimates show that 8,400 students will be enrolled across Australia when all ATCs are fully operational which is expected to be in 2009.

8,400 students enrolled…However, it is estimated that more than 200,000 skilled workers will be needed in Australia over the next five years.

Indeed, according to the Government’s own projections, 240,000 more skilled workers will be needed by 2016.

And the first graduate from the Australian Technical Colleges is not expected until 2010.

And my research reveals that when these students graduate from the ATC, they will have the approximate equivalent of one third of an apprenticeship… what this means is that graduates will likely have approximately one and half years of a three to four year apprenticeship …

So in fact, even those graduating from an Australian Technical College in 2010, will be between two and three years away from being the skilled workers we so desperately need …

So what has the Howard Government been doing for 11 years to address Australia’s skills shortage?

In the year 2005, the unmet demand for education and training places in TAFE institutes was 34,200. That is 34,200 people who wanted a place but could not get one …

In the same year, the unmet demand in the whole of the vocational education training sector was 45,100. These are not just figures; these are 45,100 real people with real families who wanted to embark on training to gain skills…real people who were turned away.

Forty-five thousand Australians who potentially could have graduated as skilled workers this year or next year …

There have also been concerns raised about the overall impact on the institutions already up and running in the TAFE and VET sectors, which could be providing the skills training …

The average expenditure for each student who goes through the Australian technical colleges will exceed by thousands of dollars the average expenditure for each student in TAFE.

In addition to the set-up and operational costs that we are discussing here today, Australian technical colleges are entitled to all of the funding available to schools under the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004.

They are also entitled to general recurrent funding per student, most of them at the non-government school rate.

They will also have available to them targeted funding for special programs and capital funding.

The ATCs will also receive the relevant state funding. And they will receive all this, while the Howard government fails to make a genuine commitment to our existing TAFE system.

Instead of working in partnership with already established vocational providers and tapping into the existing expertise to maximise training outcomes, the Howard government embarked upon a course of its own …

So what led to us standing here today, what was the process and why are we back here again amending this Bill …

There is no doubt that the establishment and operation of ATCs has not gone to plan.

On 30 March 2005 DEST invited submissions from consortia—which included government and non-government schools, registered training organisations, local councils, industry bodies and local businesses—to establish colleges. The closing date was 20 May 2005. This allowed a period of some seven weeks for the preparation of submissions! A total of 73 proposals were received, four after the closing date. All were assessed by DEST.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) Report released—two months ago—clearly sets out the problems that have resulted from the Government’s approach.

Among other issues, the Auditor General refers to the inadequate period of time allocated for the planning and implementation of the program.

The ANAO report raises concern about this haste stating:

“The policy provided DEST with little time to plan for the establishment of the colleges. The new schools had to be established in far less time than is usual for new schools, which can take three to four years of preparation before acceptance of their first students.  This limited time made more difficult DEST’s tasks of selecting the best educational and financial models to achieve the programme’s objectives.”

Among the consequences of this were:

• Insufficient time to allow the preparation of well-developed, thoroughly costed proposals … resulting, in many instances, in little or no choice in consortia available to DEST;
• Inadequate consultation with state and territory government education authorities and relevant organisations, with the result that existing systems and infrastructure have been duplicated. The Auditor General states that a formal, ongoing strategy to deal with the interests of State and Territory governments ‘would have been beneficial’, as these are key stakeholders in implementing the program and have, after all, experience in the provision of secondary schooling;
• Duplication of curriculum areas: each ATC develops its own training curriculum for the same, small number of trades and small numbers of students—which is both time consuming and costly;
• Waste of public funds in pursuit of a quick political fix: of the five colleges visited during the audit, the Auditor General examined two in detail; DEST advised him that each of the two colleges were required to open with minimal planning in order to meet the very tight establishment time…and that each had to rent and refurbish premises for one or two years while permanent buildings were designed or identified;
• Development of policy ‘on the run’: as the Report acknowledges, given the short period allowed for planning and implementation of the ATCs … DEST was obliged to develop policy and procedures ‘as the program progressed’;
• Over estimation of the number of students to be enrolled in 2006: three of the first five operating ATCs signed Funding Agreements in December 2005 and one of these opened in August 2006. As the Audit Report comments, ‘signing Funding Agreements close to the opening date and not commencing at the start of the school year is likely to adversely impact on the number of enrolments’ .

