Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:23): The Allan Labor government is expanding training and employment opportunities for people with disability. Last week I joined the member for Geelong Christine Couzens and the member for Lara Ella George to turn the first sod at the Gordon TAFE’s Centre of Excellence in Disability Inclusion. This important development was made possible by a $36 million investment from the Allan Labor government, and it will be life changing for students with a disability. It will create a workforce pipeline of people with a disability to be employed by Geelong-based services such as WorkSafe, the TAC, the National Disability Insurance Agency and of course the local health sector. This will mean people with disability using lived experience, expertise and training to deliver services to other people with a disability, because you cannot be what you cannot see. A co-creation team of past and current students with disability helped to design the new centre of excellence to ensure it was fit for purpose. Best practice developments from this centre will inform the Victorian TAFE network. It will set the benchmark for providing accessible vocational training and education. It will develop real skills to take advantage of participation opportunities across Victoria. The centre will include best practice inclusive learning environments for a range of courses, including a state-of-the-art nursing laboratory.

More than 22,000 Victorians with disabilities have benefited since Labor introduced free TAFE in 2019. That is why we have introduced a bill to protect free TAFE and the benefits it delivers for Victorians now and into the future against more Liberal cuts. We are guaranteeing a minimum of 70 per cent funding to TAFE so that no future government can wreck TAFE, close campuses and cut funding like those opposite did.