TAFE takes the first hit

By Linda Simon

As the Federal Government has pushed through with its plans to tie funding to the offering of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), Federation has called on the NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt to continue to refuse to sign up to these demands from the Federal Government.

On August 17, the Federal Government's Skilling Australia's Workforce Bill 2005, that ties TAFE funding to conditions including the offering of Australian Workplace Agreements to all staff, was pushed through the Senate.

The Federal Government has effectively now given an ultimatum to state and territory governments to sign up to the new vocational education and training (VET) funding agreement or receive no further funding from August 26.

The union realises the refusal to sign means no federal money from August 26, but the fight to stop the bullying of John Howard must be taken on.

The requirement that TAFE offer AWAs to staff generated debate in both lower and upper Houses of Parliament, and resulted in amendments moved by both the ALP and the Greens which were defeated in the Senate.

Universities have started to offer AWAs in the last couple of weeks because, as in TAFE, their continued funding from the Federal Government is dependent on this requirement being met.

Federal TAFE funding represents about 30 per cent of VET funding in NSW, and loss of this money will mean that about 450,000 students across Australia could lose an opportunity to study in TAFE.

One part of the legislation states that the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training must approve each state or territory's VET plan, and cannot approve funding without his approval. Therefore, the Federal Government has the right to prescribe what courses are delivered in each state and territory, and undoubtedly how much funding goes to TAFE or to private providers.

The legislation seeks to shift funding and market share to private providers. States and territories must agree to increase user choice funding by five per cent per year, that is, increase funding for apprenticeships and traineeships put out to open tender by five per cent per year, rather than allocate funds directly to TAFE.

At the same time, the legislation requires that there is 'third party access of TAFE facilities', in other words that private providers can use our facilities. Whether this just involves buildings and equipment, or whether it also involves counselling, disability services, library access and so on, is still not clear.

Despite Federal Government claims, there is no additional funding in the Federal Government's proposed agreement.

State and territory governments have been demanding new and additional growth funds for a number of years. In 2003 and 2004 state and territories initially refused to sign an agreement because there was not additional funding. All the Federal Government put on offer was a rollover of the existing funding with some indexation. Since the Howard Government came to office, Federal Government real expenditure per student hour has dropped by 26.3 per cent. At the same time, annual hours have increased by 26.8 per cent. TAFE is teaching more students with less money, which has itself led to many pressures on TAFE Institutes to cut length of courses, increase class sizes, use part time casual teachers who are cheaper to employ, and cut services to students. Also, both as a result of this pressure and because of Federal Government ideology, increasing amounts of funding are being put up for open tender to support VET delivery through private providers instead of TAFE.

Federation lobbied 51 Federal MPs and five ministerial advisors in Canberra on August 9, 10 and 11. The delegation found that few Government MPs understood the implications of the Bill that they had voted for in the House of Representatives or were about to vote for in the Senate. The delegation also found that few understood the implications of AWAs, that they were divisive and led to unhealthy power relations in the workplace, and were costly.

Linda Simon is the TAFE TA Secretary and Federal TAFE President.

Federal government's chains emerge