COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 6 r/ 077
SPEECH
The Rt. Hon. SIR ROBERT MENZIES,
M. P.,
ON THE
SECOND READING
OF THE
STATES GRANTS ( TECHNICAL TRAINING)
BILL 1965
[ From the Parliamentary Debates 1 8th May 1965]
Sir ROBERT MENZIES ( Kooyong-
Prime Minister) [ 8.11l].-1 move-
That the Bitt be now read a second time.
This Bill extends for the next three financial
years the grants for State technical colleges
and schools first given by authority of the
~ tates Grants ( Science Laboratories and
Wechnical Training) Act 1964. As with the
science grants œ 5 million will be provided
each year and the distribution between States
remains unchanged. These grants are given
in an area where independent schools do not
perate, and the grants are confined there-
. ore to State institutions. They are intended
to facilitate the training of young men and
women in trades schools and technical colleges.
Trades schools include schools of
automotive engineering, printing schools,
school' s teaching carpentry and joinery and
many other skills.
Experience of the first year of this programme
has indicated that it fills a most
important place in the Australian educational
scene. For every scientist or tech-
5831/ 65 nologist, many highly skilled technicians and
tradesmen have to be trained. The equipment
to train these people must be adequate
in quantity and up-to-date in quality. It has
become clear in the course of the first year's
administration of the scheme that equipment
has been neither adequate nor up to
date. The size of the Commonwealth grant
in relation to past State allocations for technical
training has been so generous that the
States have found considerable difficulty in
stepping up their construction and equipment
programmes within the first year of
the scheme. But with the assurance of three
more years of finance at this level, they will
be able within that time to make a substantial
impression on the needs for wellequipped
training facilities.
Some examples of the States' proposals
for the new triennium will illustrate the
nature of the programme which this Bill will
facilitate. In New South Wales work will
be undertaken at colleges in Cooma, Wauchope,
Wollongong, Gunnedah, Newcastle,
Cowra, Leeton and Blacktown, as well as
in the metropolitan area, and much equipment
will be installed. In Victoria, the State
has made proposals for the grants to be
spent in a number of technical schools and
colleges on building and equipment to teach
science, applied science, metallurgy, the
engineering and motor trades, woodwork
and plumbing. In Queensland, the proposals
cover the Central Technical College and
technical colleges at Bundaberg, Cairns, the
Coorparoo School of Food, Eagle Farm,
Ithaca, Kangaroo Point, Rockhampton,
Yeronga and the Queensland Agricultural
College. Projects range from chemistry and
electrical engineering to plumbing, sheetmetal
and bricklaying, with animal science
and dairy technology buildings at Gatton.
In South Australia grants already have
been made in 1964-65 for Education Department establishments and at the South
Australian Institute of Technology and
Roseworthy Agricultural College, and the
proposals for the triennium include substantial
expenditure on an automotive trade
school and further expenditure on engineering,
food technology and at Roseworthy. In
Western Australia, building already has
taken place at five schools and the proposals
for the triennium include a substantial
equipment programme and a very large
expenditure for the Fremantle Technical
School. In Tasmania, the whole of the
expenditure in the first two years of the triennium,
amounting to over œ 334,000, will
be spent on the new general block at the
Hobart Technical College.
I commend the Bill, which will have such,
an important effect on the training of skillejl
personnel in our country, to the House. 9
BY AUTHORITY: A. J. ARTHUR. COMMONW\ VEALTH GOVERNMENT PRINTER, CANBERRA.