TasTAFE makes 19 staff redundant two days before Christmas amid course cuts

TasTAFE will axe 19 staff and cut multiple courses just days before Christmas, as teachers vow to keep teaching students despite receiving redundancy notices.

Labor's Brian Mitchell speaks to the media about cuts to TasTAFE on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, November 20, 2025.

Labor and the teachers’ union have condemned TasTAFE’s decision to cut courses and make 19 staff redundant two days before Christmas.

Budget estimates committee hearings on Thursday were told the staff would go as part of a series of cuts to courses, including Design, Screen and Media. Music, Fashion, Visual Arts, Laboratory Technology, and Meat Processing.

Minister for Skills and Jobs Felix Ellis said the cuts had been made as part of a review.

Felix Ellis Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management. Budget estimates 2025. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“The proposal was performed informed by a review that involved consideration of low enrolment numbers, high withdrawals, and low completion rates, and qualifications not explicitly included as a priority training area,” he said.

TasTAFE chair Tim Gardner said shedding jobs was always difficult.

“It’s always an incredibly difficult decision around staffing, and to make decisions around the redundancy of staffing,” he said.

“It’s unavoidable, unfortunately, that is the position we find ourselves in, given the broader context that the minister’s provided, the most important thing to us is the sustainability of Tas TAFE as an organisation.”

Labor’s Brian Mitchell condemned both the decision and its timing.

“What we’ve learned today is 18 TasTAFE staff, 17 teachers and one education manager, will be made redundant two days before Christmas now, and this is a direct result of the course subsidy cuts that this minister has announced now,” he said.

“I’ve learned today that TasTAFE teachers have been in redundancy meetings, and they’ve been offered the chance to go home after that redundancy meeting, and they said, ‘No, we won’t go home. We’ve got kids in our classroom that we still need to teach.

“That’s the quality of the TasTAFE workforce that we have in this state – and they’re the people that Minister Felix Ellis has abandoned today.”

Australian Education Union state president David Genford speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, November 20, 2025.

Australian Education Union state president David Genford said it did not appear as if consultation around the decision had changed the result.

“Today’s the day the government has confirmed they are walking away from the creative arm of TasTAFE,” he said.

“They are putting an end to lab technician courses to meat processing and of course, the creative courses that they said were going to go out to consultation and surprise, surprise, everything they wanted to have happen is going to happen.”