Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

invest an additional $637 million into TAFE and vocational education, reversing the government's cuts in full. That is $637 million on this side, additional to what was in their budget. We are also going further, guaranteeing at least two-thirds of public vocational education funding for TAFE. We are investing in a new $100 million Building TAFE for the Future Fund to re-establish the facilities that have been absolutely neglected and left to be run down under those opposite. We are also setting targets for apprentices, one in 10 on all Commonwealth priority projects, investing in pre-apprenticeship programs and establishing an advanced entry adult apprenticeship program. The Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party understand TAFE. That is why we all celebrated National TAFE Day yesterday. We have the policy to backup. We know it is not just words.

Perhaps the assistant minister can tell us what she did on behalf of the government to mark National TAFE Day yesterday. Did the government go out and mark it in any way? If not, why not and is it because they wanted to further their record of just neglecting, walking away, privatising and running down our TAFE sector? Why is the minister further privatising TAFE by letting the migrant English program and the Skills for Education and Employment program be run by for-profit, foreign-owned businesses who are replacing the contracts that TAFE used to have? Will the minister guarantee at least the projected funding under the proposed national partnership?

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