Wednesday, 25 May 2022

TAFE funding

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (17:16): I am joining the grievance debate today to grieve about the state of the TAFE and training system that was presided over by the coalition between 2010 and 2014 and the neglect also by their counterparts in Canberra. I grieve because in the unlikely event that they were to take the government benches at the November election I have no doubt that they would gut TAFE again, just at a time when this community has never needed training more than it does. The former Liberal and National Party government left quality by the wayside. My recollection is that during those four years when they made quite a mess of TAFE there were two ministers at the time. One was Peter Hall, a former member for Gippsland in the other place, a member of the National Party who we understood had threatened to resign from cabinet because he was so appalled by the cuts to TAFE that the government had applied. But the trappings of office and the white car must have kept him in there, because he did not follow through with his threat to resign. Then he was succeeded by the member for Ferntree Gully, who presided over this broken system.

When we came to office the fact is that the TAFE and training system in Victoria was in a terrible state and its reputation had hit rock bottom. Not only were many students from disadvantaged cohorts who were enrolled in VET courses when we came to government being exploited by unscrupulous training providers, but many students from disadvantaged backgrounds had struggled to enrol or had left courses because that mean-spirited coalition had gotten rid of community service obligations. The community service obligations—and there was funding for those—were to provide additional support for disadvantaged learners. And I see the member for Clarinda is nodding his head, because he knows that particularly students of non-English-speaking backgrounds who needed assistance with interpreters and translation of material; those with disability, whether it was mobility issues or others, who might have needed assistance with note taking; women fleeing family violence—all those things were gotten rid of because the coalition just did not care and did not value TAFE. Not only was the government system gutted, the TAFE system, but the private training system was just running amok. You had private training providers that were not delivering quality training at all, and some of them were not delivering training at all. They were cruising through public housing estates and other places where disadvantaged people live and offering them free laptops and other incentives to join up to courses, establishing loans and then not delivering the courses. Then these people were saddled with debt and never got the courses.

The cuts of over a billion dollars from TAFE decimated the reputation of the entire training sector. Twenty-two TAFE campuses and facilities were closed across our state. I cannot even remember all 22, but I know in my own community the Greensborough TAFE was closed. The gates were locked and that was it. One of the reasons that they gave for closing it was they wanted to redeploy some of the funding to set up a Melbourne Polytechnic campus in Prahran to buttress the political future of the then member for Prahran, Clem Newton-Brown. But they also said that there was no public transport to the Greensborough campus when in fact they had cut over a thousand bus services in the Yan Yean electorate, particularly servicing the Greensborough TAFE. The Greensborough TAFE serves students in Nillumbik, in Banyule and in Whittlesea. It was a regional facility and it was gone. The TAFE at Lilydale was closed—Ararat, Stawell, numerous sites across Gippsland, Glenormiston. I mean, seriously, the National Party and the dairy farmers of the Liberal Party allowed Glenormiston agricultural college to be closed. I never would have thought I would see it, and they would have been absolutely irate if a Labor government were to do it, but that was how they treated their own. Two thousand four hundred TAFE teachers and staff were sacked. A good friend of mine, Jeannie Taylor, who lives in Doreen, had worked at the Greensborough TAFE forever. Her career was cut short. She had to retire early.

In 2015, just after we came to government, there were over 100 000 less students studying in government-subsidised courses at TAFE than there had been just four years previously—100 000 less students studying courses that could lead to great jobs and careers and support skill shortages in the Victorian economy. They all say they are great economic managers—we heard all about it from their Canberra friends throughout the election campaign—but they gutted TAFE. I remember the bicycle industry coming to see me. They cut the bicycle mechanics course. It was the only course. There was not even a course in New Zealand. It was the only course in Australia, and they cut it at a time when year in, year out—and the Minister for Public Transport at the table knows—there are more bicycles being sold than cars. There are actually jobs and there is a need. They cut that program.

When it came to TAFE finances under those opposite, it was a disaster. In 2013 and 2014, when I was in this place, Auditor-General’s reports into TAFEs tabled in Parliament epitomised the crisis that TAFEs were in. The Auditor-General reported a significant decline in the financial stability of the sector, with immediate financial challenges causing five TAFEs to be rated with a high financial sustainability risk assessment. As the Auditor-General said, this continued the pattern of deterioration. The reports highlighted the deteriorating decline in the financial sustainability of the TAFE sector under the watch of those opposite. Again, in 2014, the Auditor-General raised further alarm bells at the declining financial situation of TAFEs. By this stage six TAFEs had a high financial sustainability risk assessment. There was only one TAFE in the whole state with a positive assessment, and the Auditor-General was clear on why this was the case, and that was because of reduced funding from the then state government.

