A Parliamentary committee dominated by Labor Party members has ducked the hard questions on TAFE SA in a whitewashed report on the debacle released today.
Like the ICAC investigation into the Oakden scandal, Jay Weatherill and SA Labor state and federal politicians refused to offer any accountability for the TAFE SA disaster that has left hundreds of students in the lurch.
Jay Weatherill refused to offer himself, his ministers or even his public servants for questioning.
Jay Weatherill refused to admit glaring questions remained unanswered throughout his government’s slapdash handling of the situation.
Jay Weatherill refused to ask his Federal Labor colleagues to move the one and only public hearing into the TAFE SA debacle from Sydney to South Australia.
South Australians have a right to know what led to this shocking situation but their representatives have been blocked at every turn by the Labor Party.
The Labor Party have blatantly tried to sweep the scandal under the carpet before the South Australian election.
Despite the obstruction of the Labor Party, the inquiry established the national regulator ASQA has downgraded TAFE SA’s rating to being ‘Demonstrated Rarely Compliant’. The news just as South Australia prepares for a wave of shipbuilding jobs rings alarm bells about the state Jay Weatherill has left TAFE SA in to skill up South Australians for that work.
After months of delays and buck-passing, Jay Weatherill needs to release the findings of the independent inquiry into the TAFE SA debacle immediately.
For the sake of students, staff, policymakers and the reputation of the South Australian training system, the Weatherill Labor Government need outline exactly what went wrong, exactly when it will be fixed and every affected student will be looked after.
The 16 years of lies and cover-ups from Jay Weatherill and SA Labor needs to be put to a stop.