Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to express my support for the motion, moved by the member for La Trobe and seconded by the member for Chisholm, criticising the funding cuts to Victorian TAFEs by the Victorian Liberal government.

I have spoken about this issue in the parliament previously, highlighting the importance of vocational education and training in driving productivity and lifting workforce participation. Premier Baillieu said enrolments in the uncapped vocational education and training system had 'exploded' from 350,000 to 550,000 in two years. He said that was an unsustainable growth rate and was the reason the budget cuts were necessary. In light of the skills shortages that business is screaming about, this is really a nudge and a wink from the Premier, saying, 'Don't worry—we can depend on migrant workers.' The free-market zealots in the Liberal Party would like nothing more than to drain government support from skills training and open the borders to unfettered migrant workers in a race to the bottom on wages and conditions. They miss the point that government assistance for skills training, such as that through the TAFE system, will reduce unemployment.

Unemployment is a particular problem in Broadmeadows, a suburb in the neighbouring electorate of Calwell, where it is 13 per cent and where the Baillieu government's cuts to TAFE will be felt significantly by the Kangan Institute. Fifty-two courses offered by the Kangan Institute could be cut as a result of the funding cuts. This will mean less opportunity for young people in Melbourne's north to learn skills and gain qualifications that would help them to secure a long-term job and help our state skill up its workforce. Some of the 52 courses cover some of the areas where our economy needs skills the most, including building, language studies, health and hospitality. Some of the courses are: certificate II in aviation (flight operations); advanced diploma in building surveying; certificate II in transport and logistics; certificate IV in business; course note-taking for deaf and hard of hearing people; diploma in youth work and certificate II in hospitality. These funding and course cuts come at a difficult time for young Victorians who are feeling the effects of the nation's two-speed economy and high exchange rate generated by the mining boom.

According to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the unemployment rate across Melbourne's north-west region is 6.4 per cent. Victoria has recorded the highest level of youth unemployment in Australia. Jobs figures show 22 per cent of young people aged 15 to 19 are unemployed—well above the national rate of 18 per cent. Some 14,000 Victorians aged 15 to 19 were unemployed and not attending full-time education in March, while 29,000 jobless young people were studying full time. At a time when Victorian jobs are being lost, Victoria's TAFE system needs support from the state government in order to help train and skill up young Victorians.

Along with the course cuts there will be significant job losses for teaching staff. Analysis shows that more than 550 Victorian jobs will be lost by July this year: around 200 TAFE teaching and support jobs across regional Victoria, and 350 in metropolitan TAFES and dual-sector providers. In January next year, more than 1,320 further positions will be on the line, including up to 400 positions across regional TAFE providers and a further 950 at metropolitan and dual-sector providers.

The member for Calwell and I recently met with the chief executive officer of the Kangan Institute, Ray Griffiths, to discuss the cuts, and we subsequently wrote to Premier Baillieu urging him to investigate, to immediately reinstate funding to public providers like the Kangan Institute and to reform the TAFE funding system in the context of securing public TAFE institutions. It is time to review the competition policy in vocational education and training which led to an expenditure blow-out from $800 million to $1.3 billion. The blow-out referred to by the member for Gippsland was almost entirely in private provision. It would be better to put in place quality-control mechanisms and proper barriers to entry for private providers rather than attack public TAFE.

Rather than seek to repair the broken funding system, these cuts punish the reputable, longstanding public institutes like the Kangan Institute. Private providers have been taking advantage of an uncapped system and have been putting profits before quality learning for young people. Both unions and TAFEs fear that private training colleges will abandon courses that attract lower government subsidies and switch to more highly-subsidised courses.

Funding to public providers like the Kangan Institute should be reinstated and the entire TAFE funding system should be reformed in the context of securing the funding future of public TAFE institutions. These funding cuts are a short-sighted decision. We should be skilling our own workers. (Time expired)

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