Media Coverage of TAFE Cuts 15 -19 June 2012
Hundreds protest against TAFE cuts at Premier Ted Baillieu's Regional Press Club event
Nathan Mawby, June 15, 2012 11:33AM
HUNDREDS of protesters have greeted Premier Ted Baillieu as he arrived in Ballarat to speak at the Regional Press Club.
Angry TAFE students and staff plan staged a protest at Lydiard St, Ballarat, in response to cuts to student and staff numbers – as well as the potential for more than 1000 job losses across the state.
Premier confronted by angry TAFE protesters
By state political reporter Alison Savage, updated June 15, 2012 14:40:02
Video: Ted Baillieu is confronted by angry TAFE protesters. (ABC News)
Premier Ted Baillieu was given a hostile reception from about 200 protesters who are angry over cuts to the TAFE sector.
Mr Baillieu is in Ballarat to address a Rural Press Club luncheon.
Bush backlash builds over TAFE cuts
James Campbell, June 17, 2012 12:00AM
THE Baillieu Government's cuts to Vocational Education and Training announced in May's Budget are starting to bite, with TAFEs across Victoria cutting jobs and scrapping scores of courses.
On Thursday Gippsland's Advance TAFE and Gipps TAFE announced they would each axe 32 jobs after losing $15 million in government funding between them.
Baillieu risks backlash on TAFE cuts
Editorial, June 16, 2012 10:05PM
NOW we know exactly why Higher Education and Skills Minister Peter Hall was so emotional in the wake of TAFE cuts in last month's State Budget. The National Party MP wrote to TAFEs expressing his dismay over changes.
Of course, once his letter became public and he had the choice of standing on his principles or falling into line, he chose the latter in a classic example of the political cowardice that blights modern democracies.
Angry protests as Baillieu defends TAFE cuts in times of uncertainty
Tom Arup, June 16, 2012
Rally against TAFE cuts outside Denis Napthine's office. Photo: Aaron Sawall
PREMIER Ted Baillieu has defended his government's budget cuts - including a $300 million hit to TAFEs - saying Victoria is facing economic challenges of declining revenue and national and global uncertainty.
Yesterday, Mr Baillieu was met by hundreds of protesters in Ballarat, angry at the TAFE cuts. At times during his speech to the Rural Press Club protester horns, whistles and chants of ''Save TAFE, Sack Ted'' filtered into the room.
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/tafe-protesters-vent-anger/2592599.aspx
TAFE protesters vent anger
BY PAUL KING, 15 Jun, 2012 11:59 PM
ONE word summed up the feeling of a mob of protestors in Ballarat calling for Premier Ted Baillieu to step down yesterday - anger.
Anger from students in that they will no longer be able to receive any TAFE training, anger from teachers because they could find themselves out of jobs, and anger from a broad spectrum of society who expressed their disappointed in the government’s TAFE cuts.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/beware-the-rise-of-worthless-training-20120615-20f5z.html
Beware the rise of worthless training
Adele Horin, June 16, 2012
People who went to university and whose children go, or are destined to go, to university usually have little interest in the plebeian matters of skills training or the fate of TAFE, an institution erroneously associated with blue singlets and tools.
No matter that 600,000 more people go to TAFE than to university and that the nation's productivity will be dependent on the quality of this sector as much as on the quality of our universities, ignorance and indifference about it abound.
But let me warn you: remember the fracas and national shame caused by dodgy English language colleges that mushroomed around the country and ripped off overseas students? Well, we have learnt too little. Under the mantra of choice and competition in vocational education, a mass expansion of private vocational training colleges for domestic students, this time backed by government funds, is apace.
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/06/15/496535_politics-news.html
Baillieu says Labor to blame
Kate Dowler | June 15, 2012
TOUGH economic conditions have been caused by the Commonwealth, says the Premier. Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has told a Rural Press Club of Victoria function in Ballarat today the Commonwealth and previous state government were to blame for the state's financial woes.
