TAFE Restructure
TAFE RESTRUCTURE
Mr RIXON (Lismore) [5.27]: I draw to the attention of this House an advertisement that appeared in the Northern Star on 11 November. The advertisement lists items for auction, which include a Repco computer wheel balancer, an FMC optical wheel aligner, a Hunter wheel aligner, a red four-post hoist, Hartridge diesel test benches, a pneumatic tyre changer and other items. The advertisement stated that the items were being auctioned for "Account TAFE at the TAFE Institute, Wollongbar". At the bottom of the advertisement I read the following:
Comment: TAFE has closed their Casino workshop and transferred the equipment to Wollongbar, where it is surplus to its requirements.
On Wednesday, 15 November, I read in the Northern Star that 70 per cent of TAFE teachers in the Richmond River area went on strike on Tuesday, 14 November. These are responsible teachers who only take strike action reluctantly. These two reports are warning signals about this Labor Government making changes to the TAFE
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college system, which, especially in country New South Wales, will threaten and reduce the education opportunities available to country students. It seems that this Labor Government is proposing to change the Technical and Further Education Commission Act, the Public Sector Management Act and the Teaching Service Act to make major changes to the operation of our TAFE colleges.
A new bureaucracy, the Department of Training and Education Co-ordination is being established. This large bureaucracy will be responsible for all providers across the vocational education and training sector. On the other hand, TAFE will be reduced to a small central coordination unit; it may not even have its own educational manager and may not have direct reporting lines to the Minister. It seems that there is a proposal to reduce the number of TAFE institutes, to make them operate in a more autonomous manner, and to set them up in competition with one another and with private providers of education.
If TAFE is reduced to just another competing agency in the vocational education and training sector it would have to compete with all other providers on the basis of cost. As costs and corners are cut and resources are rationalised, standards will plummet, classes will be cut and educational opportunities, especially for country people, will be reduced. Students from Casino, Kyogle, Bonalbo, Woodenbong and all isolated areas will be sacrificed to reduce costs. It has been reported that 297 TAFE jobs are to be cut to save $21 million. That money is to be used to resource the industry training advisory boards and new curriculum arrangements, and to fund extra student places. In this planned restructure TAFE students will be the real losers. The new structure will increase student-teacher ratios and drastically reduce the quality of services provided to students.
Students will suffer as support services are slashed. Counselling, children's services and student services will be replaced with a large and more remote bureaucracy, the Department of Training and Education Co-ordination. The proposed changes go far beyond what is needed to fund extra student places. I am really worried about what will happen in country colleges such as the one at Casino. Will more courses be lost? Will students be forced to travel far afield for suitable courses? Will employers be able to absorb the extra costs and the loss of time caused by this travel? Will country areas lose dedicated TAFE teachers? I ask the Minister for Education and Training, who is at the table, to review, revise, consult and reconsider before educational opportunities in country areas are taken away. I have received numerous letters from students and teachers expressing their worries. I ask the Minister to heed their pleas.
Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone - Minister for Education and Training, and Minister Assisting the Premier on Youth Affairs) [5.32]: I am delighted to have this opportunity to respond to the matters raised by the honourable member for Lismore. He has unexpectedly given me an opportunity to put to rest a number of idiotic suggestions and claims that are being made around the countryside. From what the honourable member for Lismore has said today, it appears that those claims are also being spread by him.
Mr Rixon: It is from the Teachers Federation.
Mr AQUILINA: Everything the honourable member for Lismore has said this afternoon is absolute rubbish. In fact, he belied his own arguments. He reiterated what I have said in this House on a number of occasions: that the aim of the TAFE-DTEC restructure is to create more student places. The Government will do that by eliminating head office bureaucrats.
Mr Debnam: Will you guarantee that?
Mr AQUILINA: I give an absolute guarantee that the bureaucracy will be eliminated. That money will enable the Government to provide more student places and more teachers in places like Casino. It will also enable the Government to provide additional courses and more options. I am staggered by the proposal of the honourable member for Lismore that I should keep bureaucrats in a building in North Sydney at the expense of being able to transfer the money into his electorate and the electorates of all other country members, thus giving them an opportunity to put more students and teachers in colleges. The honourable member should stop listening to all the nonsense that is being spread by people who are deliberately misconstruing what is happening. He should listen to the facts. I have told this House on no fewer than two occasions precisely what is happening. He has chosen to ignore that. Instead, he has listened to the ratbaggery that is being put around by people who do not have a clue what is going on. [Time expired.]
Mr Rixon: It is the Teachers Federation.
Mr Hazzard: You are still a member of it.
Mr Aquilina: You are an idiot.