Quality education will be a thing of the past for Illawarra residents if the NSW government's $1.7 billion budget cuts continue, NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson has warned.
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Mr Robertson, who is also the opposition spokesman for the Illawarra, toured the region yesterday, speaking with teachers and parents about the impact of the cuts at Illawarra schools and TAFE campuses.
"Education is a great thing to define an area, and the university is one of those defining characteristics of Wollongong," he said.
"Access to education in areas close to where people are is critical if you're going to continue to educate people and provide them with opportunities ... But if you don't have access to the institutes like you have here in the Illawarra, that is going to have a significant impact on the population in this area."
Mr Roberston cited the impending closure of Illawarra TAFE's Dapto campus library as an example of "disastrous" education cuts filtering through to students.
Even with the transfer of those services to the West Wollongong campus, the result for the site could be dire, he said.
The member for Shellharbour, Anna Watson, who joined Mr Robertson on site at the Dapto campus, said the loss of the library was the first in a wave of cuts that would change the landscape of education in the Illawarra.
"I'm expecting more closures, I'm expecting more cuts, I'm expecting more pain to be felt not just throughout my electorate but throughout the region," she said.
Yesterday TAFE Illawarra defended the structural change, noting that computers and other learning resources would be relocated to other areas of the campus.
In a statement, it said: "This model will be a more effective provision of learning support at the campus that will ensure the library services are delivered effectively and sustainably."
