HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-12 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION

The Hon. M. PARNELL (16:01): I rise today to share with members my concerns about the privatisation of technical and further education in Australia. Not long ago there was a rally on the steps of Parliament House by teachers calling for a range of reforms, including a pay rise and changes to working conditions. One of the banners that was being displayed at the rally surprised me because it said 'Don't privatise TAFE'. I was unaware that any such proposal was on the drawing board.

I am indebted to my colleague Dr John Kaye MLC from New South Wales who has pursued this issue and discovered a document entitled 'Skills and Workforce Development' which was a discussion paper produced this year by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). This process that we say will lead to the privatisation of TAFE is all happening behind closed doors. The discussion paper was forced into the public arena only because the Greens in New South Wales released the paper.

COAG has asked the working group to develop a national partnership proposal for consideration at its meeting on 17 November. That is the meeting at which all of the states and territories are expected to sign up for the privatisation of TAFE. This proposal, if it goes through, is a blueprint for state and federal governments to collude to ram through Australia's biggest privatisation program since Telstra, and there has been no public debate.

All public funding of TAFE programs is to be thrown open to the private sector for bid by competitive tender. TAFE will have to go begging for its current funding of more than $4 billion to pay for its teachers and support staff, and to run its libraries and computer rooms. It will need to compete for staffing in relation to all of its programs—in particular, its equity programs. It will have to compete for the development of curriculum materials. Any recognition that TAFE might enjoy as a public agency in competition with private providers will be removed.

The vocational training and education sector under these arrangements will be exposed to the full force of national competition policy. The proposal also advocates a HECS-like income contingent loan which will discourage people from disadvantaged backgrounds from seeking to access training. Furthermore, apprenticeships are to be undermined by moving training packages beyond occupational standards. These standards are to be redefined by developing appropriate definitions of competency.

This is really just code for moving from education and training a workforce for the future to preparing workers for a specific employer. COAG no longer wants Australia to train electricians; instead, public funds are to be used to provide employers with willing workers fitted to a narrow range of tasks, possibly specific to that worksite or corporation.

Taken as a whole, these reforms will drive TAFE and its focus on quality education out of the market. It will be a bonanza for cheap and nasty private providers. Forcing TAFE into competition for its own funding will drive down course durations, destroy education and increase class sizes. It is a recipe for dumbing down the workforce. TAFE is to be made to struggle for its survival against narrowly focused, cherry-picking private providers who do none of the heavy lifting of equity. They will not take students with disabilities or youth at risk, and they will not ensure that all Australians are educated as well as trained. Despite all the reassurances, it is unfair competition with only one possible end point, and that is TAFE hollowed out to feed a bloated private sector.

The reality is that ideology and cost-cutting are combining to sell out the future. At a time when the rest of the world is learning about the limits of market-based solutions, COAG wants to hand over the future of the skilled workforce to the same forces that brought the economy to its knees. The Prime Minister's education revolution is, in fact, unmasked as COAG drives Australia's training sector towards voucher-based, user-choice and a user-pay model without the consent of the voters and without fully considering the long-term consequences. I urge Premier Rann and the education minister to lead the charge against these retrograde steps.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT