Federation held its first meeting with Tim Crakanthorp as Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education on Friday, 14 April, where Senior Officers discussed Labor’s election promises for TAFE.
Mr Crakanthorp, the Member for Newcastle, met with Federation General Secretary Maxine Sharkey, Deputy President Henry Rajendra and Deputy Secretary Post Schools Phill Chadwick at Federation House ahead of NSW Parliament returning early next month.
In the first official meeting with Minister Crakanthorp since his appointment after the March election, the officers discussed Labor’s pre-election TAFE commitments including:
- a guarantee of at least 70 per cent of vocational education and training funding to TAFE each year
- the abolition of the wage cap and replacement with a system that delivers fair wages, starting with genuine negotiations to reduce workloads and make salaries more competitive
- reversing the plague of insecure work by giving TAFE teachers job security, and the potential to convert long-term casuals to temporary/permanent full-time or part-time positions.
Minister Crakanthorp provided an undertaking to meet regularly with Federation Senior Officers and work cooperatively to rebuild TAFE NSW after 12 years of the previous government’s neglect.