Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Statements on reports, papers and petitions

GOTAFE

Report 2020

Mr GEPP (Northern Victoria) (17:14): I rise to speak on the GOTAFE 2020 annual report. I want to highlight some of the key achievements in that report, and it is a fantastic story. In 2020 GOTAFE, of course located in Shepparton right in the middle of my electorate, was awarded the Inclusive Training Provider of the Year at the Victorian Training Awards. They also launched the first TAFE social justice charter, which demonstrates a strong commitment to creating an environment where everyone feels safe and welcome and can be themselves. Impressively, over 4570 students availed themselves of the various services under that charter, with counselling the most often used service.

GOTAFE very quickly adapted to the issues confronting TAFE and the students with the blended delivery of its courses, and it continued to deliver high-quality training throughout the TAFE. It opened a new campus at Wallan, and it delivered training in business, IT, health and community education, hair and beauty, and building and construction. We invested in and opened new campuses, as I say, associated with the GOTAFE. It achieved an outstanding result in its Victorian student satisfaction survey, with students actually voting with their feet, saying it is a wonderful TAFE and a wonderful training provider and that it is fully supportive.

It works with SPC, a big employer, particularly in the Shepparton region, to deliver GOTAFE SPC scholarships. Those scholarships support students with financial barriers to get into trade-based training and employment. And there is a new plumbing stack constructed for the new Wangaratta campus. They are very important new facilities for plumbing students.

Our record in TAFE I think speaks for itself. Since coming to government the Andrews Labor government has reinvested in and rebuilt the TAFE system, which was dismantled by those opposite. Rather than the padlocks-and-chains approach that they had when they were in office, when they cut the TAFE sector to the bone, we have invested millions and millions of dollars into TAFE, particularly GOTAFE—$10.7 million was allocated just in the recent budget for stage 2 of the Archer Street trade training centre. There was another $2.4 million for a new GOTAFE Shepparton cafe restaurant to be used as a training facility in commercial kitchen upgrades. We have had significant funding to GOTAFE since 2017 through the Regional and Specialist Training Fund, and it goes on and on.

I contrast that with the approach of those opposite: over $1 billion cut from TAFE and widespread job losses across the state, including at GOTAFE. They removed GOTAFE’s funding for the unique role that it plays as a public provider, and operating contributions for GOTAFE went from over $56 million in 2012 down to $33 million in 2014 under those opposite. I told that story because what caught my eye was a contribution in the federal Parliament by the federal member for Nicholls, Damian Drum, who sat around the very cabinet table here in 2010–14 and cut TAFE in this state to the bone—absolutely cut TAFE to the bone. And do you know what he was saying? He had the cheek to get up in the federal Parliament, as he was walking out the door—because he is not coming back—and try to give it a clip, saying:

The Victorian state government has simply stopped spending money on our Shepparton campus.

Yet when you look at the actual numbers and the investment that we have made, we have rebuilt the TAFE sector and we have invested millions in GOTAFE in particular. Yet here he is, someone who sat around the very cabinet table that launched an unprecedented attack on and almost destroyed the TAFE sector here in this state. But he did not say sorry.

A member interjected.

Mr GEPP: No, he didn’t save Fremantle either. He said what we need in Shepparton is a state government that invests in the TAFE college to give them world-leading training, and he picked out the mechanics course in particular. Of course what he would know and what everybody knows is that as part of the rebuild of TAFE we have actually been to all employers, we have been to the business community and we have been to the community at large and we have talked to them about the future employment opportunities that exist in the region. That is what we have done. We have built the facility, we have built the curriculum and we have built the training programs. We are proud of our record. And Mr Drum: ta-ta.