Jeremy Rockliff,Minister for Education and Training
Rebecca White and the Labor party have been caught red-handed spruiking a deceptive promise to offer 'free' TAFE which won't deliver a single new training place.
Labor's 'fully costed' $10 million sham does not even come close to covering course fees collected each year by TasTAFE.
Labor claim the promise will fund 5000 training placements, yet TasTAFE currently offers more than 22,000 placements.
How would Labor decide who doesn't pay and who does, or which course gets "Free TAFE" ?
Can Labor guarantee that they won't cut courses, places or teachers under their promise?
A scaled-back TAFE would also explain why Labor have made no commitment to upgrade buildings or facilities.
Whichever way you look at it, Labor's one-liner on TAFE just doesn't stack up.
They've done it before, and they will destroy TAFE again if they get the chance.
It took a Liberal Government to rebuild TAFE and clean up the debt mess that the previous Labor-Green Government left behind.
The Liberal Government's $21 million JobTrainer Fund is delivering up to 7000 additional free training places in full qualification and skills sets right now. And that is in addition to the $85 million that we invest in TasTAFE annually.
Tasmania needs the courses and skills that industry requires, not Labor's one-liner.
