Vocational Education and Training

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): My question is to the Premier. What was the basis for the government arriving at the figure of 5,000 training places for the non-TAFE training providers in South Australia?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:38): It is fundamentally based on the size of the pie that we had available to us, which was returning to pre Skills for All funding levels, which incidentally for the non-TAFE sector is both a larger sum of money than pre-Skills for All and a larger number of training hours than pre Skills for All. So, where we are now is where we were pre Skills for All. I know that involved a level of adjustment for the non-TAFE sector, which is unfortunate. I know that's causing some grief and we are working through that with them at the moment, but essentially we needed a sustainable TAFE, a platform for TAFE from which we can take further reform efforts and, make no mistake, there are very significant reforms which are on the way for TAFE.

There will be a reducing proportion of the total pie of TAFE as a guaranteed, if you like, sector of the total training budget. There will be a larger contestable section of the TAFE and non-TAFE section of the training budget over time but this year, having regard to the available pool of funds, there is a sufficient amount of money which is necessary to ensure we have a sustainable TAFE. The balance has been applied to the non-TAFE sector, and I repeat: that is larger than in both absolute dollars and in training hours than it was prior to the pre Skills for All arrangements.