TAFE —
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
516. Ms
J.M. FREEMAN to the Premier:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's $5.5 billion recovery plan, which includes the biggest
investment in TAFE in the state's
history. Can the Premier outline to the house what this massive investment will
mean for TAFE infrastructure across Western Australia, including old,
ageing and much loved campuses such as Balga TAFE; and how this massive
investment will not only support local jobs, but also ensure that Western Australians
have the skills and training needed to rejoin the workforce?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the member for Mirrabooka
for the question. We are making an enormous investment in TAFE across Western Australia, which will create a pipeline of
work in building and construction for Western Australians. About 1 000
jobs will come out of this initiative. It will mean that Western Australians
will learn in first-class facilities all over the state. It will see $167 million
in new money for upgrades to TAFEs right across Western Australia—the
city and the regions. Some examples are the TAFE campus in Balga, which I went
to a couple of weeks ago. There will be a $32 million investment to redevelop
the campus. It is an old campus— maybe 50 years old. A new multi-story
building will replace 22 transportable classrooms. A sum of $17.6 million will
be spent for light automotive training at the Joondalup TAFE, which I also went
to a couple of weeks ago. A sum of $22.6 million will go to the Armadale
campus, which has had a significant issue of being divided between sites. The
investment will bring the campus into a single site, which will be terrific for
the community of Armadale and for the training of people in the south east
corridor.
Across
the regions, $79 million will be spent on upgrades. That includes $17 million
for the Albany TAFE, for new workshops
for automotive engineering and construction. I was there the other day as well.
A sum of $8 million will go into the Muresk Institute in Northam for
specialist facilities to support dedicated agricultural machinery and
apprenticeship training. I know that agricultural communities all over the
state will be thrilled with that. A sum of $22 million will go into the
Pundulmurra TAFE in South Hedland, which will benefit the Pilbara. There will
be improvements to TAFE colleges all over the regions, including Mandurah,
Kalgoorlie, Roebourne, Geraldton, Northam, Broome and Kununurra.
On top of that, our lower fees,
higher skills program will cut TAFE fees all over the state. We did that at the
start of the year, with 34 high-priority courses. That led to a huge increase
in enrolments. In the latest initiative, we have cut fees by as much as 72 per
cent for a range of courses that are very much focused on getting people into
work. Indeed, 15 courses, such as community services and IT, are absolutely
free. There have been thousands of enrolments as a consequence of both of those
initiatives. I was at Albany TAFE the other day and two women who were enrolled
in nursing came up to me. They were thrilled that the fees had come down so
significantly. Under the last government, when the Leader of the Opposition was
in charge, the fees went up by 400 per cent for a nursing course to $9 700.
That has now been slashed to $2 700, and $800 for concession card holders.
There has been a massive take-up in enrolments all over Western Australia. We
are doing everything we can to make TAFE affordable and are improving
facilities all over Western Australia. We want to take advantage of this
situation to have our state come out stronger and better than ever before.