TAFE SA

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:26): Supplementary, given the minister's answer, sir. My supplementary is to the minister: given that you have clearly agreed to a 470 per cent increase in VET nursing and TAFE agricultural studies, how do you expect to get people trained to pick up job opportunities in agriculture, given that TAFE is one of the few training organisations that still provides training for agriculture? Are you writing off agriculture, as a government?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:27): The Hon. Robert Brokenshire again is being quite misleading with his language as well—incredibly misleading—and he does it deliberately, which is quite a dishonest thing to do. We know that he comes into this place and does that time and time again. I have already answered the question, Mr President—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: No, you haven't!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I have answered the question in relation to the way our VET sector picks up and responds to demand in terms of meeting our training and skills needs. That is largely market driven; so, where there is the greatest demand for particular skill sets, our VET sector responds to that. I have already indicated that this government provides significant subsidisation of courses relating to agriculture and suchlike—significant subsidisation—and we will continue to do that.