TAFE SA

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:30): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education. Given that before the election the previous minister misled the public on the closure of Panorama TAFE—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: For the benefit of the interjecting Leader of the Opposition, he is not allowed to make comments of any kind or debate in asking the question. That is the point I make. If he seeks leave to explain the question, he can do that later, but he still will not be able to couch it in comment or debate.

Mr PISONI: Can the minister then guarantee that no other TAFE in metropolitan or regional South Australia will be closed as part of the government's centralisation plan for TAFE?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:31): The government has no plans to close any other TAFEs. What I will make a guarantee of is that TAFE will be able to train more students than ever before in its history. In the next few years TAFE will be training more students than it ever has before on the back of a $194 million investment by the state government into skills and training over the next six years to create 100,000 extra training places.

This announcement was made yesterday by the Premier and me about this new TAFE facility at Tonsley which will be the centrepiece that will help us deliver that training. It is a $125 million investment—the largest ever single investment in TAFE infrastructure in South Australia's history. I am incredibly proud of it. I would like to thank the member for Unley for giving me the opportunity to rise this afternoon and talk about it because it is an absolutely fabulous announcement.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Listen to them. It has been met with universal acclamation. Except for a couple of members on the other side of the house, it has been met with universal acclamation. For example—and this is quite remarkable; I do not think we will ever see this again—the union movement and the Housing Industry Association are in complete agreement that this is a good thing. David Smith, Vice President of the Australian Education Union, said:

...building a new college is a marvellous thing to happen, in the sense that everything will be up to date, it will be state of the art and the training will clearly be better than if you were using outdated equipment...

Mr Robert Harding, Regional Director of SA and NT Housing Industry Association, said:

We think that there needs to be a close liaison between teaching institutions and the industry to make sure that everything that's being taught is relevant.

I say to members of the opposition: get with the program, support this fabulous investment into skills for South Australian workers.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!