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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-03 Daily Xml
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Vocational Education and Training

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Given the Premier stated in the house yesterday that contestability is at the heart of the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform, how can he claim that a policy which guarantees 90 per cent of new places to TAFE is at all consistent with this agreement?

Mr Bell: After you have just slashed 377 jobs.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mount Gambier is called to order. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:23): Because we are partway through this reform process. It's already involved a very substantial reform of TAFE, and it's going to require very substantial and very tough reform of the TAFE system in the future. We don't seek to hide from that. The TAFE institution itself is being corporatised. It's had, essentially, a very private sector-dominated board that has been put in place to guide its deliberations. It has—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Beg your pardon? Labor mates like Peter Vaughan and Rob Chapman—all those well-known Tories? All those well-known Labor socialists, I should say?

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: John Branson.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: John Branson. These are the people you are demeaning when you talk about that we are not taking reform seriously of TAFE. We deliberately chose a board that is heavy with private sector nous and experience because we knew that we had to take it into a new world. The truth is that, over time, the balance between TAFE and the non-TAFE sector will rebalance in the sense in which the non-TAFE sector will be a growing proportion of the training and skills budget. However, the TAFE system will have to compete on a level playing field with the non-TAFE sector having regard also to the subsidised courses that it needs necessarily to provide—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Finniss is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —to those who are disadvantaged or who come from regional areas.

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