Ms O'NEILL (Robertson) (16:16): I rise to speak on this very, very important matter. I am delighted that the Speaker determined that the topic for consideration today in the matter of public importance debate would be in the area of education—an area very close to my heart—and in particular technical and further education. The actual statement says that there is 'a current failure of Commonwealth and states to reach agreement on the future funding of technical and further education'. That is right, because the Commonwealth government wants to put money into education, while the states, particularly down the eastern seaboard, have one goal. That goal is to take money out of education. That is a point of conflict, and I understand that the member who has put this forward today is very concerned about the tension. We should be concerned about the tension because right now as a federal government we must not lose sight of the fact that if we do not fight this out hard enough and if we do not fight strongly for the right for people to access TAFE—an institution that has seen generations of Australians able to access technical and further education—it will be absolutely destroyed. It is right now in the custodianship of this federal government—thank God we are committed to education, unlike those opposite—to make sure that the TAFE system, which has delivered so much for so many, will actually survive the onslaught of Liberal state governments up and down the eastern seaboard and across the rest of the country. We know, and every Australian understands, that qualifications are the passport to a better job, are the passport to a higher pay packet and give you a secure future. I have taught many, many students in schools for whom school was not the place in which they were going to excel. But I am very pleased to say that, in the many years since, I have seen my students moving around in the community and so many of them have spoken about wonderful experiences of learning at our TAFEs. They had skills that TAFE helped them discover, develop and use to build opportunities for a future. Many of them are now local business men and women on the Central Coast who are getting on using their skills and giving jobs to a whole new generation who need access to technical and further education. But up and down the east coast we see the constant slashing of funding for education, as if it does not matter. Parents with kids in schools are very, very aware of this. In terms of TAFE, in New South Wales we know that 800 job losses are on the line. Front-line teachers are being completely removed. There is a 9.5 per cent increase in TAFE course fees and an almost doubling of the TAFE student concession fee to $100. If there is a student who is thinking about becoming a learner at TAFE, now they know that if they are going to do even a certificate I they are going to pay an extra $44. It is the same for a certificate II. The reality is that, for people who need access to these courses, often $44 is just enough to make it that little bit too difficult. Often people engaging in TAFE I and II courses are people who might not have had success at school. They are people who might already have a vulnerable sense of their identity as a learner. They could go and do something that they think they are good at and have a go, but $44 could become an impediment that stops them from getting there. We need to make sure that we fight for these people, that our TAFE system is maintained and that it is properly funded, not slashed and burned as we are seeing with the Baillieu government, the O'Farrell government and that Newman government up in Queensland. If you want to do a certificate III course in New South Wales, a standard apprenticeship qualification, the fee has risen to $793. If you want to go on to an advanced diploma, it has gone up to $793. That is an increase of $150. All of these things add up to disconnection of people from TAFE, and that is if they can actually get the course because the courses are being slashed left, right and centre at the moment. The Liberal New South Wales Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, has continued the trend that we saw established in Victoria by cutting TAFE funding. He is slashing jobs and he is increasing student fees. There is no difference in what is going on there, except perhaps it is a little worse in Queensland than it is in New South Wales at the moment. We have heard that in Queensland, since the election of the Newman government, there is a proposal—which was recommended by the task force—which is much more concerned about dollars and cents than it is about people. We need to understand that these things have to go hand in hand. We on this side do understand that. It is dollars, cents and people; it is not dollars and cents over people. What they are proposing to do is take 82 TAFEs that spread across that broad state of Queensland and cut them back to 44. They want to cut back to 44 TAFEs. What does that mean if you live in a regional area and your TAFE is gone? That is your future out the window. That is your disconnection from being a productive and engaged member of the workforce of Australia. In Queensland, the Minister for Education, Training and Employment, John-Paul Langbroek— Mr Ian Macfarlane: He's a good bloke. Ms O'NEILL: He is such a good bloke that Tony Moore wrote a story about him in this morning's Brisbane Times. What did he decide? To save $300 in a TAFE course which provides life skills for disabled people, he wanted to cut the course. Each week it costs $300 for one teacher to provide skills in learning how to live for people with disabilities. The course was cut. That was this morning. Maybe there is a hint here. We need to have a huge public campaign because, by this afternoon, with the efforts of the Mayor of Ipswich—Paul Pisasale, a fine man who did great work during the response to the floods—the new headline is 'TAFE course closure decision reversed', because people are screaming, and they need to be screaming. We all need to be screaming right up and down this eastern seaboard so they hear us out in the west and get the idea that we cannot continue to allow the elevation of dollars and cents above people, which is happening on the east coast. We need to make sure that our essential institutions for TAFE education are maintained. In Ipswich, for example, there was a fantastic course called the 'Skilling Queenslanders for Work'. I am indebted to the member for Blair for this information. This program was cut on 16 July, a very short-sighted response by those would cut TAFE funding—those who would cut everything. On 23 July, the Deloitte Access Economics report came in and was absolutely glowing in its praise of a program that had just been cut by the Newman government. This is a program that was said to have put $6.5 billion into the Queensland economy, raising $1.2 billion in tax revenue and adding 1.8 per cent to consumption in the state. We know that this program helped long-term disadvantaged people get jobs. In fact, there were 8,000 jobs for long-term disadvantaged people created in this program and, overall, 57,000 jobs. What did Campbell Newman do to it? He cut it. Let us look at that very simple number: 82 TAFEs have been cut to 44—and the story continues. We have seen the story in New South Wales and Queensland; let's look at Victoria. Cuts to the Victorian VET sector have been absolutely ruthless. You cannot rip $300 million out of the TAFE system without it having a dramatic impact on the delivery of skills and training. Unfortunately, we are seeing that impact fall heavily on disadvantaged individuals and communities who cannot access the VET programs that they need. VET programs train our electricians and childcare workers. These are just two fields that require high-quality education. These are people looking after our children and putting wires into our walls. If we are going to have a safe place to live, it must be underpinned by an outstanding VET sector, and Australia can be very proud of what we have enjoyed until now. But, if the Liberals opposite get a hold of this place, and they get their hands on the federal budget, we have only seen a warm-up act of what is to come. It will be slash and burn, with no concern for people and no concern for the future of young people, who need access to high-quality, highly-enabling education that our TAFE sector offers. In summing up, I indicate once again that those opposite have only one plan: to cut education, to cut training services for Australia, to cut the productivity of this nation and to disconnect themselves from the recommendations of great industry groups like AiG and ACCI, who are trying to get somebody on the other side to listen and are saying, 'Keep TAFE alive.' (Time expired)