Moruya TAFE

Mr STEVE WHAN ( Monaro—Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education) (15:28:53): I thank the member for Bega for his question. I was delighted to see him last week on site at Moruya TAFE getting work underway on a $2.2 million upgrade to the nursing teaching facility. It is thanks to the member's advocacy that we have seen such a big investment in health in his electorate. We have heard a number of times from the member for Bega and the Minister for Health about the fantastic work that is going on with the new hospital near Broulee. We will need to staff that hospital. Unlike the Liberals and The Nationals, we have not made empty promises about this facility upgrade. We have not turned the sod then wandered away for a few years or found a different location. We are actually getting on with the job of delivering for the South Coast.

Anyone who drives past Moruya TAFE today will see that tradies are on site and hoardings are up. Work has already started. That new facility will be finished this year. Thanks to the hard work of our terrific Labor members from the Victorian border all the way up the South Coast of New South Wales, we are producing a better health system and training the people that we need to work in it. As the member for Bega has rightly pointed out, these upgrades, together with the new $330 million Eurobodalla Regional Hospital next-door, will deliver long‑term benefits for local students, nurses and the broader healthcare sector. It is an investment that is about delivering skills that work, giving students access to modern, accredited training facilities that reflect the environments that they will step into when they graduate.

To give members an idea of what the Moruya community was getting under the Liberals and The Nationals, the local campus had been let go to the point where the facility did not meet the national accreditation standards or safety regulations. As a result, nursing was no longer being taught at Moruya TAFE. That is not what the people of New South Wales expect from the Government and TAFE in regional communities, but it reflects what the Coalition thought of TAFE when it was in government. It allowed it to run down. It allowed the staff to move away.

Mr Justin Clancy: Point of order—

The SPEAKER: The Minister will resume his seat while I hear from the member for Albury on a point of order.

Mr Justin Clancy: Will the Minister explain the cuts to the courses at Moss Vale—

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The member for Albury will resume his seat.

Mr STEVE WHAN: It is really nice to see the member for Albury has moved from the backbench and that he has now been given leave to take points of order. But I invite him to ask me a question about Moss Vale TAFE—

The SPEAKER: The member for Terrigal will come to order.

Mr STEVE WHAN: —because it is crickets from the Opposition when it comes to questions about TAFE and training.

[Interruption]

The SPEAKER: The member for Oatley will remove himself from the Chamber under Standing Order 249A until the end of question time.

[Pursuant to standing order the member for Oatley left the Chamber at 15:31.]

Dr Michael Holland: I seek further information.

The SPEAKER: An additional two minutes is granted.

Mr STEVE WHAN: I would be delighted to get questions from the Opposition about anything, but particularly TAFE. What we are doing at Moruya is important. There will be two simulated nursing wards, including beds, tables and other equipment that is required to meet accreditation standards. There will also be a new mobile nursing station, upgraded audiovisual equipment to support modern teaching and learning, a dirty and clean preparation room, training bathrooms, a nurses station, a lobby, new lunchroom facilities, and male and female accessible toilets. It is a substantial upgrade that will help us to deliver more enrolled nurses, who can then work in the new hospital in the electorate of the member for Bega. It builds on the back of our two consecutive record budgets for TAFE. This Labor Government has taken TAFE out of the contestable market and put it in its rightful place as the centre for vocational learning in New South Wales. It has been given guaranteed, long-term, predictable funding and we have increased permanency for teachers. Under the previous Government, just over half of the teachers in TAFE were permanent. Now 86 per cent of them are permanent, so we have done substantial work.

All along the South Coast we are seeing investment in TAFE upgrades to fix the problems left to us by the previous Government. I know that the member for Kiama and the member for South Coast are strong advocates for training in their areas as well. They are seeing students coming through their TAFE facilities who are also able to work in the health facilities in their regions. Critical repairs are going on at Nowra, Batemans Bay, Bega and Ulladulla campuses. We are lifting up those campuses and addressing the neglect of the previous Government towards TAFE. That is because Labor fundamentally believes in TAFE and vocational education and training. We are here to deliver that for the people of New South Wales to overcome the skills shortages left to us by the Liberals and The Nationals.