There are also issues related to the Government’s direct funding of the consortia via Funding Agreements.

• A significant number of initial business plans and proposed budgets required additional work. DEST informed the Government that although successful applicants could be announced, this further work would be required before DEST could finalise Funding Agreements. To announce ‘successful’ consortia for short-term political purposes, in circumstances such as these, shows a very nonchalant disregard of proper financial management;
• The Audit Report notes that the typical Funding Agreement ‘provides funding by way of grants based on the application of the individual college, not by the use of a formula based on student numbers; Given the number of students currently enrolled—only 1800 in total—this strategy can hardly represent acceptable deployment of taxpayers’ monies;

The Auditor General’s report reveals that ATCs leasing land or buildings, or carrying out capital improvements with public funds, are obliged under the Funding Agreement to enter into a Purposes Agreement with the Commonwealth—if requested by DEST.

In one instance documented in the ANAO Report, an ATC had spent approximately $M6 refurbishing a leased property, but no Purposes Agreement had been signed. The landowner in this instance was known to the Commonwealth to be an established institution.

Cleary, though, neglecting to execute a Purposes Agreement in such circumstances must increase the risk that the Commonwealth would have limited recourse to funded assets, in the event that an ATC ceased to operate on, or before completion of, a Funding Agreement.

This episode provides yet more evidence that the scheme has been poorly thought out and implemented, and is fraught with potential difficulties such as those I have just outlined.

I understand that conflicts of interest have emerged and that mingling of operational and capital funding has occurred. When asked about a particular instance, DEST advised the

Auditor General, significantly, that:

‘In this case the imperative to establish the College quickly determined the need to procure items urgently … to meet the very tight establishment time frames … DEST went on to say These colleges have been required to open a school with minimal planning time… It is inevitable that no existing buildings would satisfy the educational requirements of the colleges, thus refurbishment has been necessary in all such instances… DEST concluded saying This approach reflects the Government’s objective to open the colleges as quickly as possible …’;

• In another instance outlined in the Report, potential conflicts of interest around leasing, employment and the provision of services emerged in an ATC. While a subsequent inquiry revealed no undue gain to companies associated with ATC board members, the Audit Report indicates that competitive quotes and a rental valuation had not been obtained, and no formal contracts had been entered into by the parties.

The dangers inherent in such a hasty approach, coupled with insufficient scrutiny of transactions, need hardly be spelt out.

The Auditor General’s Report reveals also:

• undue haste
• poor planning
• insufficient consultation
• duplication of resources
• inattention to issues of governance and risk
• ever-increasing cost
• inadequate levels of operational scrutiny,
• and potential for the loss of objectivity in decision making with regard to public funds.

The process applied in the establishment of the Australian Technical Colleges is another example of how this government has neglected, downgraded and failed to act in so many areas … until compelled by electoral imperatives, of course—with the result being, poorly drafted legislation and planning that is rushed …

For 11 years under this government vocational education and skills training have been systematically neglected—more accurately, systematically downgraded…

The Government refused to adequately invest in our TAFE system…the system established to deal with post-secondary vocational education and training …

The Government has squandered the goodwill and co-operation of education partners in its pursuit of ideological goals, and is reaping a pitiful harvest in the form of an ever more pressing skills crisis in this country.

Once out of touch and complacent, now out of touch and panic-stricken, this government has failed time and time again to deal with the real issues that confront families and workers every day.

High among these, as I have said, are the skills shortage that continues to critically impact Australian industry, and the need for effective skills training—now and in the years to come.

The Howard government has failed to make provision for Australia’s long-term, productive future. 

A Labor government would maintain the established ATCs but would transfer their management into the state-based skills and training education system…this could include the TAFE system, the Catholic or Independent Secondary system, an industry skills and training arrangement or  even industry itself. And this would be done through consultation with all interested parties and as contractual agreements allow.

And a Labor government would provide $2.5 billion in capital funding over 10 years to build new trades training centres in Australia’s secondary schools to promote vocational education for students in Years 9 to 12.

This commitment would be supported by programs targeting stronger links between schools and industry and improving student access to on-the-job training.

To give a young Australian the chance to get ahead, to maximise his or her potential, to take a valued place in a forward-looking, contemporary society, is one of the  important things a Labor Government would do … for the sake of all our futures …