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Mike Baird hit the go-kart track on his first visit to the Illawarra as NSW Premier, but the region’s politicians were more concerned with ‘‘real’’ issues on the ground.
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson and her federal ALP counterparts Stephen Jones and Sharon Bird took the opportunity to highlight their concerns for the future of Dapto TAFE when Mr Baird visited on June 11 to inspect road projects and open a go-kart centre at Albion Park Rail.
The trio called on the Premier to guarantee the future of the TAFE campus and rule out any planned transfer of staff and functions operating at Dapto to other campuses.
Ms Watson said there had been a ‘‘slow gutting’’ of Dapto TAFE following the $800million in government cuts to the sector since 2012.
‘‘Student and staff numbers have fallen every single year since 2010-11,’’ she said.
‘‘Services and courses have been hived off to other TAFE campuses in the region and this clear agenda seems to have no end as speculation is rife that three further services functioning from the Dapto TAFE campus will be moved to the West Wollongong TAFE campus.’’
Asked about Labor’s TAFE demands, Mr Baird said his government was providing an ‘‘efficient TAFE with great courses and opportunities’’.
‘‘I think taxpayers expect two things: the capacity for courses to be connected into where the jobs are and connected into industry, and at the same time for fees to be competitive,’’ he said.
Ms Watson said that she had lost confidence in any assurances provided by Illawarra TAFE management and Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli over Dapto TAFE’s future.
‘‘Either the minister does not know what is going on or, his own bureaucrats are misleading him, but the fact is Dapto TAFE is being gutted before our eyes,’’ she said.