The Acting Deputy President:

Order! It being 6 pm, the Senate will now proceed to the consideration of government documents.

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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I stand to speak to document No. 21, which talks about the national training system of vocational education and training. In terms of the national training system, I wanted to alert the Senate and the public to the great progress that has been made in Launceston and on the north-west coast of Tasmania at Burnie with respect to Australia’s technical colleges. The previous government had plans to expand Australia’s technical colleges but that has concluded under the Rudd Labor government. I specifically want to commend the work of Australian Technical College Northern Tasmania’s CEO, Nigel Hill, its chairman, Mac Russell, and its board. I thank them for their work. I also want to commend the previous federal member for Bass, Michael Ferguson, who was a very strong advocate and a great supporter of the Australian technical college’s Launceston campus. As a result of his effort—and, indeed, of the Tasmanian Liberal Senate team at the time—the construction of the new premises of that Australian technical college is now well underway. It is an excellent facility.

A couple of weeks ago there was a tour with Andrew Southcott, the shadow minister for Employment Participation and Apprenticeships and Training. He toured the south, he toured the north, he toured the north-west and he was well appreciated by not only the representatives of the Australian technical college, but also by the families and others who he visited during his tour. I want to note that during his visit, particularly in Launceston, he met with not only Nigel Hill but also Martin Binns, CEO of Launceston Workplace Learning, and the Launceston Chamber of Commerce. That meeting was with Louise Clark, Jessica Hughes, Frank Lyons and Janet McBain. It was a very productive and worthwhile meeting indeed. Senator Richard Colbeck and Senator Parry hosted his visit on the north-west coast, and Senator Colbeck has made some very sensible comments about the merit of Australian technical colleges for this country, including in Tasmania. He was also hosted in the south of Tasmania.

In terms of the benefits of the Australian technical colleges, I note Senator Colbeck’s statement of 1 August relating to that particular visit. He said that the 2007 apprentices and trainees annual report indicated the national completion rate was 49.5 per cent, but at 31 December 2007 there were 405,500 apprentices and trainees in training and ‘it is disturbing to think that some 200,000 of those may not complete’. Yes, it is disturbing. The Australian technical colleges have delivered improved apprenticeship retention rates and they are helping to save the community millions of dollars. That is happening.

The ATCs have a national retention rate of 90 per cent, but in Tasmania it is even higher, at 97 per cent. So the results are already on the board as a result of the previous government’s initiative and as a result of this project getting up and going. It is certainly a great achievement. Since its inception, there has been a delivery of nationally recognised certificate III trade training in conjunction with the relevant TCE program. There is certificate III training that is currently being provided for carpentry, commercial cookery, metals and engineering, fabrication, metals and engineering and mechanical electrotechnology. In 2009 this will extend to certificate III training in automotive, information technology and business studies, so there is great merit. I wanted to particularly acknowledge the success of the ATC. They had the Australian school based apprentice of the year, Warwick Johnstone, last year. That is a great credit to the Australian Technical College in Launceston, to Nigel Hill and his team, and they should be commended for the success, as should Warwick Johnstone be commended for his national award.

In conclusion, I just want to say it is up to the local members in Tasmania to stand up for the Australian technical college, and that is the big question: will they stand up? Will federal members Jodie Campbell and Sid Sidebottom stand up for the ATC and their future? That is the big question. (Time expired)

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to follow on from Senator Barnett’s comments on the Australian Vocational Education and Training system, and also to support his comments on Australian technical colleges. I have mentioned in this chamber many a time before the magnificent Australian technical college in Townsville, which has done so much to help young people wanting to have an education in the trades—principally those trades that support the mining and manufacturing industries and mining support industries in Townsville. It is an organisation that was set up some years ago and opened, as I recall, by the then Prime Minister, John Howard.

I want to pay tribute to the member for Herbert, Peter Lindsay, for the work that he did in getting that Townsville Australian technical college up and running. I am shattered by the suggestion that the Rudd government will not be continuing funding of the ATC in Townsville. The genesis of the technical college was the skills shortage in the mining and mining support industries. There was a desperate need for it. Unfortunately, the Queensland College of Technical and Further Education, the TAFE, was not providing the sort of training that was required and so the Australian technical college was set up in Townsville. It had an independent board—a board of businessmen, people involved in the industry who understood what was needed. It had engaged very good staff. The technical college taught not only the trades but also subjects, like English and mathematics, that enable young people to get a trade and make their way in the world.

I cannot understand what ideology would encourage Mr Rudd not to fund that group again. I know they have been seeking outside funding, and no doubt they will have some assistance there, but it is a college that has proved its worth and should be continued by the Rudd government. It can only be a matter of ideology that Mr Rudd is not going to continue it. I know he said that the TAFE systems run by the states can do the work and that we should be putting money into that, but it has been proved clearly over a number of years that the TAFE system in Queensland was not providing the sort of training and assistance that was needed. So I urge Mr Rudd, the current government and the relevant minister to put aside politics and ideology and not to ignore the facts that it was a good initiative of the Howard government and a college that Mr Peter Lindsay was instrumental in getting up and running. Mr Rudd should be statesmanlike, be a real Prime Minister and continue funding of a college that was really assisting young people to get into their chosen trades or jobs. Let those young people continue to have access to the sort of training they need to make a worthwhile contribution to Australia in the future.

Question agreed to.