Scone Closure – Feb 21 (PDF version)
On 18 January 2021 TAFE NSW wrote to the CPSU NSW with advice to the effect that NSW Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education, the Hon. Dr Geoff Lee had approved the divestment of the TAFE campus at Scone.
The proposed sale of this beautiful campus at Scone is not only an attack on the local economies in the Hunter, it is an attack on post-secondary education in NSW.
The way the Government justifies selling our public assets is by following the usual formula of systematically downgrading and defunding the asset, then it presents the argument the asset is a financially unviable concern. In this case it has defunded courses that once thrived at Scone TAFE and effectively redirected many of those courses to the private education market.
As some members would have seen, the Shadow TAFE Minister Jihad Dib was quick off the mark and got some good local coverage in the local press.
The CPSU NSW wrote back to TAFE expressing our opposition to the sale. Your union requested TAFE put a hold on the sale until it released to us, as a matter of transparency and accountability, all documentation that has been prepared to demonstrate how this proposed divestment of this publicly owned site will meet the needs of students, the local community and the local economy. Specifically, we sought a divestment report or similar, as well as the study on impact of the sale on the Scone community.
We will meet with TAFE officers to obtain this information in coming days.
On Wednesday 27 January a delegation, which included Opposition leader Jodie McKay, Shadow Minister for TAFE, Jihad Dib, the Teachers Federation and Electrical Trades Union industrial staff, as well as CPSU NSW organisers and delegates, held an action outside the Scone campus which attracted local ABC and NBN 3 coverage.
We will continue to collaborate with other unions, the local Hunter community groups and politicians of all stripes to highlight the complete absurdity of privatising this site, especially when it is becoming increasingly clear TAFE needs to be at the forefront of creating the tens of thousands of new green jobs required as our economy moves to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Join the union HERE.
Join the Rebuild Our TAFE campaign HERE.
Matthew Drake-Brockman Industrial Officer
Southern Region
West Region
North Region
Sydney Region
St Leonards
Hornsby
Western Sydney Region
TAFE Digital