Ms BADGER question to MINISTER for SKILLS and JOBS, Mr ELLIS
[10.13 a.m.]
The documents that you tabled about the $45 million of cuts to TasTAFE contained little new information and certainly didn’t come near $45 million. It is deeply concerning when a minister of the Crown cannot or will not provide information called upon by this place. Tasmanian staff and students deserve to understand what the future of TasTAFE is. Can you shed light on the forthcoming $45 million of cuts flagged by the CEO? What were the total funds saved by the cuts that you did table? When will TasTAFE complete its course review announced in March? And, when will Tasmanians finally be told when the rest of the $45 million in cuts will be made?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, as I flagged in the response to the motion tabled yesterday, we’ll see increased funding for TasTAFE compared to what we’ve seen this financial year. It is important to note, however, that that information will be available in the forthcoming budget. All the details members are asking for about the funding that will be available and the expenses of TasTAFE will be in the budget in a couple of weeks’ time.
I’ve been asked to table information that’s available to us about our plans for a budget that is not yet publicly released and not yet finalised. We’ll continue to work through that. You’ll notice in the response –
Dr Woodruff – That wasn’t what you were ordered to provide.
The SPEAKER – Order, honourable Leader of the Greens, you had the opportunity for a question.
Mr ELLIS – I was ordered to provide the information and we provided the information that is available to us at the moment.
Dr Woodruff – That’s not what you were ordered to provide.
Mr ELLIS – I was ordered to provide information we don’t have?
The SPEAKER – Honourable Leader of the Greens, you will have the opportunity to ask further questions or other forms of the House. I ask that all interjections cease.
Mr ELLIS – Thank you, Speaker. We provided the information that is currently available to us. We’re continuing to work through a process. A budget is for four years and the budget for those four years is not yet finalised or released. That will be available to all members of this place to debate and have a discussion about in a couple of weeks time. We may even see an alternative budget, probably from the Greens. We are unlikely to see one from Labor.
In terms of the information that we’ve provided, we’ve been very clear that we’ll continue to review courses and will continue to review our facilities. That information was provided in the response to the motion that I tabled yesterday. We will, of course, continue that work. We need to do that. We should always be doing that. When the CEO mentioned that we’ll be reviewing our courses, just as we always review our courses, I don’t think that that should be new information to members. That should be something that’s well understood about the way that we operate government because circumstances change. It wasn’t necessarily a challenge 30 years ago to deliver the homes that Tasmanians needed, but now we need to significantly grow our workforce to support our growing population. So, we need to focus on those areas. We need to make sure we’re delivering for sovereign manufacturing capability because once upon a time, people like the Greens said that we didn’t need manufacturing in this country, but we believe that we need to continue to invest in, and grow, our major industrials for the future. We need to continue to back those businesses. We can’t just be antieverything. We can’t just be opposed to all the parts of our economy that help our state to grow and provide jobs for young people.
Ms BADGER – Speaker, Standing Order 45, relevance. I asked the minister some very specific questions that the minister has come nowhere near answering.
The SPEAKER – In regard to your question, I agree, you had a lot of questions in that question, so you did allow the minister quite a bit of latitude in his response. When you do ask a lot of questions, it is very hard to narrow down the response. The minister is in the relevant policy area. I will ask the minister to resume, please.
Mr ELLIS – I’m happy to provide further information if it assists the House on the particulars and the breakdown of some decisions that have been made; for example, the course that [inaudible] from our list.
Supplementary Question
Ms BADGER – If the minister can either take these on notice – or I suspect he might be able to answer some of them now – that was what the total number –
The SPEAKER – Usually, it is one question. You might need to narrow down what you actually want the most significant part of.
Ms BADGER – The minister actually answered one of them, which was good. What was not answered, in the time remaining, what was the total funds saved by the cuts that you did table last night and when will TasTAFE complete its course review that was announced in March?
Mr ELLIS – I think we are agreed on the area where I committed to taking that on notice, particularly in terms of the 12 courses that we were talking about that are discontinued. I’m happy to provide that. Also, the areas where decisions have not yet been made, but we have flagged for the House for the fullness of transparency. For example, we’ve discussed international students and Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), pending further decisions on the perstudent funding provided by the Commonwealth. We’ll continue to work through those processes. There are also industrial processes that would need to take place when it comes to those staff. There are people who need to be supported through this process and, as part of those negotiations, opportunities are provided to people so that we can look at opportunities for redeployment and other things. I’ve been asked at a very early stage about what four years into the future looks like. We’ve done our best to answer that with the information that we have and also an indication of where we might –
The SPEAKER – The honourable minister’s time has expired,
