Thursday, 7 April 2022

Ministers statements: TAFE funding

Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health) (14:18): I rise to update the house on how the Andrews government is investing in the education of our healthcare workforce. The government has always placed a high priority on delivering quality training and skills for those who want a career in health and medicine. It is one of the reasons that we made TAFE free for 100 courses. Free TAFE has enabled over 10 000 students to study their diploma of nursing since the commencement of free TAFE in 2019, saving students over $65 million. Furthermore, the diploma of nursing is the most popular course in regional Victoria. That is why this government is investing in building state-of-the-art nursing labs at Australian Catholic University in Ballarat, Gippsland TAFE in Morwell and GOTAFE in Seymour.

Another TAFE people can study a diploma of nursing at is Box Hill’s Lilydale Lakeside campus. Do we all remember that campus, the same campus which was closed by those opposite—thousands of students kicked out, 290 staff without jobs, victims of a $290 million cut from their TAFE budget—but reopened by the Andrews government? It is a promise made and a promise kept. Now it is a flourishing campus, which has reinvigorated the higher education sector in the Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs—not cutting and closing like those opposite, but opening and investing. While we are investing in the pipeline of our healthcare workforce, the Morrison government is imposing a $1.5 billion cut on Victoria’s healthcare system at the very worst time for our healthcare workforce. You will never hear any criticism from those opposite—silence from those opposite. Only Labor will invest in TAFE and our healthcare system.