Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues, I thank the member for Berowra for bringing this motion before the House. It is certainly an opportunity for us to speak to the importance of the AMEP. I thank the members on the government benches for acknowledging the importance of this program, but I absolutely share the concerns raised by my colleague the member for Cunningham, who joins us here today and has spoken on this motion as well, about some very serious consequences that are beginning to emerge as a result of recent decisions of the government regarding the contracts as to who will deliver the AMEP in our respective regions.

The Hunter TAFE, in addition to Illawarra TAFE, will no longer have contracts to deliver these programs in our regions, despite an outstanding track record of delivery of these services. Yesterday I celebrated with my community Africa Day. It was the third occasion on which we had celebrated Africa Day in Newcastle. It is a relatively new festival for our region. But it was also the 10th anniversary of the Hunter African Communities Council. At that festival I got to meet with many, many people who have been the beneficiaries and recipients of the AMEP through the Hunter TAFE. I met with TAFE teachers, expert linguists who have been working in the TAFE facilities and a whole range of support staff workers, all of whom expressed their utter dismay at the decision to effectively outsource this program to a private for-profit company.

Originally the contract was awarded to Navitas in Newcastle. I was of the understanding—and this has now been confirmed—that Navitas very quickly batted that contract on to MAX Solutions. I ask the question: did Navitas ever intend to deliver this program? I do not know. They have had a record in Newcastle more recently delivering some of the humanitarian settlement services. I understand they will be removing themselves from that work as well. So it is very unclear what the original intentions were. But it does seem to me that we have a situation where we have a very fine public education institution delivering an outstanding program with tremendous on-site facilities. Like the member for Cunningham said, many of the students in my area have sorted their accommodation arrangements to live close by the facilities or close to public transport. Young mothers participating in this program are very often dropping kids off at Islington Public School, right near the TAFE, and taking their other young children to the on-site creche facility that is available at Hunter TAFE before then going up to their classes which start at nine o'clock. One of the reasons why an on-site creche facility was established at Hunter TAFE was the difficulty women were having in accessing childcare services close by or en route to their classes. It has resulted in enabling so many of those young women to participate and get their 510 hours of tremendous tuition that they require.

Absolutely no-one disputes the importance of being proficient in the English language in order to assist with settlement in Australia. That goes without saying. But it is of great concern to me that we have a situation where we are taking from the public education sector, which has a tremendous track record, and handing it on not just to one but now subletting on to a second private for-profit organisation. I have no doubt that it is those smaller programs in regional communities that are going to suffer. Many of the outreach programs that TAFE has been offering will not be profitable for a for-profit organisation to take on. The men and women in those programs will suffer dearly, and it is a great shame. I ask the government to rethink their strategy and to reverse this decision— (Time expired)

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