Senator TIERNEY (6:09 PM) —I rise to speak on this report on adult and community education. This is the second report to the Senate this decade. The adult and community education issue is something that the Senate Employment, Education and Training Committee has taken a great interest in through the 1990s. In 1991, we brought down the landmark Come in Cinderella report. That was the very first report we did on a sector of education which has contributed an enormous amount to education in this country.

The adult and community education sector is the so-called fourth sector of education—the first being primary, the second being secondary and the third being tertiary, university and TAFE. What a lot of people do not realise is the actual massive size of this sector. For example, in the state of New South Wales, there are a million people doing adult and community education courses of some description. There are more students at any one point in time in adult and community education than in the universities and TAFEs put together. The difference, of course, is that these are not three- or four-year long courses. A lot of adult and community education courses are quite short. They might go for a few months or they might even go just for a few weeks. But they are very important components in learning, and they do an enormous amount for education in this country and for the community generally.

People pick up very critical and important skills not only for their lives in general but often these are little building bridges towards other levels of education. A lot of people, particularly those who have experienced failure in the primary and secondary system and do not want to go anywhere near a university or a TAFE because of that, often gain confidence by spending time in one of these short courses and then going on to higher education. It is the most cost effective sector of education. Quite often courses are run on shoestring budgets and with a lot of dedicated people assisting. It covers a very wide range of areas in the community, and during our inquiries in 1991 and 1997 we went and saw this. We went to diverse places. We went into rural areas, migrant communities, mental hospitals and prisons, and adult and community education had a very major role in these areas.

In terms of the response to the reports by governments, it is interesting to see how this has changed over the years. In 1991, the view initially was that adult and community education was something that should be handled at a regional or state level and the federal government should not get very involved at all. In the very first report, Come in Cinderella, there were 33 recommendations to the committee and the last Labor government only ever implemented 11, and they did not put very much money into it either.

Senator Carr —Which is a lot more than what your government is going to do.

Senator TIERNEY —As a matter of fact, the last Labor government set up an office relating to adult and community education in the federal bureaucracy, and during one estimates hearing, Senator Carr—I do not know if you were in the Senate at that time—I asked a question on it and they looked around for the officers to answer and they could not find them. The minister at the desk at the time was Senator Schacht, I think, and he said, `Gee, have we actually lost a whole division?' That whole division was the equivalent of about one or two people.

So let's get it in perspective, Senator Carr. When you criticise this government about what we are doing in response to the report, let's look at what your government did in response, which was very little indeed. You instituted a number of new measures, brought it in a new direction and did start to put a federal focus, and given that today you have paid tribute to Jeff Kennett and the work he has done in this area in Victoria, I will also pay tribute to that start you made. But let's be serious about it, Senator Carr—you did not really put many resources into it at all.

We come to the report that we are dealing with today. I suppose the disappointing thing, looking back on the approach of the committee, was that we were moving towards saying that the whole thing was a matter of reorganising the bureaucracy. I regret that we actually took that approach. I thought, having developed a very good report the first time and having started off in a new direction, that we should have extended that a little bit further rather than just putting bits of bureaucracy together.

I think the hope for people in adult and community education is in the way in which the job market structure is changing at the moment and the way in which intensive assistance works in the FLEX 3 where people can, as part of intensive assistance, get extra education and training. They do not have to go to the TAFEs or the universities; they can actually go to adult and community education providers if that is appropriate. These are very effective providers. They are very cost-effec tive providers. I am sure that, under this new regime that this government has set up, the adult and community education sector which is flourishing will continue to flourish.