Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, ask John Cain what he thought of Senator Carr—that it was the Carr-Kirner government; that he interfered in just about every decision that John Cain, as the then Premier, had to make. One of them was the abolition of technical colleges. One of the great mistakes of all state governments was no less than that one in Victoria. Senator Carr led the debate for the opposition on this issue, declaring that they were actually going to support the bill. You would not have thought so if you heard his speech because he railed against the government’s policy of returning the technical colleges. He called it tokenistic, hasty and a stunt. This man stands firmly against the establishment of the technical colleges because he, his party, his philosophy, the left wing in Victoria, were party to the abolition of technical colleges. What a disgrace that decision was when it was made, and what an effect it has had since then: two decades of a lost generation of young people, particularly boys, who could have entered the trades. They were told by the likes of Senator Carr: ‘Go to university; do some mickey mouse course. Go to university—there is more pride in that.’ There was something to be ashamed of in taking up a trade in the eighties and nineties.

I was most surprised to see Senator Campbell get up here and endorse that belief and philosophy and past policy. He is an old unionist, as distinct from Senator Carr, who is nothing but a Trotskyite leftie whose philosophies are stuck in the old world. So to see Senator Campbell get up and also rail against the government policies of technical colleges was most surprising, disappointing and pathetic.