In the greatest revelation for this Liberal Government since discovering ships need Ports, it turns out TAFE teachers are a necessity for teaching at TAFE.
Having sacked half the southern automotive workforce, TasTAFE are now rehiring to staff the new short-term southern automotive centre established as a replacement facility. This follows the previous Campbell Street campus workshop closing in late 2024 after a carbon monoxide poisoning and flooding incident.
While the new training centre is branded as high tech, Tasmania still lags behind other states, only offering very limited EV and Hybrid vehicle training courses when we most need to be up-skilling.
There are also many questions lingering over the chosen location. There is very limited, if any, public transport for students to get to the new centre, making travel a challenge for some. And what is the time frame for the planning amendment to permit the centre to operate? Under the present scheme, a training centre was not permitted in the industrial zone.
Under Minister Ellis, TAFE is running rougher than a car that’s just travelled the pots holes of the Bass Highway.
There is no confidence for staff or students on the future of TasTAFE after the automotive cuts, cuts to course subsidiaries in the arts and lab tech courses, and internal budget cuts.
The Minister must come clean about the full extent of cuts to TAFE and answer the longer question surrounding campus sell offs, which was identified as an efficiency in the TAFE Act review.
It’s clear the wheels have fallen off TAFE on Minister Ellis’ watch.
The Greens call on the Minister to come clean and transparently outline the full extent of cuts to TAFE, including internal budgets and campus divestment, and to show Tasmanians what his plan for TAFE actually is for the coming 2, 5 and 10 years.
