ABC News | 9 August 2013
The Greens are calling for the mining tax to be amended to give the TAFE system an extra $1.2 billion.
Deputy Greens leader Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has forced TAFE to compete with private providers resulting in campus closures, rising fees and job losses.
The rescue package would inject $400 million per year for TAFE starting from July 2014.
Bandt says a more effective mining tax would provide the funding boost.
Instead we give some more people in Australia some apprenticeships and some proper skills. When other countries have got resources that you only get to dig up and sell off once, they put the money aside to invest in the future. That’s we should be doing. Investing in education, investing in skills, investing in our people.
Higher education spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon criticised “an alarming trend towards commercialisation” of vocational education and training in Victoria, Queensland and NSW”:
With that comes less accountability, reduced staff numbers and course quality.
