Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I stand in the Senate to speak about the important campaign to save the Australian Technical College in Northern Tasmania. Tomorrow the Senate will vote on a motion to save the Australian Technical College in Northern Tasmania. That motion was lodged in the Senate today by me, Senator Richard Colbeck and Senator Parry, with the support of Senator Bushby and Senator Abetz on behalf of the Tasmanian Liberal Senate team.

Today I also seek leave to table, in the Senate, petitions with 4,685 signatures, which are a testament to people power and the overwhelming community support for the ATCNT, with more signatures still to come. I seek leave to do that right now.

Leave granted.

Each and every one of those signatures sends a message to the federal government and indeed to state Labor that the Tasmanian community wants to keep the ATCNT. The Australian Technical College Northern Tasmania has been a highly successful model of education for students who wish to learn a trade and complete their Tasmanian Certificate of Education. The ATCNT, with campuses in Launceston and Burnie, is currently set to close on 31 December 2009, with the loss of 35 staff jobs and the displacement of over 270 students. The options currently being offered to students for 2010 by the Tasmanian government are in no way comparable to current courses offered by the ATCNT and further place at risk the education and employment prospects of the students and indeed future students.

The federal government has invested over $26 million for the establishment and operation of the ATCNT, including $14 million on the building of the Launceston and Burnie facilities. The outstanding performance of the ATCNT in its first three years of operation includes winning more than 40 awards for students and staff, including the 2007 Tasmanian and Australian School Based Apprentice of the Year and being named the 2009 Registered Training Organisation of the Year for Tasmania. The ATCNT has achieved a retention rate of 95 per cent between year 11 and year 12 and a 94 per cent success rate for completing students in securing full-time employment—an outstanding record throughout Australia. It has been a fantastic effort.

The motion that has been put to the Senate and which will be voted on tomorrow calls on the government to support the ongoing operation of the ATC in Northern Tasmania and I hope it is successful. I do not know what the Labor senators for Tasmania will do in response to that motion. Tomorrow will tell. What I do know is that the history is that, yes, it was a Howard government initiative, initially from 2005 to 2009—a four-year funding program for the establishment of 25 ATCs around Australia. The previous federal Liberal member for Bass, Michael Ferguson, played a pivotal role in securing the two-campus model—college campuses in both Launceston and Burnie—for Northern Tasmania, ensuring that the students from both the north and north-west were able to access the college.

In advance of the 2007 federal election, the then shadow minister for education and training, Stephen Smith, released the following commitment in a document to ATCs:

A Rudd Labor Government has made a commitment not to close any existing Australian Technical Colleges, and to honour all existing contracts.

That promise will be breached if the college closes. According to documents, the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office made it clear that they were unable to continue the operation of the ATC in Tasmania as early as 21 August 2009. Their letter states:

This notice has been provided as soon as the financial picture has become clear, to maximise the time for you—

meaning the federal department and the federal government—

to develop an alternative strategy …

So the federal government had known about it for some time in the lead-up to that letter and has obviously known about it since. But what have they done? Pretty well nothing.

I want to pay a tribute to the Save Our ATC campaign. I want to pay a special tribute to the staff and the students at the ATC, the local community and the local business community. I thank, in particular, the local newspaper, the Examiner, and the Advocate for their strong support to save the ATC. I want to acknowledge, in the Senate chamber tonight, Nigel Hill, CEO of the ATC, Mark Kenzie, a facilitator with the ATC, and the staff representatives. Nigel and Mark have been strong advocates with the support of students, students such as Brad Garwood—what a wonderful advocate for his colleagues—Alex Schreuder, Philip Ferguson, Adam Puzzelato, Claire Martin, Sopheena Fairey from Scottsdale and Stacey Perkins. These are wonderful students and they are but a few of those who have been out there fighting this campaign, gaining signatures and petitions, running a Facebook campaign and building support in the local community. That has been fantastic.

The original board put out a statement today. Mac Russell, on behalf of the board, in reference to the Catholic Education Office, spoke of:

… their unanimous disappointment with that body’s decision not to continue the operation of the college.

He says:

It is our view that Catholic Education (CE) has breached the agreement it made with our Board.

It goes on to say that five members of the original board, including Chairman Mac Russell, Deputy Chairman Martin Rees of KPMG, John White of Delta Hydraulics, John Dingemanse of cb&m and David Castle of Learning Partners have now offered their services to support the ongoing operation of the college.

I put out a plea to the federal government and a plea to the state Labor government to reconsider this decision to close the ATC. It is wrong. It is against the best interests of the students. It is against the best interests of the local community and the small businesses affected. The Launceston Chamber of Commerce sent me a copy of a letter they sent last night to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Premier in which they expressed their deep concern about the federal Labor government’s recent decision to close the ATC in Northern Tasmania. Their letter says:

The strong ground swell of support for the Australian Technical College in Launceston from local business, the community, students, parents and industry in fact reflects that it is a model that can work into the future.

They go on to say:

On behalf of the Launceston Chamber of Commerce, I urge the federal government to reverse this decision …

On top of that you have the Launceston City Council and the Mayor, Albert Van Zetten, in strong support of the retention of the ATC and its ongoing operation. The Launceston City Council has been represented by Deputy Mayor Frank Knott at two of the public meetings, and I thank him, and there has been support from the Launceston City Council—Alderman Rosemary Armitage and many others. Last Thursday we had 200 people at the ATC in Launceston with up to 40 people in Burnie hooked in as well—a fantastic show of support over the last two Thursdays organised by Mark Kenzie, the students and the Save Our ATC team. I have a letter here from Ryan Simons, who says:

My name is Ryan Simons.

I am a current year 11 student at the ATC in Launceston.

I am writing to say, if the technical college closes down I will no longer have an education for my trade in Boiler Maker Welding. I am not going to go to another school because I won’t get the same level of education I am getting from the ATC.

If the college does shut down, I am going to leave the school system as all I have heard in regard to Polytechnics—

that is, the Premier’s plan for education—

is all bad and I won’t get the same amount of support as I currently receive at the ATC.

So I will be unemployed and most likely be sitting at home doing nothing. “IS THIS WHAT YOU REALLY WANT OUR FUTURE TO LOOK LIKE?”

Absolutely not. But thank you, Ryan Simons, for your letter expressing your concerns on behalf of so many other students.

I wrote a letter in response to the Premier’s letter to the editor in the Examiner in which he said that the setting up of the ATC was a political stunt. He said it would inevitably fail. I say that he is quite wrong. I outlined the fact that it has 40 awards and it has the apprentice of the year—not just for Tasmania but for Australia—Warwick Johnstone, and I put the facts on the table about the retention rates. He can call it whatever he wants, but the fact is it is delivering the results. It is providing education and delivering jobs and apprenticeships galore in Northern and north-west Tasmania.

What a disgrace the Premier is. The Premier put out a statement today in the parliament and he has done a partial backflip. He said that he is listening to the community and fully understands the community. Well, the devil is in the detail. Yes, this is a move forward, but I would like to see the detail. We want to know exactly what plans the Premier has. A consortium has come together and I congratulate the consortium members and say, ‘Thank you.’ I also congratulate Sue Napier. She has been to these public meetings, standing up on behalf of the state Liberals. Peter Gutwein has been very supportive and so has Will Hodgman. We have had tremendous support. In conclusion, I would love to speak longer on this very important topic and say how important this institution is. We will fight to retain our ATC in Northern Tasmania because it is good for the students, it is good business and it is good for the local community. We support it. (Time expired)