His address was marred by a protest group of about 200 people expressing their anger at the cuts to TAFE budgets. The group chanted ``save TAFE, sack Ted'' as the Premier entered the Alexandria On Lydiard Hotel.
http://parliamentflagpost.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/dissecting-growth-of-vocational.html
Australian Parliamentary Library, June 15, 2012
Victoria’s training system and training budget
The training system in Victoria is an experiment in market-driven resource allocation. This is set to continue with the Victorian state budget (released on 1 May 2012) announcing $290 million worth of cuts to TAFE over three years, and the loss to TAFE of ‘full service provider’ funding from 2013. (Full service provider funding is paid to TAFE institutes in recognition of the broader support services they provide to their communities.) The Victorian Budget Overview states that funding rates for some courses will increase while others will decrease ‘reflecting the need to achieve more sustainable outcomes’.
The budget measures extend the Victorian government’s fully-contestable funding system for vocational education and training that has created a boom in private provision since 2009. Between 2009 and 2010 there was 2 per cent growth in students at ‘TAFE and other government providers’ compared with 76 per cent growth in students of ‘other registered providers’.
Victoria University responds strategically to TAFE funding cuts
Following changes made to TAFE funding in the Victorian Budget 2012-2013, Victoria University financial modelling demonstrates that its state revenue will be reduced by $32 million in 2013.
The University has made an immediate strategic response to cope with funding cuts of this magnitude.
Sign to fight cuts: Locals urged to help bring back TAFE funding
BY KIERAN ILES, 15 Jun, 2012 04:00 AM
A PETITION against the Victorian Coalition Government’s TAFE funding cuts has been launched.
The online petition comes in response to the Baillieu Government’s decision to axe $300 million from the state’s TAFE budget, including $3 million locally from SuniTAFE.
Twenty six jobs at SuniTAFE campuses in Mildura and Swan Hill have been made redundant as a result of the cuts.
http://the-scan.com/2012/06/17/the-hue-cry-of-tafe-cuts/
The hue & cry around TAFE cuts
17/06/2012 By intermediatescan
Some weeks ago, we suggested people Google the term “Victorian TAFE cuts” and you’ll see why The Scan has devoted so much attention to the issue, which has national implications as well as the evident Victorian ones. You’ll come up with more than 40 pages of references over the past four weeks. There are literally hundreds of media reports, in all forms of media –print, radio and TV – and all parts – metropolitan, suburban and regional, interstate and national.
Well you know an issue has real traction when the Melbourne Sun Herald joins the hue and cry.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/65296/ramsay-should-defend-honest-tafe-providers/
Ramsay should defend honest TAFE providers
Letters, June 18, 2012
Simon Ramsay's letter to the Editor " TAFE cuts hysteria is political opportunism" (May 29), omits some very important facts:
It was the Baillieu government who continued for 18 months to fund dodgy, fly-by-night private training providers who were ripping off the system, before deciding to do something about it.
Ballarat mum stands up to Premier
TOM MCILROY, 15 Jun, 2012 12:00 PM
BALLARAT mother-of-two Sam Hambrook wants others to receive the boost in training and empowerment she received from TAFE studies.
Currently completing study in hairdressing and make-up, the 21-year-old will join protesters against Premier Ted Baillieu today to give him a clear message.
http://www.vta.vic.edu.au/docs/Media_Release_TAFE_Truth_v_Fiction_15_June_2012.pdf
Victorian TAFE Association Inc, Media Release, 15th June 2012
TAFE Truth Smothered in Lies
The Victorian TAFE Association has today condemned comments by parliamentarians at the Victorian and Federal levels. Victorian TAFE Director, David Williams said the comments relating to TAFE funding cuts, appear to be an orchestrated attempt at the Victorian and National level to smother the truth of the $300 million in TAFE funding cuts in a blanket of lies.
