Motion (by Senator Carr) agreed to:

That the Senate—

(a) notes, with concern:

(i) the Government's failure to give appropriate priority to the Vocational Education and Training Funding Amendment Bill 1999,

(ii) the listing of this bill as government business order of the day no. 54 on the Notice Paper of 22 September 1999, and

(iii) that the bill provides for the appropriation of $918 million, one-third of the public funding for technical and further education (TAFE) for 2000; and

(b) urges the Government to take steps to have the bill debated as soon as possible in order to provide funding security to Australia's 84 TAFE institutes.