Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

On 11 October, Senator Rhiannon asked me a question about vocational education and training. I seek leave to incorporate the answer in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The answer read as follows—

SENATOR RHIANNON—11 October 2011

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Senator Rhiannon (New South Wales) (14:53): Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, can you inform the Senate if the VET competitive tendering process applies competitive neutrality adjustments to TAFE which effectively penalise TAFE for having access to state owned infrastructure? Has this happened in tendering in New South Wales and in other slates?

Response:

The Minister for Tertiary Employment, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations has provided the following information.

There has been no indication in recent discussions at COAG and amongst officials that States and Territories (the states) are considering or have implemented competitive neutrality adjustments to Technical and Further Education (TAFE) so as penalise them for their access to state owned infrastructure, as part of their Vocational Education and Training (VET) reform agenda. Victoria is the only state that has implemented more competitive demand driven reforms into their VET sector, at this point in time, and a recent audit by the Victorian Auditor-General did not find any discounting of capital in its examination of the financial accounts of any of the 14 Victorian TAFE Institutes.

NSW has announced its intention to consider reforms to its VET sector, including the introduction of a more competitive environment between private and public providers for Governments' funding dollars. NSW has recently released a discussion paper on possible reform directions and is currently undertaking stakeholder consultations as part of their deliberations.

All states have indicated that they are considering moving to a more flexible and demand-driven training systems, and looking at greater contestability of funding for public training and greater competition between providers.

However, the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) recent consideration of VET reform also indicated quite clearly through its publicly available communiqué the value that all governments place on TAFE institutes within any competitive market. COAG recognised and supports TAFE's role providing high-cost technical training (so as not to lose the public value of that capital investment), encouraging participation of disadvantaged students and offering services in regional and remote areas.