“In an effort to obfuscate and dodge responsibility for implementing the single biggest cut to TAFE funding in its history, a number of politicians at the federal and state level appear to be uttering rehearsed lines of misinformation,” said David Williams.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/06/16/333421_news.html
Gordon to fight fund cuts
Mandy Squires | June 16th, 2012
FUNDING must not be stripped from Geelong's Gordon TAFE if the region is to raise education levels and move from manufacturing to a new-age economy, its chief said yesterday.
Gordon chief executive officer Grant Sutherland said many people were not aware the Geelong region had education levels below the state average.
http://www.danielandrews.com.au/media/releases/tafe-campuses-begin-to-close-in-regional-victoria/
TAFE CAMPUSES BEGIN TO CLOSE IN REGIONAL VICTORIA
Media Release for the Leader of the Opposition by Steve Herbert, June 15, 2012
Students in regional Victoria are starting to be hit by the Baillieu Government’s savage funding cuts to TAFEs with eight regional campuses set to close in the Gippsland region.
Advance TAFE has lost $5 million in funding, resulting in 32 jobs losses and eight site closures, including at Yarram, Heyfield, Orbost, Swifts Creek and Mallacoota.
http://www.meltonweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/tafe-fees-debt-up-courses-cut/2595173.aspx
TAFE fees, debt up, courses cut
BY BENJAMIN MILLAR, 19 Jun, 2012 12:00 AM
A BACKLASH is building against drastic TAFE funding cuts that will leave Victoria University with a $32 million shortfall next year.
A student protest at VU's StAlbans campus on Thursday called on the government to reverse $300million cuts that are forcing the closure of hundreds of courses and threatening up to 2000 teaching jobs.
http://theconversation.edu.au/cuts-will-privatise-tafe-and-close-campuses-in-victoria-7722
Cuts will ‘privatise TAFE and close campuses’ in Victoria
Justin Norrie, 19 June 2012, 9.51am AEST
Education experts and senior academics have called on the Victorian Government to abandon budget cuts that they say will effectively privatise TAFE in Victoria and force several campuses to shut.
In an open letter, 14 vocational education and training researchers have expressed concern at “radical funding changes” to the public and private VET sector in Victoria. Victorian TAFE Association executive director David Williams has said that as many as 600 jobs may be cut in regional Victoria while metropolitan TAFEs could lose up to 1500.
TAFE has 'strong future' in Gippsland
Updated June 18, 2012 12:56:16
The Victorian Government is adamant Gippsland's TAFE sector has a strong future.
Advance TAFE confirmed last week it will slash 32 jobs, phase out 36 courses and close eight facilities because of State Government budget cuts.
Frankston TAFE students fear the future as cash dries up
19 Jun 12 @ 05:05am by Deborah Morris
STATE Government cuts are already affecting students at Frankston Chisholm.
Third-year plumbing apprentice Jayden Driver, 21, said his class didn't have copper pipe for their jobs last week. "The teacher said it was because of the cuts," the Mt Eliza resident said.
Swinburne TAFE faces staff and course cuts
19 Jun 12 @ 05:05am by Angus Livingston
SWINBURNE TAFE will have to sack staff and cut courses as State Government budget cuts hit.
Vice-chancellor Professor Linda Kristjanson said the university would be down $35 million in 2013 and regrettably there would be redundancies.
http://frankston-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/chisholm-library-services-face-axe/
Chisholm library services face axe
19 Jun 12 @ 05:00am by Deborah Morris
CHISHOLM TAFE students could lose many library services as the $25 million State Government funding cuts start to bite deep.
National Tertiary Education Union spokeswoman Janet Bourke said library staff at Frankston, Rosebud, Berwick and Cranbourne campuses were "very nervous".
http://www.latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/news/local/news/general/jobs-and-courses-cut/2594033.aspx
Jobs and courses cut
BY NIKITA VAZ, 18 Jun, 2012 12:00 AM
LIASING with government bodies to address job losses and cuts to Gippsland's TAFE sector is the direction to take, according to a key education council chair.
The statement by newly-established Gippsland Tertiary Education Council chair Peter Veenker follows Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE's announcement it would cut more than 30 jobs.
