Nationals Federal Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsukyer, supported his Coalition mates in NSW, all the way with the dismantling of TAFE.
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They sacked brilliant teachers, flogged-off buildings and equipment, and gave us the failed and shonky private providers and rip-off student loans.
It has now been revealed, Luke was the then Minister for Education and Vocational Training signed off a cheque for a one-off, no questions asked, payment, of $1.84m to the Families First North East Vocational College. Situated in North Adelaide, and pet project of former Senator Bob Day, this was a new training project where apprentices are paid, not by the builder, but through Federal Education funds.
There are questions being asked in the Parliament of the current Education Minister Simon Birmingham, who negotiated this grant for the Adelaide college, when he denied any knowledge of Senator Day’s association with the college.
The same article (weekend edition of the Canberra Times) shows a picture of Minister Birmingham visiting the College with Senator Day.
There are also questions about just how much benefit is going to trickle down to the students enrolled and links between Senator Day’s very muddled financial affairs.
It could be seen – certainly there’s the suggestion – that such a large grant was a reward by the Federal Coalition Government to secure Senator Day’s support and vote for their review of the Building Industry Unions.
Simon Birmingham has a cheek to blame the ALP for the fall in the number of apprentices as it can be sheeted home to both the Federal and State Opposition for the systematic destruction of the North Coast TAFE system and the resulting and tragic loss of opportunities for our young people across the North Coast Region.
This leaves all of us, knowing the answer, but still asking the question, “What about training opportunities for our North Coast Young People Luke?”