Peter Gutwein must come clean with Tasmanians and reveal how many jobs will go under his toxic minority government's plan to blow up TasTafe.
Labor Leader Rebecca White said Peter Gutwein failed to give any certainty to teachers and students after repeated questions from Labor in Parliament today.
"The Liberal minority government's track record on education is appalling," Ms White said.
"One of Peter Gutwein's first acts as Treasurer in 2014 was to slash $210 million from the Education budget.
"He is also overseeing a public school system with some of the worst outcomes in the country - a Year 12 retention rate the lowest of any state at 73.9 per cent and an attainment rate for Year 12 which has slipped for the third year in a row to 58 per cent.
"Now as leader of this toxic minority government he has launched a plan to blow up TAFE after undermining and underfunding it for seven years.
"The PESRAC report makes it clear that there will be a clean out of TAFE jobs under Peter Gutwein's plan to privatise the institution."
The report recommends the government should: "fund transition arrangements, including a voluntary redundancy program and support for career transitions."
"Today in Parliament, Peter Gutwein said the reasoning behind his blow up of TasTAFE was to make it "fit for purpose" which we know is his code for job losses – it's exactly the same words he used to justify the sacking of Hydro workers.
"The truth is, the government's plans to privatise TAFE will mean job losses, fewer courses and higher fees, while doing nothing to address Tasmania's chronic skills shortage.
"In contrast, Labor's fully-costed Free TAFE policy, which is in addition to our broader plan to rebuild TAFE from the ground up, will support another 20,000 Tasmanians to get a foot in the door to a good job.
"We will invest $22.5 million over four years to expand the teaching workforce by approximately 20 per cent, improve regional delivery and align training with workforce needs, to help Tasmanian businesses and provide Tasmanians with the skills they need for the jobs of the future."
Rebecca White MP
Labor Leader
