Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Rhiannon today relating to technical and further education funding.

Minister Evans's answer to my question showed he is working hard to deny any association between federal Labor and the growing crisis for vocational education and training around the country. Yes, the Baillieu government policies are gutting TAFE because they are ripping out more than $300 million, but the minister cannot get away with sidestepping the shouldering of a fair share of the responsibility for the current mess.

TAFE rallies in Melbourne and across Victoria and in other parts of Australia are really putting focus on how the TAFE system and the wider vocational, education and training system are working between state and federal governments. Minister Evans has effectively declined to intervene to rescue Victoria's TAFE system. That was the essence of his answer today. The federal government has a strong hand in the emasculation of the public TAFE system in Victoria. This is because the minister signed off on the COAG agreement that has created the conditions that favour the private sector over the public TAFE. The minister attempted today to muddy the waters about the Greens position. The Greens do not reject the role of some private providers but the starting point for a quality vocational education and training system is the resource, the public TAFE system, and then there is only a need for private operations when TAFE cannot do the job.

Minister Evans denied the federal government could do anything about the TAFE mess, despite his ability to impose conditions on the allocation of VET funding to the states. He effectively said it is up to the public to campaign to reverse the cuts. Now the public are out there with a very strong message about this and surely when so much federal money is involved there is a role for the federal government to ensure that our vocational education and training system is working in a way that can deliver the skilled Australia that we hear about so often from the Prime Minister and her ministers.

In Victoria, private vocational education and training courses have now overtaken public TAFE courses. There has been a 310 per cent growth in enrolments in private registered training organisations. Over the past few days there has been a huge campaign around the country on the streets and in a whole number of regional centres. I do congratulate those people because it will be critical to restoring a system that does actually deliver for not only the present generation but also for jobs well into the future and provide that create innovative Australia that we know is so urgently needed to face the challenges that are becoming more complex.

I did want to pay tribute to the teachers, students, friends and families who have been so active today across Victoria. In my own state of New South Wales, there is an urgent job to be undertaken. While the cuts in Victoria have been in the headlines, there are also serious developments in New South Wales. The Illawarra TAFE teachers and their supporters had a major protest yesterday. They passed a resolution condemning the New South Wales government for the $1.7 billion cuts to education across the board that could be resulting in 800 jobs lost in TAFE. There could be an increase in the fees that students will have to pay and overall this will really diminish the education quality that the TAFE teachers are so committed to providing.

The Victorian situation is interesting because it has moved out into the regional areas and is particularly strong there, as well the huge Melbourne demonstration that rallied so many. This is not a new development. It has been going on for months and the pressure is on both Labor and the coalition in the country.

Minister Evans will fail his duty to Australians and the economy's need for skilled workers if he continues down the 'I can't do anything' path that he outlined today. The federal government should be funding and developing private providers, not designing a system that builds a private sector will undermining public TAFE institutions because that is what effectively we have been left with because of the COAG agreement. The minister does have responsibility here. He has power to help clean up this mess. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.