Baillieu facing mutiny as minister slams budget cuts

TED Baillieu faces his first serious internal revolt after cuts to the TAFE sector threatened to destroy cabinet solidarity.

VICTORIAN Premier Ted Baillieu faces his first serious internal revolt after savage cuts to the TAFE sector threatened to destroy cabinet solidarity.

The government was forced into damage control last night after Higher Education Minister Peter Hall emerged as a chief critic of his own cuts.

And Liberal backbencher Bill Tilley, who is central to keeping the government in power, also has openly questioned the TAFE cuts.

Crisis talks were under way last night between Nationals and Liberal Party MPs, with Mr Hall storming the corridors of parliament, according to sources.

The government admitted last night that Mr Hall had written two letters to TAFE stakeholders outlining his position. Sources told The Australian the first letter raised questions about the desirability of slashing the sector.

Mr Hall reportedly wrote: "The easy thing to do would be to give up, to throw in the towel ... I have thought of doing that on many occasions in recent months. However, those thoughts have been fleeting because what we have, and what we do, is too important to be given over to resignation."

Sources said Mr Hall had had "sleepless nights" dealing with the decision to slash funding for up to 80 per cent of courses and to abolish extra funding to cover TAFE's obligations as a public provider.

The government holds power with a one-seat majority.

The cuts have been described as being as high as in the hundreds of millions of dollars, although the government has rejected this.

The second, more conciliatory, letter, sent yesterday, was delivered after the government stepped in to prevent a backlash from the sector.

Senior government sources said the criticism had come as a surprise and that Mr Hall, a Nationals MP, "could have used better language" in the first letter.

Copies of the letters are believed to have been circulating in the TAFE sector and were obtained by some MPs.

Mr Hall's decision to go public to the sector will be seen as the first serious breach of cabinet solidarity since the government was elected in 2010 and raises questions about whether he will continue to support the government.

Perhaps more worrying for the government is the open criticism by Mr Tilley, a country MP who was demoted last year for his role in the Simon Overland affair. He was the parliamentary secretary for police who it emerged had held a secret meeting with Mr Overland's deputy about replacing the then police chief commissioner.

Mr Tilley, whose seat of Benambra includes Wodonga on the NSW-Victoria border, was quoted in his local newspaper as saying that he was unaware of the extent of the cuts and would pursue Mr Hall over the issue.

"Neither I, nor the TAFE, expected the cuts to be so severe, so I'm now seeking some answers from the minister," he told The Border Mail.

The TAFE cuts are part of $8.8 billion worth of savings and revenue measures the government announced in a bid to build up an election war chest.

The government faces a union revolt after increasing the public service job cuts since December to 4200 - up 600 this week - and forcing swinging cuts throughout government departments.