House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2) 53 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Vocational Education and Training Vocational Education and Training Mr MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Leader of the Opposition Vocational Education and Training Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): My question is to the Premier. What was the basis for the government arriving at the figure of 5,000 training places for the non-TAFE training providers in South Australia? The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL House of Assembly Cheltenham Premier Vocational Education and Training The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:38): It is fundamentally based on the size of the pie that we had available to us, which was returning to pre Skills for All funding levels, which incidentally for the non-TAFE sector is both a larger sum of money than pre-Skills for All and a larger number of training hours than pre Skills for All. So, where we are now is where we were pre Skills for All. I know that involved a level of adjustment for the non-TAFE sector, which is unfortunate. I know that's causing some grief and we are working through that with them at the moment, but essentially we needed a sustainable TAFE, a platform for TAFE from which we can take further reform efforts and, make no mistake, there are very significant reforms which are on the way for TAFE. There will be a reducing proportion of the total pie of TAFE as a guaranteed, if you like, sector of the total training budget. There will be a larger contestable section of the TAFE and non-TAFE section of the training budget over time but this year, having regard to the available pool of funds, there is a sufficient amount of money which is necessary to ensure we have a sustainable TAFE. The balance has been applied to the non-TAFE sector, and I repeat: that is larger than in both absolute dollars and in training hours than it was prior to the pre Skills for All arrangements.