Council condemns Victorian Government as GippsTAFE Warragul starts cuts
By William Kulich. 19 June 2012, 4.10am.
Four GippsTAFE Warragul staff have lost their jobs and an early school leavers program has been cut ahead of the Victorian Government’s TAFE funding changes.
A spokesperson for GippsTAFE told The Warragul Citizen the Warragul campus’ Youth Development Unit will be suspended.
TAFE lament: Fees, debt up, courses cut
BY BENJAMIN MILLAR, 19 Jun, 2012 12:00 AM
A BACKLASH is building against drastic TAFE funding cuts that will leave Victoria University with a $32 million shortfall next year.
A student protest at VU's StAlbans campus on Thursday called on the government to reverse $300 million cuts that are forcing the closure of hundreds of courses and threatening up to 2000 teaching jobs.
Baillieu’s blame game
MATTHEW RAGGATT, 18 Jun, 2012 11:27 AM
VICTORIAN Premier Ted Baillieu has blamed inherited budget blow-outs, a drop in GST revenue and a decline in productivity for the State’s difficult economic position.
The Premier told the Victorian Rural Press Club at Ballarat on Friday, $10 billion of blow-outs from former Labor governments and an $8b shrinkage in revenue had left the State in an “unsustainable budget position”.
Councillors' political leanings should be made clear.
19 Jun, 2012 01:00 AM
THE independence of councillors at local government level has always been surrounded with scepticism.
Despite the protests of most elected councillors, the public believes most are aligned one way or another, officially or unofficially, to a political party.
http://hume-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/westmeadows-resident-shows-signs-of-desperation/
Westmeadows resident shows signs of desperation
19 Jun 12 @ 05:05am by Laura Jolly
WESTMEADOWS resident Omer Eralp, 30, just wants to be independent. Mr Eralp, born deaf, will be three-quarters through a two-year diploma of Australian sign language at Kangan Institute when the course is ditched at the end of the year.
He is learning Auslan in the hope he can study graphic design at RMIT University, and said he needed to be fluent to understand interpreters.
http://www.eastvicmedia.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2628&Itemid=87
Advance TAFE cuts 32 jobs Sunday, 17 June 2012
Advance TAFE will cut 32 jobs and close eight of its smaller facilities, some within the next few weeks, as a result of changes to State Government cuts to TAFE funding. In addition, 36 courses will be phased out from the 215 currently offered by the local TAFE.
Member for Gippsland East Tim Bull has expressed concern at the cuts and said he was looking for better outcomes in certain areas.
Hundreds protest against TAFE cuts at Premier Ted Baillieu's Regional Press Club event
Nathan Mawby, June 15, 2012 11:33AM
Protesters angry about cuts to TAFE funding greet Premier Ted Baillieu in Ballarat. Picture: Trevor Pinder Herald Sun
HUNDREDS of protesters have greeted Premier Ted Baillieu as he arrived in Ballarat to speak at the Regional Press Club.
Angry TAFE students and staff plan staged a protest at Lydiard St, Ballarat, in response to cuts to student and staff numbers – as well as the potential for more than 1000 job losses across the state.
Premier confronted by angry TAFE protesters
By state political reporter Alison Savage, updated June 15, 2012 14:40:02
Video: Ted Baillieu is confronted by angry TAFE protesters. (ABC News)
Premier Ted Baillieu was given a hostile reception from about 200 protesters who are angry over cuts to the TAFE sector.
Mr Baillieu is in Ballarat to address a Rural Press Club luncheon.
Bush backlash builds over TAFE cuts
James Campbell, June 17, 2012 12:00AM
THE Baillieu Government's cuts to Vocational Education and Training announced in May's Budget are starting to bite, with TAFEs across Victoria cutting jobs and scrapping scores of courses.
On Thursday Gippsland's Advance TAFE and Gipps TAFE announced they would each axe 32 jobs after losing $15 million in government funding between them.