The previous government not only gutted TAFE but did not invest any capital. They made no capital investments in TAFE projects at all nor in equipment. They also were not maintained. TAFE facilities were left to crumble. By the time we came to government the TAFE and training sector was on its knees thanks to the shambles of the previous coalition government. So what did we do when we came to office? We rescued TAFE. And I am really pleased to see the Albanese government have come in and are adopting a lot of the policies that we have, because nationwide we need to invest in our young people. We need to invest in people who are working in industries that are going through transition—the coal industry, the resources industry. We need people trained in the energy industries of the future.

We have huge hospitality shortages. Because we are expanding kindergarten to three-year-old kinder there are shortages in childcare and kindergarten workers. So we have put a whole lot of courses on the free list to address the shortages in our economy. There are now 60 courses on the free TAFE list and ongoing consideration of new courses that are added as skill shortages come up.

From 2022 we added certificate IV in veterinary nursing, certificate IV in leisure and health, certificate III in IT, certificate IV in training and assessment, certificate III in supply chain operations, certificate IV in work health and safety and certificate IV in outdoor leadership. And in this year’s budget, as the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers just spoke about in question time today, we announced that the advanced diploma of Auslan has been introduced to the free TAFE course list—unlike those opposite, who actually cut Auslan from TAFE.

Free TAFE is a testament to this government’s commitment to access and inclusion, and what we have seen since we have introduced free TAFE and rebuilt TAFE from the ground up is 59 per cent more women in free TAFE courses and 49 per cent more students with a disability in free TAFE courses. Fifty per cent more unemployed people are taking up free TAFE, and 46 per cent more people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background are taking up free TAFE. Free TAFE is giving more Victorians access to the skills that they need for rewarding careers on our Big Build projects and crucially, in the health and social services sector, in aged care. Those in Canberra are completely blind to the absolutely critical shortage that we have had in aged care. They ignored the findings of their own royal commission and are just completely blind to the crisis in that sector. We are training people in health and community services and in agriculture, as the Minister for Agriculture talked about in question time today, and also in mental health so we can deliver the new workers that we need to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. These are all areas where there are significant jobs available to start a new fantastic career.

I want to talk about the investment that we have made in capital. Since 2015 we have invested over $3.2 billion in Victoria’s TAFE and training system, including $77.7 million to support apprentices and trainees through Apprenticeships Victoria, $167.3 million to support adult community education and $457 million in capital works so those courses can be delivered in quality buildings. Then we have employed those trainees on those projects. Recently I went with the Minister for Training and Skills, in my role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Victoria, to observe the new TAFE and Warrnambool City Council library that is being built. I would say that library has the best view of any library in this state, and it is being built by and for apprentices and trainees. It is a magnificent project.

In addition, we reopened the campuses that were locked by those opposite. Swinburne Lilydale was reopened—$20 million. It is now called the Box Hill Institute Lilydale Lakeside campus. In my local community the Melbourne Polytechnic Greensborough campus has reopened as a health and community service campus, particularly supporting aged care and mental health workers, at a cost of $10 million. The Bendigo TAFE Charleston Road campus has been expanded with $7.8 million; Chisholm Institute in Frankston, $25 million; Holmesglen Institute, Moorabbin campus, $8 million; Federation University Ballarat, a new industry hub, $5 million; Glenormiston reopened for training in 2017, $2 million; the Gordon Institute, Geelong campus rejuvenation, $5 million; Berwick campus of Chisholm Institute, the centre for health, $10 million; Federation University Ballarat, a new industry hub, $5 million; Victoria University Sunshine campus, skills building and innovation hub, $10 million; Box Hill Institute Nelson campus, an upgrade as part of the modernisation project; RMIT Capitol Theatre reactivation, $2.5 million; Geelong City and East Geelong campuses master planning for the Gordon Institute, $500 000; TAFE Gippsland, Morwell campus redevelopment, $35 million; TAFE Gippsland, Port of Sale campus redevelopment, $25 million; Melbourne Polytechnic, Collingwood campus redevelopment, $40 million; South West TAFE, Warrnambool campus, $16 million, which I have already discussed; and the Bendigo TAFE redevelopment, $60 million.

We have invested across absolutely every part of this state in TAFE to undo the damage of those opposite. This government backs TAFE. We are not in the business of cutting funding and hanging them out to dry, we are in the business of investing in the future of Victoria by delivering the skills and training needed to drive our economy forward. We created Apprenticeships Victoria to support and grow apprenticeships. We established the Victorian Skills Authority to provide a holistic understanding of the skills and training needs for Victoria. We set up the Office of TAFE Coordination and Delivery to support TAFE as a network. We have developed higher apprenticeships and traineeships to support career pathways in the social services sector, and we continue to invest in apprenticeship support officers to ensure Victorian apprentices are supported to completion. And there is the Big Build—it goes on. We look forward to working with the Albanese government to further grow TAFE, and we grieve if those opposite were to be in charge again.