Calls For An End to Government Hypocrisy

Media release

28 February 2007

Since the early 1970s Tocal College, a regional landmark, has been provided with Commonwealth funds to augment its State funding.  As a result the College has grown to become one of Australia's leading educational institutions serving rural and regional NSW and primary industries, in particular agriculture.  The Commonwealth funds provided recurrent monies to support the development and delivery of courses.  The capital funds provided replacement equipment, construction of new buildings and campus refurbishment.

In March 2003 the then NSW Minister for Education, Andrew Refshauge, advised the College that the Commonwealth funds which had been available through that department would no longer be provided.  This withdrawal of funding is hypocritical and unconscionable for many reasons, not least because the State Government receives credit for the training provided by Tocal through the annual Commonwealth statistical collections.  That is, the NSW Government receives funds commensurate with Tocal's effort but no longer passes them on to Tocal.

It's hypocritical because one of the alleged priorities in the NSW Government's much touted State Plan is vocational training in rural and regional NSW.  That is exactly what Tocal excels at: its enrolments in 2006 total 125 and it has a 95% completion rate and a 95% employment rate in rural industries.

Tocal also has around 500 external enrolments in agriculture and conservation and land management, areas one might think important in times of water crises and global warming.  Its external program also consists of a popular skills recognition service which recognises the extensive skills by those who work in rural industries, and over 100 practising farmers have recently been graduating each year with qualifications through skills recognition.

On top of that, Tocal delivers short courses all over NSW with the annual enrolment of around 5,000.

Apart from formal education programs, the Tocal Field Days attract 25,000 to 30,000 each year and Tocal Homestead around 12,000 visitors per year.  As well, its campuses are often chosen for residential courses which attract participants from all over NSW and Australia.

Tocal and its campuses thus provide valuable community resources for their locality and region.  The refusal of the State Government to pass on the Commonwealth funding that Tocal College effectively earns puts all of this at risk.

Is this consistent with the Government's declared priority?  All with the overall objectives of the illustrious State Plan? Is this good government? To me, it sounds almost like governmental misappropriation.

The community is again stepping in when the Government is letting it down, with Friends of Tocal trying to resist the effects of this policy.  We should all rally to support it.