Liberal Member for Hammond, Adrian Pederick, has called on Regional Development Minister, Geoff Brock, to seek assurances from the Weatherill Labor Government about the ongoing operation of the Murray Bridge TAFE campus.

“The Murray Bridge TAFE campus is vitally important to the Murraylands region and the Minister for Regional Development needs to ensure its ongoing viability,” said Mr Pederick.

“I am concerned about the future of the campus following recent redundancies and the Weatherill Labor Government has done little to ease community fears.

“I am aware there have been staff cuts in the retail, community services, education, business, IT, automotive training and aged care programs.

“In addition to this, many programs now are only offered externally and, due to a restructure, third year Automotive Apprentices may be forced to transfer to a different campus to complete their training.”

When questioned in Parliament about the number of staff cuts and its plans to shut down the campus’s automotive training centre, Employment, Skills and Training Minister Gail Gago responded:

“It would be irresponsible of me, and also it goes beyond my realm of responsibility, to be making any guarantees about particular staffing numbers and particular course content.” (Hansard, 7 May 2013)

“We have seen the Weatherill Labor Government make considerable cuts to regional TAFE SA campuses and I want to ensure Murray Bridge is not in the firing line,” said Mr Pederick.

“The Government is responsible for education and training in our regional areas, and I call on Minister Brock to bring issues impacting regional TAFE to the attention of Cabinet.”