Baillieu risks backlash on TAFE cuts
Editorial, June 16, 2012 10:05PM
NOW we know exactly why Higher Education and Skills Minister Peter Hall was so emotional in the wake of TAFE cuts in last month's State Budget. The National Party MP wrote to TAFEs expressing his dismay over changes.
Of course, once his letter became public and he had the choice of standing on his principles or falling into line, he chose the latter in a classic example of the political cowardice that blights modern democracies.
Angry protests as Baillieu defends TAFE cuts in times of uncertainty
Tom Arup, June 16, 2012
Rally against TAFE cuts outside Denis Napthine's office. Photo: Aaron Sawall
PREMIER Ted Baillieu has defended his government's budget cuts - including a $300 million hit to TAFEs - saying Victoria is facing economic challenges of declining revenue and national and global uncertainty.
Yesterday, Mr Baillieu was met by hundreds of protesters in Ballarat, angry at the TAFE cuts. At times during his speech to the Rural Press Club protester horns, whistles and chants of ''Save TAFE, Sack Ted'' filtered into the room.
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/tafe-protesters-vent-anger/2592599.aspx
TAFE protesters vent anger
BY PAUL KING, 15 Jun, 2012 11:59 PM
ONE word summed up the feeling of a mob of protestors in Ballarat calling for Premier Ted Baillieu to step down yesterday - anger.
Anger from students in that they will no longer be able to receive any TAFE training, anger from teachers because they could find themselves out of jobs, and anger from a broad spectrum of society who expressed their disappointed in the government’s TAFE cuts.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/beware-the-rise-of-worthless-training-20120615-20f5z.html
Beware the rise of worthless training
Adele Horin, June 16, 2012
People who went to university and whose children go, or are destined to go, to university usually have little interest in the plebeian matters of skills training or the fate of TAFE, an institution erroneously associated with blue singlets and tools.
No matter that 600,000 more people go to TAFE than to university and that the nation's productivity will be dependent on the quality of this sector as much as on the quality of our universities, ignorance and indifference about it abound.
But let me warn you: remember the fracas and national shame caused by dodgy English language colleges that mushroomed around the country and ripped off overseas students? Well, we have learnt too little. Under the mantra of choice and competition in vocational education, a mass expansion of private vocational training colleges for domestic students, this time backed by government funds, is apace.
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/06/15/496535_politics-news.html
Baillieu says Labor to blame
Kate Dowler | June 15, 2012
TOUGH economic conditions have been caused by the Commonwealth, says the Premier. Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has told a Rural Press Club of Victoria function in Ballarat today the Commonwealth and previous state government were to blame for the state's financial woes.
His address was marred by a protest group of about 200 people expressing their anger at the cuts to TAFE budgets. The group chanted ``save TAFE, sack Ted'' as the Premier entered the Alexandria On Lydiard Hotel.
http://parliamentflagpost.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/dissecting-growth-of-vocational.html
Australian Parliamentary Library, June 15, 2012
Victoria’s training system and training budget
The training system in Victoria is an experiment in market-driven resource allocation. This is set to continue with the Victorian state budget (released on 1 May 2012) announcing $290 million worth of cuts to TAFE over three years, and the loss to TAFE of ‘full service provider’ funding from 2013. (Full service provider funding is paid to TAFE institutes in recognition of the broader support services they provide to their communities.) The Victorian Budget Overview states that funding rates for some courses will increase while others will decrease ‘reflecting the need to achieve more sustainable outcomes’.
The budget measures extend the Victorian government’s fully-contestable funding system for vocational education and training that has created a boom in private provision since 2009. Between 2009 and 2010 there was 2 per cent growth in students at ‘TAFE and other government providers’ compared with 76 per cent growth in students of ‘other registered providers’.
Victoria University responds strategically to TAFE funding cuts
Following changes made to TAFE funding in the Victorian Budget 2012-2013, Victoria University financial modelling demonstrates that its state revenue will be reduced by $32 million in 2013.
