Page 2599 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 October 1992
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However, there was another group that was identified by Mr Beazley - university graduates who are seeking a TAFE qualification because they believe that it provides them with better job qualifications than does a university degree. I regard this as a welcome change, and I hope that it will influence parents to pay more attention to the capabilities of their children rather than to their social aspirations. For too long, certainly here in the ACT, there has been a tendency to oblige children to go on to university, rather than to TAFE, for reasons that have nothing to do with their capabilities. The result is that you often end up with a rather indifferent arts degree graduate when you might have ended up with a very good plumber.
Mr De Domenico: You can still be a plumber with an arts degree.
MR CORNWELL: Indeed, Mr De Domenico; thank you. That would appear, from what Mr Beazley was saying, to be what is happening these days. People are coming out of universities with arts degrees and going to TAFE to train for trade qualifications.
Certainly, I believe that the new name, the Canberra Institute of Technology, properly reflects the high quality of the courses and the course content provided by the current nine schools. It also reflects the high quality and the higher expectations of those who seek to attend what will be the Canberra Institute of Technology. I have only one concluding remark: I do not know how we are going to pronounce the new acronym. I do not know, Minister, whether it will be "sit" or "kit", but I am sure that we will work it out.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (11.55): I thank Mr Cornwell for his generous remarks about what is currently ACT TAFE, soon to be the Institute of Technology. In three areas Mr Cornwell indicated that things were going well. The first was the increased expenditure for TAFE, particularly from the Commonwealth Government. The benefits of that Commonwealth Government funding cannot be overestimated. It has had a remarkable impact in the ACT, as it has around Australia. That program will continue with the commitment by the Federal Labor Government to increase substantially the amount of money going to TAFE and training systems - an extra $720m. That is not the total amount; that is just more money in the next few years. The Federal Government has recognised that TAFE and training have been long neglected - the poor cousin, but a cousin whose skills are much needed. They have backed up that commitment with a very substantial amount of funding.
To introduce a sour note into what has generally been a harmonious debate, I have great anxiety, in the unlikely event that a Hewson government is elected, about the flow of this money. Dr Hewson's comments about training and TAFE are not at all encouraging; they are distinctly alarming. This new trend we have seen of recognition of TAFE would come to a sudden end if he were brought to government. I am confident, of course, that that will not happen.
The second area about which I thank Mr Cornwell for his comments relates to the students. I think he described the TAFE system as putting out practical, qualified and innovative people. That is praise for TAFE, and I join with him in commending TAFE for the work it does. I know that TAFE itself is of the view
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