Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about the TAFE cuts that are happening to the current courses in lab-tech, arts, and screen and media. I seek the leave of the House to table two documents, which are petitions that have been prepared, but unfortunately do not conform with the Standing Orders. These documents have been circulated to the leaders of business in each of the major parties, to the Clerks and to each of the Independents. I have some hard copies if anyone else is interested in those at this moment.
Leave granted; papers tabled.
Ms BADGER – Thank you, honourable Speaker. Both of these petitions are about important TasTAFE courses, courses which have had their subsidies cut recently, as I mentioned, in the arts, screen and media, and lab tech as well. While these courses’ subsidies have been cut to TasTAFE, it’s essentially just priced students out. The courses are not going to run into the future. It’s simply not good enough.
But, Skills Tasmania are providing subsidies to private RTOs so that they can run these courses. For example, in lab-tech, the RTOs that are going to be running the possible courses that have been cut at TasTAFE, they actually have no physical presence here in Tasmania. It’s simply not good enough. There’s been no data provided to members to actually provide the success rates of completion or for employment after studying through the RTOs that we, Tasmanian taxpayers, are subsidising to justify the money going to them, to the interstate agencies over TasTAFE.
The justification for these cuts, as we’ve heard from the minister just this morning, is the high rates of students dropping out of the courses or low numbers of students studying. To be clear, there are a variety of reasons that might lead to students dropping out of a course, and that includes getting employment early. What a fantastic result. Isn’t that the whole point?
For these courses, there are actually no statistics, though, of the past students on why they left those courses. Yes, some of these courses only have a dozen or two dozen students enrolled, but these courses have waitlists. They have the limited number of students because there simply aren’t enough teachers. These are courses that should be expanded, evidently, and not reduced. Both of these petitions, in summary, are calling on the cuts to be reversed.
The Save TasTAFE’s Laboratory Technology Courses Petition was signed by 661 petitioners as of yesterday, and that had been running since 13 October.
Over 50 per cent of the graduates from the lab tech-course actually go on to be employed in our health system, which is in a crisis. They go on to be employed in pathology. They go on to be employed in industries such as mining.
School science lab technicians had a recent survey which they shared with members just today. It was undertaken by those also organising the petition, and that showed an overwhelming percentage of the school science lab technicians received employment while studying. As I said before, that’s a great outcome. The completion of the lab-tech courses from international students is close to 100 per cent. Minister Ellis has quoted around 40 per cent completion rate for this course in 2024. That is actually correct. That’s also incredibly low compared to every other year that the course has been running. You can’t just pick that one off and cherry-pick it and use it to cut the course. It’s simply not good enough. Also, for context, provided by those in lab-tech, was that the open enrolment policy for students puts most courses at around a 60 per cent completion rate. The numbers in the Diploma of Lab Tech have been consistently lower since Skills Tasmania withdrew funding in 2016, which meant course fees went up to the commercial rate ever since, over $10,000.
The Save Affordable Arts and Screen in Tasmania Petition was signed by over 2117 petitioners, and that ran from 8 October through to 29 October, when that statistic came in. A former TasTAFE teacher of five years said:
I can tell you firsthand these courses bring so much value to students, more than just learning about the creative industries, they bring confidence and connection, and it is a pathway to growth.
These cuts don’t really align with the Tasmanian Skills Plan of 2024 to 2028 because page 8 has a beautiful glossy promotional picture of fashion and design which has now been cut.
Where’s the consultation with UTAS, who are also restructuring and cutting aspects of their arts? Where was the Arts Minister advocating for cultural and social inclusion, breaking down benefits and the mental health benefits that bring with studying in the arts?
Time expired.
