Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Ministers statements: TAFE funding

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:50): Last week I met Elena at Kangan’s brand new Broadmeadows station in the electorate of our hardworking member for Broadmeadows. Elena told the member for Broadmeadows and me that for as long as she could remember she had dreamed of being an early childhood educator. She believes that kids are our future, and as a mum she knows there is nothing more important than giving those kids the best start in life. Over the years, though, for Elena life got in the way. She had four kids of her own, and she never got the chance to pursue her dream until today. She is now realising that ambition, studying for the future she has always dreamed about, and she has been able to do it because of free TAFE. She has been able to do it because, as she said, without free TAFE she would not have been able to afford the course that she was studying to pursue and realise her dream. Elena is just one of 191,000 students across Victoria who are pursuing their career dreams. They have enrolled in free TAFE, and that number includes 90,000 women.

There are some who had a different approach – to cut TAFE, to close campuses, to crush people’s dreams and aspirations. It would have meant people like Elena would not have been able to pursue their dream and go on and be a great early childhood educator. We know that women like Elena and Elizabeth, who we met, and the man called Elias, who we also met at Broadmeadows TAFE that day, all spoke with passion and pride about how free TAFE has opened doors, how the TAFE investment at Broadmeadows and right across the state has provided them with foundations so they can go and work in rewarding and enriching careers that benefit all of us. That is what investment in TAFE looks like. That is backing working people and families right across our state.