High level rural based training in agriculture and horticulture in the North West of Tasmania appears to be in crisis as a result of the Premier’s bungled Tasmania Tomorrow experiment, at a time when he continues to claim that the State is set to become Australia’s food bowl.
The North West Polytechnic campus apparently does not have the teaching capacity to deliver the training, and I have been informed that the funding model for this training, including Certificate 4, 5 and 6, is such a mess that it has resulted in zero enrolments in rural based training in the North West for the Tasmanian Skills Institute.
Normally, up to 30 students would have enrolled.
I have also been informed that there is absolutely no communication on the ground between the Skills Institute and the Polytechnic to help resolve this issue.
A number of people in the rural industry believe that unless the problem is immediately rectified, it will sound the death knell for rural industry based training in the North West Coast, and depleting our skill capacity to grow our agribusiness economy.
How does the Premier intend to make Tasmania the southern food bowl for Australia when there is such a high level of uncertainty about the future provision of skills training in this area?
The complete lack of concern with which the Premier dealt with this issue in Parliament today demonstrates his complete lack of vision and leadership.
Mr Bartlett should at the very least investigate these concerns and make a fresh commitment to skills and training in rural industries.
Jeremy Rockliff MP Deputy Leader of the Opposition
