Husar says Budget neglects apprentices

LABOR’S bid to increase apprenticeship training opportunities in Lindsay has taken Shadow Education Minister Sharon Bird to Kingswood TAFE.

Lindsay Labor candidate Emma Husar (fifth from left) with Shadow Education Minister Sharon Bird (fourth from left) outside Kingswood TAFE. Picture: Supplied

LABOR’S bid to increase apprenticeship training opportunities in Lindsay took Shadow Education Minister Sharon Bird to Kingswood TAFE, where she accused the Turnbull Government of “not mentioning skills at all” in its Budget package.

“TAFEs have been made to compete in a race to the bottom against private providers,” Ms Bird said.

She said Lindsay needs “real pathways to real jobs for young people and for mature age workers”.

Lindsay’s Labor candidate Emma Husar said, “In Lindsay we’ve seen cuts across the TAFE network and we’ve lost 609 apprentices training for the future, $1 billion out of the Tools for Your Trade (scheme) and $2.7 billion overall out of the TAFE sector which is really important for a community like ours”.

TAFE CUTS: @emmahusar discusses Lindsay's @tafewsi losses #auspol #TAFEfunding #apprentices pic.twitter.com/getjjbohcX

— Isabell Petrinic (@IsabellPetrinic) May 9, 2016

NSW TAFE teachers association president Phil Chadwick said Kingswood TAFE had since 2012 lost 15 teachers in areas including hospitality, administration and fine arts, as well as two special program co-ordinators, three senior education officers and three support staff.

“IT has been closed at this campus ... (and) they defunded any government subsidies of fine arts,” he said.

“They’re making this into a health hub (but) bricks and mortar don’t teach, teachers do.”

He said despite Nepean TAFE not being on “the asset recycling list”, he wasn’t aware of any teaching on the Penrith campus and worried if it would eventually be shut down.

Phil Chadwick (at rear left) outside Cambelltown TAFE in 2015, with students protesting impending cuts. Picture: Timothy Clapin

The Opposition pledge is to introduce a loan cap of $8000 a year in the VET FEE-HELP program, and to back TAFE into the future by developing a National Priority Plan to ensure TAFE’s viability and strength into the future.

The Turnbull Government’s total investment in Education and Training for 2016-17 is more than $41.8 billion, and includes $12.3 billion for higher education.

Lindsay federal Liberal MP Fiona Scott said that’s a 0.9 per cent increase.

Speaking at the Penrith Regional Gallery on Wednesday, Ms Scott told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “the local unemployment rate is now 4.36 per cent in this part of Western Sydney — that is lower than the state, Sydney and the Australian averages.”

“That, over the last 12 months, has been equated to be 2500 jobs created here for local people,” Ms Scott said.

Fiona Scott MP with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Penrith Regional Gallery on Wednesday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/News Corp

“I’m very excited that our plan for jobs and growth is truly going to transform this region,” Ms Scott said.

Macquarie federal MP Louise Markus said it wasn’t true that her government wasn’t investing in its young people, citing the new $752 million PaTH (Prepare-Trial-Hire) program which “will be preparing them to work as interns to get experience and work in real jobs”.

“As chair of the (Coalition’s) Backbench Employment Committee, I’ve been advocating for linking young people from education to stepping into the workforce,” Mrs Markus said.

Ms Bird said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten would, as part of his preselection campaign, be visiting “communities just like Emma’s talking to people about saving our great public TAFE”.