Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the exciting things that are happening at the newly-named Federation University. It is a university that the member of the Gippsland and I share and it is a very important part of the fabric of both of our regional communities. My community, Ballarat, is certainly a university town and our iconic higher education facility has started the academic year with a number of new and innovative teaching spaces coming on line that will attract the best and brightest to our region. Just last week, the brand new science and engineering and sports and recreation buildings were opened at the Mount Helen campus.

I will be at the SMB campus tomorrow for the opening of Federation College.

Funded by the former state Labor government, Federation College will deliver programs for secondary students from year 10 onwards, providing an opportunity to learn a trade whilst at school and to support a pathway to VET and through to higher education. This enables young people toward the end of their secondary schooling to sharpen their skills, to get an apprenticeship, to go on to further study, to build a career and to stay engaged with education.

To further support these career pathways, the facility adjoins the tertiary level Manufacturing Technology Training Centre, which I had the pleasure of opening last year. Covering some 4,700 metres, the Manufacturing Technology Training Centre marries traditional technical manufacturing skills based training and infrastructure, including welding, metal fabrication, mechanical fabrication, plant maintenance, workshops and classrooms with laboratories, computer automation, mechatronics and robotics. It is a fantastic training centre. I want to commend Federation University for having the vision and initiative to prepare our region to embrace the manufacturing jobs of the future and the skills that we will need in the future.

One of the things that links all of these projects is that they were funded by Labor governments. They were funded by Labor governments because we had a very strong belief in education, in regional communities and in skills training. But it is very much about our belief in our policy priorities. We do support education and training. We support manufacturing, job creation and infrastructure investment, and we support regional communities through that. That is unfortunately in stark contrast with the state Liberal government, which has cut very deeply into our TAFE sector.

Education investment not only pays huge dividends for our economies but also provides young people with the skills that they need for life. These are major investments in the future of regional young people but also major investments in the economies of our regions. I am very proud of Federation University. I want to wish all of the universities in my electorate well. While Federation University is the topic of this speech, I wish all of the new students who are starting their academic year well, as I do for the Australian Catholic University.