Press Releases

Greens support TAFE against Howard attack 27.09

The Greens candidates in Greenway, Astrid O'Neill, and other western suburbs have united to support TAFE colleges against a concerted attack from the Howard Government on the weekend.

The Liberals announced that separate Australian Technical Colleges outside the TAFE and public school systems will be set up across Australia including Western Sydney. The operation of the new colleges will be open to private tender and will teach courses which are the mainstream trades courses of TAFE colleges.

“TAFE Colleges including Blacktown, Nirimba, Mt. Druitt, Nepean, Granville and Baulkham Hills will be severely affected by this latest attack from the Howard government,” said Astrid O’Neill, the Greens candidate for Greenway.

“As a former Deputy Principal of Blacktown College, and as the Vice President of the TAFE Teachers Association across NSW, I am only too aware of the Liberal government’s hostility towards TAFE ever since it came into office.

“The funding for the new colleges is money that has been systematically cut from the TAFE budget since the Howard government took office in 1997. In 1997 TAFE was given $3.60 per teaching hour, in 2002 it got only $2.69. There has been a cut of about 25% in real terms, which has left 50,000 potential students unable to get into TAFE.

“The shortfall of an estimated 130,000 tradespeople in the next 5 years is entirely due to the Howard Government’s underfunding of TAFE. The New Apprenticeship scheme this government introduced has an inbuilt bias towards short, unproductive apprenticeships. That boosts the government numbers, but doesn’t deliver the 4-year skilled apprenticeships we need.

“This government is obsessed with privatising education. The Greens believe duplication of infrastructure and personnel will be costly and wasteful.

“The new policy is also aimed at undermining teaching conditions. Teachers will be forced to concentrate on ticking boxes in their performance based contracts rather than focussing on students’ needs,” said Ms O’Neill.

For more information on the activities of the Blacktown Greens
in the Blacktown and Mount Druitt regions, New South Wales. Australia
please email or phone 02 9835 1882

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Last updated: Thursday, November 1, 2007

Written and authorised by D. Cunningham, 134 Doonside Road, Doonside NSW