TAFE SA

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:59): Supplementary: what will be the effect on regional communities losing these TAFE campuses, such as Coober Pedy and Roxby Downs, and has any modelling being done about that knock-on effect to the local communities at the loss of both a facility and of course people?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:59): I thank the honourable member for her question. Yes, TAFE has very considerable experience in relation to the knock-on effects because they have seen the experience of the closure of regional sites under the former Labor government. There is a long record of what the impacts are under the former Labor government when they closed a range of regional sites, so current case managers will be able to draw on the experience that they have gathered, under the former Labor government, when they closed TAFE sites—I think 10 or 11 of them—all over regional South Australia.

There's a lot of experience for TAFE management to be able to draw upon in terms of informing them in relation to the three TAFE sites in regional South Australia. The management processes that current TAFE management will use for the three TAFE site closures in regional South Australia will be able to draw on the considerable experience of the former government, where 10 or 11 regional sites were closed down, the experience in terms of how you manage that particular process and the potential impacts.

There is no hiding the fact in relation to flow-on impacts. It will vary from regional community to regional community. That's the same with any particular service. As I indicated in response to other honourable members' questions earlier, what TAFE has done in the past is provide training options to those communities in different locations. In some cases, it is the local school which continues to exist. In other cases, they have used a community hall. As I said, in relation to some farming options, for example, they provide on-farm training. In other cases in the past, under the former Labor government, they provided online training.

There is a range of ways the former Labor government utilised to continue to provide services and training to people in regional communities where there was no longer a government-owned TAFE site. As I said, TAFE management will draw on their considerable experience of similar closures under the former Labor government.