Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the Minister for Vocational Education and Training came to Western Sydney to make an announcement. He announced the new Western Sydney Australian technical college. If ever there was a last-minute announcement cobbled together for spin, this was it. Of course, it is not the first time the minister has announced a new ATC for Western Sydney. He has done this before. He announced a joint venture with the Catholic Education Office for an ATC to be based in Blacktown. To much fanfare and with the support of the member for Greenway, he announced a great new Australian technical college at Blacktown. The problem is that it did not happen. Because of this government’s incompetence, the negotiations with the Catholic Education Office have broken down and the ATC is not happening.

What we have seen is the situation where an Australian technical college, which was to have 320 students next year under the Catholic Education Office proposal, will now have 25. This is this government’s contribution to the skills crisis in western Sydney: 25 students. This government will say, ‘Well, you know, the state governments underfund TAFE and we’re making the biggest contribution we can.’ It is worth having a look at just what the state government does do in Western Sydney when it comes to apprenticeships. I was quite surprised when I checked with the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE to see that there were 75,000 students enrolled last year in the various TAFE colleges in south-western Sydney. That is 75,000 compared to the 25 that this government is going to put through next year. In the Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, I think there are 85,000. As for apprenticeships, there are 7,700 in south-western Sydney and 3,400 in Western Sydney.

The government announced this new college to great fanfare. Interestingly, they made the announcement at Blacktown in the seat of Greenway. I thought: they have made the announcement at Blacktown; that must be where the college will be located. In fact, it will not. It will be at Rouse Hill—a long way from Blacktown—at the Rouse Hill Anglican College. I congratulate the college. They have obviously worked hard and put together a proposal. It is great for them and I have no problem with them, and I am sure the 25 places at that college will be useful for the people of Rouse Hill. But I question their allocation, not only on behalf of the people of Blacktown but on behalf of the people of Fairfield, the people of Wetherill Park and the people of Campbelltown and Liverpool.

I must say I was surprised. The member for Macarthur and the parliamentary secretary issued a press release after this announcement and said: ‘This announcement shows that Chris Bowen and Roger Price have been talking nonsense and this is great news for south-western Sydney.’ Rouse Hill is 50 kilometres from Campbelltown. That is how far somebody from Pat Farmer’s electorate needs to travel to get to this new Australian technical college. The first announcement was made last year and, when the Australian technical college bill went through parliament this year, the member for Lindsay said:

They have chosen the Blacktown area to establish their campus. It is a fairly central location. I figure that you could have at least two or three other technical colleges in Western Sydney.

The trouble, of course, is that it is not at Blacktown; it is now at Rouse Hill, further out of reach for the many thousands of young people in Western Sydney trying to get apprenticeships. This government talks about the skills crisis, but its contribution has been spin and fluff. When the minister made the original announcement, he said:

The only thing standing in the way of the community benefiting fully from this initiative is the New South Wales Government.

In fact, the only thing standing in the way was his incompetence in not being able to deliver a college in Western Sydney as promised.

I want to say this: the Catholic Education Office did a lot of work on this proposal and won the bid. Not only did they do a lot of work and invest a lot of staff hours but they invested a lot of money. I do not think they have been treated well by this government. I think their proposal was a good one and I think the people of Western Sydney will be very disappointed—and I note the Blacktown Advocate expressed great disappointment during the week. I and this side of the House have said before: the best thing that we could do for the skills crisis is to invest more money through TAFE. (Time expired)