They were expressing their displeasure over the lack of government funding for TAFE and universities, during a community rally held at the front of the University of Wollongong.

The "snap rally" was organised by the South Coast Labour Council (SCLC), whose secretary Arthur Rorris urged the state and federal governments to fix the skills shortage crisis by funding TAFE and universities.

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"What we have today is an act of unity from the Illawarra community to say that enough is enough, and that we will not cop governments, both federal and state, attacking our TAFE and our university, particularly at a time when we are told we have a massive skills shortage," Mr Rorris said.

"They are just not fair dinkum.

"How can you justify stripping money away from our TAFE and our universities at a time when employers are scrambling to find skilled workers and we have young people eager to get on with their lives after the pandemic that we have experienced."

The SCLC secretary said funding institutions that train "our people" was the best way to address the skills crisis.

"It is not good enough to say that we just need to fill the gaps with international labour.

"What we are talking about now is not a question of supplementing labour. What we are talking about is replacing the Australian workforce.

"It's not on."

Mr Rorris said TAFE and universities were the key to addressing these issues.

"But they are the two institutions that our governments, both federal and state have chosen to target, to attack them in terms of their funding base," he said.

"The purpose of today's rally is to say we are not going to cop it.

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"These institutions don't belong to the government. These institutions, our TAFE and our uni, belong to the community.

"The government needs to make up its mind whether it is up to the job or not. If they're not and if they're not prepared to fund the institutions that give our kids a future, then we as a community need to stand up and say we will not cop this.

"If they persist with their attacks on the future generations of this country, then they're the ones that are going to find themselves out of a job."

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