Daniel Wills: Excuses in TAFE disaster destroyed as Australian Medical Association reveals ministers were warned

ALARM bells must now be ringing. In fact, it’s clear they’ve been blaring for years and the State Government were given loud warnings TAFE SA was in tatters as the elderly were being put at risk.

• AMA warned aged care graduates were ‘unemployable’
• Hundreds more TAFE SA students hit by crisis
• Government faces class action over TAFE SA course scandal
• Ex-TAFE review chief: Minister must resign

ALARM bells must now be ringing. In fact, it’s clear they’ve been blaring for years.

The Australian Medical Association’s revelations that it warned the minister responsible for TAFE years ago that aged care courses weren’t up to scratch, and that about half of their graduates were “were unemployable” are stunning and could hardly be more serious.

For starters, the students were clearly being sold false hope and junk degrees.

For them, after shelling out good money, they were left without the skills they paid for. The grave consequence of this is that vulnerable people were left at risk of receiving poor care.

In light of the Oakden scandal and increasing concern around elder abuse, it’s an allegation of grave negligence and potential cover-up that will shock people of good conscience.

Education Minister Susan Close is under the pump. Picture: Morgan Sette

The AMA said “nothing was done to our knowledge to help these students”.

In the report released by the Australian Skills Quality Authority this week, it found that major deficiencies remained and a couple of them are simply jaw-dropping.

Students of Certificate III in Individual Support with a focus on ageing were not taught up to date information on dementia. No documentation was provided to show they had successfully completed CPR training. A single question on dementia testing students knowledge was answered incorrectly by four out of five students tested by assessors.

The politics of the situation also now become increasingly perilous.

Premier Jay Weatherill has used a familiar defence as he stands beside Higher Education and Skills Minister Susan Close, the same that was offered over the child protection and Oakden scandals.

In layman's terms, it can be described as the “don’t blame me, I just work here” or “hey, it was like that when I got here” defence.

Former Higher Education Minister Gail Gago. Picture: Campbell Brodie.

Basically, it’s fine to just be responding to a crisis rather than stopping it, especially when you had no knowledge it was developing.

But this is a clear smoking gun.

Like the letter received by former mental health minister Leesa Vlahos that warned of abuse at Oakden, the AMA has confirmed that it sent concerns about TAFE to the highest levels of the Government and absolutely nothing was done.

In fact, the disaster stayed secret until a remote federal agency based in Melbourne had a look. And we still have no clarity about dozens of other courses that haven’t been subject to any serious outside scrutiny, and thousands of students now hold their breath.

With the ignorance defence now destroyed, the Government must explain how it could be so negligent and why the public should have any confidence they have learnt the lessons.

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