Macklin hits out over Northern Rivers skills shortage
If Federal Member for Page Ian Causley wants to know why there is a skills crisis in the Northern Rivers area, he should be asking his own Government for the answer, according to Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Education, Training Science and Research Jenny Macklin.
And Ms Macklin says the Lismore/Ballina Technical College could become the latest victim of the Howard Government’s ‘extreme industrial relations agenda’.
Ms Macklin said: “The Member for Page should be asking Peter Costello ‘Why did the 2006 Budget largely ignore education and training?’
“Businesses and families in the Northern Rivers have every right to ask why did the Howard Government’s 2006 Budget slash $13.7 million from an incentive program to encourage rural and regional businesses to take on apprentices?
“The answer is that Peter Costello and John Howard have cut money from apprenticeship incentives when the skills crisis is the number one roadblock in the economy.
“The Howard Government’s technical colleges, which were promised in 2004, are now in disarray.
“It’s more than a year 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.
“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.”
Ms Macklin says 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,” Ms Macklin said.
* Previous entries on this subject: See http://www.ballina.info/blog/2006/05/19/forget-the-politics-build-the-australian-technical-college-now/
