BY LUCAS BAIRD
TAFE has hit back at reports of eight new administrators being appointed to privatise the institution as it sought to justify its “Smart and Skilled” initiative.
The Shadow Minister for Skills, David Harris, claimed that the decision to create eight new positions, each on a salary of $250,000, defied logic.
“Paying a bunch of fat cats top dollar salaries at a time when the Baird government has cut 2,500 TAFE teaching and support staff and enrolments are down 43,000 makes absolutely no sense at all,” he said.
Responding to these claims, the Department of Industry disputed this and said they are not recruiting new executives within TAFE itself.
“State Training Services moved from the Department of Education to the Department of Industry in mid-2015,” it said in a statement.
“All agencies are required to comply with the [law] and implement new senior executive structures.”
“The positions advertised are not within TAFE NSW.”
Despite this, questions remain surrounding the longevity of TAFE in its current form.
Responding to an inquiry into vocational training, Greens MP, John Kaye, highlighted that reforms recommended still left TAFE in a precarious position.
“Christian Democrat Upper House MP and chair Paul Green sided with the government to ensure that the Smart and Skilled training market continues to undermine TAFE without any limits on how much of the total state government training budget can be privatised,” he said.
“Each year more public funding is stripped from TAFE and put into the competitive market, where TAFE has to face up to low-cost, low-integrity private providers to survive.”
“He [Paul Green] has betrayed the hundreds of TAFE teachers, students and community members who in good faith shared their experiences to this inquiry in the belief that we would take them seriously and come up with a lasting solution.”
“Instead of calling the government to account for privatising skills education, he has effectively given the Liberals and Nationals a free pass to continue down the road of undermining TAFE.”
Last year, TAFE enrolled over 500,000 students.
