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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-17 Daily Xml
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Question Time

TAFE SA

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills. I would like the minister to listen.

1. Can the minister confirm that her department sought advice from the Crown Solicitor's Office regarding potential legal and financial implications of conflicts between the Skills for All funding model and the competitive neutrality provisions of the commonwealth Competition and Consumer Act and the COAG National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform?

2. What have you done with that advice, minister?

3. Does the advice show that TAFE SA cannot compete in the VET space without large, indefinite taxpayer subsidies?

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) (14:24): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. It would be most inappropriate for me to discuss any crown advice that I have or have not received. I seek advice from a range of different sources when considering decisions, so it would be most inappropriate to be discussing what I may or may not have sought directly from crown. But in a general way I can certainly talk about the importance of the role of TAFE SA as a training and educational institution. It is an incredibly important part of our VET sector. It is, if you like, the centrepiece of our VET sector. It is renowned not only for high quality training provision but also as cutting edge in a wide range of different ways. If you look at its development out there at Tonsley, some of its achievements there are absolutely international cutting edge.

TAFE SA is also highly renowned for its activity in the international student space and international training space. It is not just about bringing over international students to train them but it also offers Train the Trainer programs and also curriculum development and suchlike. It always impresses me when I travel overseas. One of my recent objectives was to assist in promoting training at our higher education facilities here in South Australia to open up new international markets. We did quite a bit of work in the TAFE space overseas, and it was just astounding. It did not matter where we went, people overseas, in particular in India but also in China, knew of TAFE SA and held it in really high regard and spoke very highly of it. So, it is a very important facility.

As I said, not only does TAFE SA provide excellent quality training but, more importantly, it provides training in a number of very unique areas, particularly some of those areas that are extremely high cost in terms of equipment and other technology but also in terms of meeting training needs in country areas, where the commercial benefits are much less and where private providers do not tend to operate because it is not as commercially viable. We know that TAFE carries these extra burdens. They operate as additional costs to TAFE, so it is not surprising that the TAFE costs are higher than those of private providers.

TAFE infrastructure burdens are much larger and, as I have said, they tend to operate in very high-tech areas, where there are high levels of very expensive equipment needed, and they operate in regional areas where many private providers do not operate. I think that their costs at the moment are operating at around 2½ times those of the private sector, and we know that TAFE is working hard to reduce that differential. Also, TAFE carries a community service obligation in terms of training on the APY lands, and that is additional cost as well but, again, hardly an area that commercial operators would find particularly financially viable.

As I said, they carry these additional burdens and cost pressures. It is not surprising that their costs are somewhat higher. I know that they are working to reduce that differential; however, as I said, they are a critical service provider in our VET sector and are highly renowned for their fabulous quality training.

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