MS TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) (12:07): Last Thursday the Minister for Agriculture and I met with the member for Buninyong, Michaela Settle, at Western Plains Pork near Rokeford to announce a review into the future of agriculture training in Victoria. Since coming to government we have made important headway in delivering more agriculture training to Victorians. We put a number of agricultural courses on the free TAFE list. We have invested in accommodation and training facilities at agricultural colleges including Dookie, Longerenong and Marcus Oldham. We have made investments in shearing training to increase the number of shearers in Victoria, and now we are taking stock through a review that will look at how TAFEs can continue to attract and prepare students for a career in agriculture. The review will be led by Michaela Settle, who went to TAFE and owned and operated a family sheep farm near Ararat for more than a decade. I could not think of anyone better to lead this review.
It was a fantastic launch of the review at Western Plains, and I got to meet a lot of people, including staff and nearby farmers. I find that no matter where I go I always come across a TAFE graduate, and it was exciting to meet Annie-May Fagg, who completed her apprenticeship in agriculture and also studied wool classing at Federation TAFE. Annie-May spoke about how TAFE gave her so many new skills for her work, and she shared with us the importance of this review as it will really take on board the experiences of people working in agriculture and listen to what they need for the future. I look forward to receiving the report and its recommendations later this year.
