This morning I rise to comment on my concerns about this government’s lack of commitment to the agricultural sector.
Today’s Weekly Times reports that vocational education and training courses in agricultural-based training will be cut by up to 30 per cent.
Those cuts will apply not just to courses in the horticultural area but also to agricultural machinery and a range of other related courses that are absolutely integral to the ongoing prosperity of our agricultural industry.
This is in addition to other actions of this government including its cuts to the National Centre for Farmer Health.
The recent federal Liberal government budget has increased university tuition fees.
This fact was featured on the front page of the Weekly Times recently in an article which declared that it is going to be cheaper for farming and other families to send their children to New Zealand to undertake agricultural studies.
We now have a frightful mess in the country. We have state and federal Liberal governments that are just not interested in the agricultural sector, and they are making it very hard for those who are interested to progress in that sector and undertake significant training and higher education courses.
Under the Napthine and Abbott governments, if you are from rural and regional Victoria, you are on your own.