THE spectacle of the local member Adam Marshall defending the impending soaring prices of TAFE in The Inverell Times last week is a vivid illustration of how the National Party has ceased to serve its rural constituents.
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He clearly wasn’t watching the Victorian elections and its verdict on the destruction of their TAFE system.
Mr Marshall thinks he is putting us at ease about the fee hikes by talking about student loans – to do a TAFE course.
Why have the Nationals let the LNP government put up TAFE fees so much that people in our community will be forced to go into debt to get qualifications?
And while he refers to students that may be subsidised – and that will remain uncertain under a privatised system – what about the vast majority who won’t be eligible for subsidies?
What about people who want to retrain and can’t afford it?
What about people who have been kicked off unemployment benefits “to earn or learn” and can’t pay the price of learning?
Mr Marshall freely admits that assistance is only for those who do not already have qualifications.
In spite of Marshall’s protestations, all the new system will do for disadvantaged students is place bureaucratic barriers in the way of vocational training and decent jobs for our youth and make it harder for those needing to retrain.
He should stop defending the new marketised TAFE system that has already failed abysmally in other states and start fighting to restore TAFE to its valuable place in our public education system in which affordable education and training is available for all.
Debra O’Brien
Labor candidate for Northern Tablelands