TAFE SA Whyalla

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:44): I rise today to talk about TAFE in Whyalla, but TAFE benefits people throughout my region. The Eyre Peninsula communities and Port Augusta community all make use of the Whyalla TAFE. It is a TAFE that has been hollowed out by this government and by the management here in Adelaide. Courses are being cut back and courses are being diluted, and the latest is the removal of Certificate III in Hairdressing in my community. The people who approached me—

Members interjecting:

Mr HUGHES: The irony is not lost on me.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HUGHES: People did approach me about the loss of this incredibly valuable course in the community of Whyalla. People who avail themselves of the certificate III course are school-based apprentices, many as young as 16. Mature adults doing the apprenticeship through TAFE in Whyalla and through the salons in Whyalla will suddenly find that they will no longer be able to do certificate III in Whyalla. School-based apprentices, the 16 year olds, are expected to go down to Adelaide—but they are not allowed to without being accompanied—to do two-week blocks of training several times a year. It is not going to happen.

Parents have approached me and said, 'What are we meant to do? Are we meant to take time off work to go with our kids down to Adelaide to provide the support necessary?' It is not going to happen. They are not going to do school-based apprenticeships. Mature-age apprentices have come to see me, single mums with kids and families with kids, asking, 'What are we going to do, Eddie? How can we go down to Adelaide and do a two-week block several times a year? What am I going to do with the kids? How is that going to work?' For the school-based apprentices who are doing their SACE as well, it interferes with what they are doing at school in terms of their wider SACE undertakings.

What we see here is a typical example of metrocentric thinking. It is also an example of a government that talks about a commitment to TAFE but, when you look at what is actually going on and at all the courses on the chopping block in TAFE in regional South Australia, it is deeply concerning. Hairdressing is just the tip of the iceberg. On Friday, I went around to all the salons that were open in Whyalla. I walked in the door—they obviously knew I did not need hairdressing—and all of them were deeply upset about what was going to happen. I put something on Facebook about it and the response was absolutely huge.

There were hundreds of comments—a reach of over 40,000. It was a massive response, and the response was deeply hostile to the cutbacks that are going on. I could quote from a lot of them, but I do not have much time. Elly Kirk Nitschke said:

That's ridiculous and going back in time to when I did my hairdressing apprenticeship 50 years ago, pre the course at Whyalla Tafe. For one thing, it's expensive to find accommodation. Country resources are cut away too often and this cut is disgusting.

Tam Beaty, a long-term resident of Whyalla, said:

This has been such a popular course at Whyalla TAFE for decades. So disappointing. What a slap in the face for our wonderful local lecturer as well. So dedicated to [their] students.

So the lecturers are going to be got rid of as well. Jude Lawrie, a standout person in Whyalla and a fantastic singer, said:

As a single parent doing my apprenticeship there is no way I could have done it in Adelaide, and I wouldn't be a hairdresser today. This closes many doors for a lot of people…heartbreaking.

She went on to set up her own business in Whyalla. The comments over and over again were that once again regional students, regional apprentices, were being sacrificed in order to bolster activity here in Whyalla. It is also part of the contestability Kool-Aid that is serving to destroy what was a fine institution at TAFE.