Dear Linda
Please find herewith a response to your letter of 5 September 2007.
The roles of the union are:
- the invigoration of the membership to unite, protect, and enhance working conditions
- speaking authoritatively on professional issues which are the essence of teaching in all sectors
- continuing to fight for social justice and equity in the wider Australian political context.
The current structures of the union were set in place in the early 1970s to try to ensure proper representation of all members in the decision-making bodies, with Associations electing their representatives to Annual Conference and Council and Council electing the Executive from amongst its members.
I support the maintenance of these structures.
Federation must remain united, and continue to derive strength from the participation of all of our members, from the more experienced to the most recent, no matter where they teach or work.
I will never support any dilution of the representation of members.
Within that context, I want to introduce new ways of incorporating the views of members - to work as an adjunct to, but never a replacement of, the decision-making forums of Association, Council and Conference.
As a follow-up to the Cornerstones Conference in 2006, I organised a seminar with visiting Canadian public policy thinker, Heather-jane Robertson, and Randall Pearce, who conducted the 2005 membership survey. The purpose of that seminar was to explore ideas about new and enhanced ways of gathering the views and commitment of members, and enhancing commitment to policies and activism. I am keen to explore some of the ideas developed at that seminar.
I believe this would have a beneficial effect for TAFE TA within the framework of Federation. I believe it would allow for TAFE to retain its own identity, but also for the rest of the membership to engage with TAFE. As public educators, we have a community of interest best served through unity of purpose and ideals.
Obviously, as one of three presidential, and four senior officers, I would be working collaboratively as part of a team, as well as with Executive, to further develop any such strategies.
You asked me to address the main issues facing TAFE TA members over the next year. i see these as:
Above all else, the very viability of TAFE as the pre-eminent provider of vocational and further education is under threat from both Federal and State governments. Privatisation, under-funding and the increasing impost of fees – ie cost-shifting to students are all components of that.
Australia has a huge skills gap, which TAFE should be filling. That depends on proper support from governments. It is disappointing in the extreme that the federal ALP is still struggling to prioritise TAFE and have not yet made an announcement about TAFE funding.
Supporting and getting behind the National TAFE claim is essential.
The federal election cannot be seen as an end in itself. If the coalition is re-elected, then the attacks on TAFE through Industrial Relations arrangements and privatisation through Australian Technical Colleges will continue. If Labor is elected, the job will be to ensure that along with a change of government there is a change of policy direction.
At state level, renewal of the TAFE teaching workforce is one of the major issues of concern. It is not inconceivable that entire sections of colleges will retire from the permanent workforce in the next few years.
Federation has made gains in achieving permanent teaching positions in TAFE in the past few years. This is an outstanding victory for TAFE activists and the union as a whole. However, the continuation of the permanency campaign is critical, not only for the betterments for members this implies, but also for the existence of TAFE as a stable, reliable and iconic PUBLIC provider of training and further education.
As well as personnel renewal, TAFE institutes also need infrastructure renewal. Australians, living in a developed and rich country, with record surpluses derived from the highly skilled, often TAFE-educated workforce, deserve and require state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure. Australia’s prosperity cannot be assured by a race to the bottom in terms of pay rates and working conditions. It depends on a highly skilled and educated workforce. That’s what Australians need from TAFE.
Yours sincerely
Sally Edsall
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