The University has made an immediate strategic response to cope with funding cuts of this magnitude.
Sign to fight cuts: Locals urged to help bring back TAFE funding
BY KIERAN ILES, 15 Jun, 2012 04:00 AM
A PETITION against the Victorian Coalition Government’s TAFE funding cuts has been launched.
The online petition comes in response to the Baillieu Government’s decision to axe $300 million from the state’s TAFE budget, including $3 million locally from SuniTAFE.
Twenty six jobs at SuniTAFE campuses in Mildura and Swan Hill have been made redundant as a result of the cuts.
http://the-scan.com/2012/06/17/the-hue-cry-of-tafe-cuts/
The hue & cry around TAFE cuts
17/06/2012 By intermediatescan
Some weeks ago, we suggested people Google the term “Victorian TAFE cuts” and you’ll see why The Scan has devoted so much attention to the issue, which has national implications as well as the evident Victorian ones. You’ll come up with more than 40 pages of references over the past four weeks. There are literally hundreds of media reports, in all forms of media –print, radio and TV – and all parts – metropolitan, suburban and regional, interstate and national.
Well you know an issue has real traction when the Melbourne Sun Herald joins the hue and cry.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/65296/ramsay-should-defend-honest-tafe-providers/
Ramsay should defend honest TAFE providers
Letters, June 18, 2012
Simon Ramsay's letter to the Editor " TAFE cuts hysteria is political opportunism" (May 29), omits some very important facts:
It was the Baillieu government who continued for 18 months to fund dodgy, fly-by-night private training providers who were ripping off the system, before deciding to do something about it.
Ballarat mum stands up to Premier
TOM MCILROY, 15 Jun, 2012 12:00 PM
BALLARAT mother-of-two Sam Hambrook wants others to receive the boost in training and empowerment she received from TAFE studies.
Currently completing study in hairdressing and make-up, the 21-year-old will join protesters against Premier Ted Baillieu today to give him a clear message.
http://www.vta.vic.edu.au/docs/Media_Release_TAFE_Truth_v_Fiction_15_June_2012.pdf
Victorian TAFE Association Inc, Media Release, 15th June 2012
TAFE Truth Smothered in Lies
The Victorian TAFE Association has today condemned comments by parliamentarians at the Victorian and Federal levels. Victorian TAFE Director, David Williams said the comments relating to TAFE funding cuts, appear to be an orchestrated attempt at the Victorian and National level to smother the truth of the $300 million in TAFE funding cuts in a blanket of lies.
“In an effort to obfuscate and dodge responsibility for implementing the single biggest cut to TAFE funding in its history, a number of politicians at the federal and state level appear to be uttering rehearsed lines of misinformation,” said David Williams.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/06/16/333421_news.html
Gordon to fight fund cuts
Mandy Squires | June 16th, 2012
FUNDING must not be stripped from Geelong's Gordon TAFE if the region is to raise education levels and move from manufacturing to a new-age economy, its chief said yesterday.
Gordon chief executive officer Grant Sutherland said many people were not aware the Geelong region had education levels below the state average.
http://www.danielandrews.com.au/media/releases/tafe-campuses-begin-to-close-in-regional-victoria/
TAFE CAMPUSES BEGIN TO CLOSE IN REGIONAL VICTORIA
Media Release for the Leader of the Opposition by Steve Herbert, June 15, 2012
Students in regional Victoria are starting to be hit by the Baillieu Government’s savage funding cuts to TAFEs with eight regional campuses set to close in the Gippsland region.
Advance TAFE has lost $5 million in funding, resulting in 32 jobs losses and eight site closures, including at Yarram, Heyfield, Orbost, Swifts Creek and Mallacoota.
Branch Contacts
Branch Office
120 Clarendon Street
Victorial TAFE Institution
Phone: 03 9254 1930
Fax: 03 9254 1935
vic@nteu.org.au
http://www.nteu.org.au/tafe
Rachel Neumann
Branch President
rneumann@sunitafe.edu.au
