Tuesday, 17 March 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:56): (2221) My question to the Minister for Skills and TAFE is on behalf of students at VFA Learning in Geelong – your constituents, Minister, and mine – who were walked into a classroom last month and told, ‘It’s over.’ Many were nursing students training for a profession our state desperately needs. VFA, which operated for over 25 years with government contracts, attributed its closure directly to changes in funding policy, cuts made without notice just before Christmas. Students were told to transfer to the Gordon, but many chose VFA precisely for its flexible timetables that allowed them to work while studying – flexibility TAFE does not offer. Your government’s ideological obsession with free TAFE is not just squeezing out providers, it is destroying student choice and now costing them their education. What are you doing to ensure these nurses can complete their qualifications?