Previous Greens candidate for Cowper and Oxley, Carol Vernon, said the privatisation of TAFE by the state government would hurt the people and the economy of the Macleay Valley.

“This privatisation of TAFE is not just a state matter,” Mrs Vernon said.

“The current National Training Agreement expires in 2017 and with no indication of future plans from either the Liberal and National parties or Labor, this will signal further losses to TAFE. 

“Students from the Mid North Coast wishing to enrol in a TAFE course are now likely to find courses are too expensive, especially if they are unemployed and looking for training, and TAFE teachers will be impacted too."

Mrs Vernon said the Kempsey TAFE had been required to factor into course budgets items once government subsidised, and the cost of training had skyrocketed. 

“It will be hard to find TAFE staff and teachers to criticise the newly privatised TAFE operation,” Mrs Vernon said.

“Staff are under contract or hoping for a contract from a private provider and senior management has warned staff not to make public comments about the state of TAFE, informing them that public comment will breach their Code of Conduct.

"Recognising that some privatisation is now entrenched the Greens want to limit TAFE privatisation to 15 per cent. 

"All TAFE campuses are impacted especially small regional campuses, and country students will inevitably travel further than city students. 

"Prospective trainees and employers from the Macleay Valley deserve better from this Liberal-National state government.”

In response to Mrs Vernon’s claims a spokesperson for NSW TAFE said the NSW government’s 2015- 16 budget allocated $1.99 billion to TAFE NSW.  

“This is an increase of 6.5 per cent on the previous year’s revised budget and reaffirms TAFE NSW’s position as the state’s public vocational education and training provider,” the spokesperson said.

The demonstration against the privatisation of NSW TAFE will be held outside the Kempsey TAFE at 12.30pm.