Ballina Information Blog

The Northern Rivers area was desperate for trades training, there was a massive shortage of carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers and electricians and teenage unemployment in the local area is at 34 per cent, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jenny Macklin said after she visited Ballina High School yesterday to discuss the Lismore/Ballina Technical College.

Ms Macklin says the proposed college is under threat from the Howard Government.

She met with Year 11 students training in metal engineering at Ballina High School.

“It’s almost a year to the day since the Government’s deadline for proposals to run the Lismore/Ballina Technical College. There’s still no word from Canberra on when, or even if, the college will open,” Ms Macklin said.

“The Howard Government is threatening to take the technical college away because they claim there’s not a ‘clear indication’ of local support.

“It’s absolute nonsense for the Government to say that the Northern Rivers area doesn’t support training more tradespeople.

“The Lismore/Ballina Technical College could become the latest victim of the Howard Government’s extreme industrial relations agenda.

“The Howard Government is insisting that staff of technical colleges be offered Australian Workplace Agreements, even if they don’t want them.

“Ballina High School has won the Howard Government’s own National Training Award for VET in Schools Excellence. Yet the Government doesn’t think Ballina High School is good enough to be part of a technical college.

“Ballina High’s application should be considered on its merits. The Howard Government’s extreme industrial relations agenda should not get in the way of training tradespeople.

“Across Australia, the technical colleges are in disarray. Only four of the 25 technical colleges are open. Australia needs 100,000 extra tradespeople by 2010 but the technical colleges will train fewer than 300.

“Labor is opposed to the Government’s extreme industrial relations agenda. Labor wants to work with local schools and all levels of government to get more technical education in the Northern Rivers area.”

This entry was posted on Friday, May 19th, 2006 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Ballina, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.