[Greens-Media] TAFE NSW loses $50 m funding in race-to-bottom bidding war

[John Kaye]

TAFE NSW loses $50 m funding in race-to-bottom bidding war
 
Media release: 31 May 2010
 
Lower cost providers have priced TAFE NSW out of the Rudd government's competitive tendering process for language, literacy and numeracy programs for the long-term unemployed, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye ('TAFE loses $50m to private schools,' SMH p. 5, http://bit.ly/msh100531T)
 
Dr Kaye said: "TAFE NSW will loose $50 million and 170 full time equivalent teachers in a race-to-the-bottom in teacher wages and quality of services.
 
"This is a frightening glimpse of the future of skills training under Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard's privatisation agenda.
 
"TAFE has been forced out in a price-based competition by a consortium of the charity Mission Australia and profit-driven private provider ACL. 
 
"The winning bidders will inevitably sacrifice the quality of instruction or the pay and conditions of their teachers to sustain their low cost offer. Either way, the big losers will be the students and, in the long run, the state's economy.
 
"In future TAFE will either face being driven out of Julia Gillard's competitive training market or have to cut corners on their programs and slash workforce conditions even further.
 
"The Rudd government is taking Australia down the path of privatising all TAFE funding. The competitive market will drive a race to the bottom for both pay and conditions and quality of provision. In the long term, it will be the nation's skills base that will suffer.
 
"The students will face an unnecessary interruption to their program. Many will suffer the additional embarrassment of admitting their literacy or numeracy deficit to another teacher and class in a new environment.
 
"ACL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navitas, a stock exchange-listed company. Some of the most vulnerable unemployed in the state have been handed over to a profit-driven company that will be more focused on its costs and share price than on the welfare and future job prospects of its students. 
 
"Julia Gillard has exposed Australia to the frightening prospect of a future with a much reduced TAFE system and training provided by charities and profit-driven corporations," Dr Kaye said.
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455 
 
 
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John Kaye
Greens member of the NSW Parliament
phone: (02) 9230 2668
fax: (02) 9230 2586
mobile: 0407 195 455
email: john.kaye at parliament.nsw.gov.au
web: www.johnkaye.org.au
 
mail: Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000