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Labor’s got no explanation for $500m cut to training

Still no answers for $500m cut to training.

By Portal Admin - 20th March 2018 - Back to News

Victorian Training Minister Gayle Tierney has refused to detail the extent of her cuts to the state’s training budget, despite the Andrews Government being asked on four separate occasions in Parliament.

Labor’s cuts of up to $500 million a year were revealed in Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings last month.

When presented with the evidence from her own departmental officials, the Minister said she hadn’t read the transcript from the hearings.

When asked about it a second time, after the transcripts had been made public, Ms Tierney refused to answer and was ordered to provide a response in writing.

Her response stated that, since her departmental secretary had taken the questions on notice, she would need to wait until a response had been provided.

When reprimanded over this third refusal to provide basic information, Gayle Tierney provided another written response, again refusing to state how much of the state’s training budget has been returned to consolidated revenue.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Training, Skills and Apprenticeships Steph Ryan

Gayle Tierney has tried every trick in the book to avoid scrutiny of Daniel Andrews’ savage cuts to student training.

The Productivity Commission blew the whistle last month, revealing that the training budget was underspent by $502 million in 2016 alone.

Daniel Andrews promised a TAFE rescue, but students can no longer get the skills they need to get work because Daniel Andrews has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the training budget.

Source: www.gippsland.com

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