Belmont TAFE sale 'likely'

BY MATT JOHNSTON

Shadow Minister for Skills Prue Car says "the hiring of a divestment portfolio manager is just the latest step in the government's agenda to sell or close TAFE campuses across the state".

 The new divestment portfolio, whose manager is on a $180,000 salary, has Belmont and Meadowbank TAFE campuses listed as likely candidates for sale according to leaked government documents. Minister Car says "the communities around those colleges have every right to be concerned about the future of those campuses".

Across New South Wales TAFE enrollments are down 175,000 since 2012, and 5,600 teaching positions have been slashed, according to Ms Car. "What we need to be doing is to be encouraging young people to get back into TAFE colleges, to be learning the skills they need to get good jobs".

"The Hunter is a community that greatly needs TAFE and greatly needs the skills that it teaches our young people... It'll be devastating for regions like the Hunter if we don't stop this trend [of sell-offs and lowered enrollments]."

In other towns like Quirindi and Dapto, where TAFE campuses have already been divested, replacement services are little more than shopfronts with an internet connection. "You cannot learn to be a baker or a carpenter or an electrician via a shopfront with computers. You need a TAFE college with a teacher and real-world experience."

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Community Calls to Save Mambo Wetlands

BY GARY LYSAGHT

The Port Stephens community has continued to fight the planned sale of the Mambo Wetlands by the Department of Education.

A 'for sale' sign appeared on the grounds on May 6th, with the local Mambo Wanda Wetlands Landcare committee saying the weren't given a heads up beforehand.

Port Stephens MP Kate Washington has firmly opposed the Baird Government's planned sale of the property, saying it is vitally important it doesn't enter private hands.

FOR SALE: Wetlands to be sold [Photo: TRRA]

"There's enormous cultural significance for the local Worimi.  [And] ecologically, it is part of this complex ecosystem that forms [the Wetlands]," she said.

Local residents had the opportunity to have their say on Thursday 26th May with a local forum held at Horizons Golf Resort at Salamander Bay.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli and Environment Minister Mark Speakman were both invited to attend the forum, with letters and email from Washington's office going unanswered.

The Wetlands' sale sign
[Source: Port Stephens Examiner]

A key concern for local residents is the local koala population which call the Wetlands home.

"We just simply can't afford it, for the sake of the koalas and all the other threatened species that live within that parcel of land," says Washington

"We need to, as a community, have a really strong voice and let the Government know that we do not want this land placed into private hands," she said.

The sale of the Wetlands would be another asset the Baird Government have sold off since the 2015 election, with up to $3 billion of public assets being sold as of 2016 since the Coalition victory in 2011.

Sold assets include Bligh House for $58 million and the Australian Technology Park for $263 million.

Money raised from the sale of buildings considered to be old or misused will be redirected to constructing new infrastructure and housing.

The State Opposition have been critical of the recent litany of public assets the Government have sold into private hands with Shadow Finance Minister Clayton Barr saying Premier Mike Baird was "addicted to the sugar hit" of selling off assets.

"Whether it is electricity assets or Government property, they are happy to accept the short-term gain and ignore the long-term pain," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.