Liberals will fix the Tasmania Tomorrow mess

· Liberals are committed to improving our atrocious retention and qualifications rates and that’s why we will fix the Tasmania Tomorrow mess

A Hodgman Liberal Government will fix the Tasmania Tomorrow mess the Premier has made to ensure that after 11 years of Labor failure, our atrocious retention and qualifications rates, and education standards, are improved.
The Premier is putting his short-term political self-interest ahead of the long-term interests of Tasmanian students.
There is growing evidence of a crisis in colleges that have made the transition to Tasmania Tomorrow.
The Premier’s response has been to use shonky figures to try to make it look better and sweep concerns under the carpet.
It is appropriate that the Auditor-General reviews attendance figures, but we need a broader independent review of this mess and a moratorium on further transition to Tasmania Tomorrow until the problems are sorted out.

All Mr Bartlett will do is offer a 12 month delay before he insists everyone must join Tasmania Tomorrow – regardless of any teacher ballots, or parents’ views, or anything else.

The Premier was quick to condemn Paula Wriedt’s Essential Learnings debacle but it seems he’s too arrogant to appreciate the myriad of problems now plaguing Tasmania Tomorrow – problems he was warned would occur because he rushed the changes.

We have to get this right for current and future generations of Tasmanian students. These are students who have been failed by the Labor Government for 11 years.

The Premier must not risk their futures for his own short-term political imperatives.

Rather than preen himself for an election, the Premier should focus his efforts on sorting out the fiasco that his changes have created.

This about much more than David Bartlett and his electoral fortunes .

This is about the education of thousands of Tasmanians currently embroiled in badly implemented changes.

Today he also criticised Colleges as living in the past, whilst ignoring real problems that lie in our Primary and High schools particularly. There are too many children who fail to become literate and numerate, and too many who fall into a pattern of absenteeism and drop out of the system.

A Hodgman Liberal Government will immediately initiate an independent review of Tasmania Tomorrow and we will clean up the Premier’s mess. The problems with it are too serious.

We have to get this right if we are to improve retention rates and our unacceptable education standards – standards that have been going backwards under Mr Bartlett, not getting better.
Will Hodgman MP Leader of the State Opposition Sue Napier MP Shadow Minister for Education