Legislative Council Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2) 53 2 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time TAFE SA Leases TAFE SA Leases The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council TAFE SA Leases The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:40): Could the minister advise how many such leases have been signed over the last 12 months, what is the duration of those leases and how much income are those leases expected to generate? The Hon. G.E. GAGO Legislative Council 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 TAFE SA Leases 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) (14:40): I don't have that level of detail with me today, but I am happy to take that on notice and bring that back to the chamber. But it's not surprising—the structure of training and the infrastructure needed around that continues to change over time and so, too, you would expect TAFE, which has an oversupply of buildings, to do the responsible thing with those public assets and lease them out where possible to services in local areas that require that sort of infrastructure. Over the years, we have seen less reliance on physical classrooms, and we know that there was an abundance of campus-style classrooms, or a heavy reliance on classroom structures, built right around the state. Much of that structure is just simply no longer needed as we have increased IT activity and decreased the reliance on person-to-person classrooms. That's not to say that person-to-person classroom contact isn't still needed, particularly in relation to some types of subjects, but there has been a decreasing reliance on classroom activity over the years. We have seen TAFE in particular, and other private RTOs for that matter, move to more blended models of training. For instance, higher levels of training are now taken out of the classroom and out into the field, so we see more training activity being conducted actually out on farms and those sorts of locations. I think they are really positive developments and should be embraced but, as a result of that, there has been a significant decrease in reliance on physical classroom infrastructure, and it's not surprising that that has resulted in leasing activity around South Australia. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wade has a supplementary.