The Rockliff Government’s anti-TAFE and pro-privatisation agenda was on full display in Parliament today, with Minister Felix Ellis revealing new details on his plans for divestment of TAFE facilities.
The Greens have been trying for months to get an answer on whether levels of the Campbell Street campus will be leased out, and finally now we have an answer – they will be. But not only that, the Minister confirmed he is looking at leasing out parts of other public TasTAFE campuses to private training providers.
The Greens and stakeholders have long been warning about Felix Ellis’s privatisation agenda for TAFE, and now finally the Minister has reinforced our concerns.
To support our community, economy, and workforce, its crucial we have a strong public training provider. Instead, what we are seeing under the Liberals is course cuts, job cuts, and a hollowing out of training facilities to make space for private providers.
The government says they are concerned about young people leaving Tasmania to seek opportunities elsewhere, but their efforts to gut TAFE are only going to make things worse. Unfortunately it seems the Liberals’ ideological view in favour of privatisation is more important to them than good outcomes for students, staff, and our community.
