Layzell: TAFE “great deal” – Drayton: “For who?”

JEFF Drayton the Labor candidate in the upcoming by-election has hit back at National’s candidate David Layzell after he described the the sale of Scone TAFE as a “great deal” yesterday.

Mr Drayton said the sale was an underhanded deal for the Scone community and questioned what other “great deals” the Nationals may have planned in the Upper Hunter.

“Who is this a good deal for? It wasn’t a good deal for the people of Scone, it’s the worst deal for them, they had their TAFE sold from beneath them, under value and $4million has been promised to Belmont,” said Mr Drayton.

“Now they are saying the money will stay in Scone, so what they’ll break their promise to Belmont now? I wouldn’t believe their promises,” he said.

“It’s pretty embarrassing, the leader of the Party gave the money to Belmont, he mustn’t have been listening,” he said.

“At a time when almost one in five young people in the Hunter is unemployed, regional TAFE campuses need investment not abandonment,” he said.

“Scone TAFE was the only specialist rural campus in the Hunter region,” he said.

“Its rushed sale leaves a huge gap in training and education across the Upper Hunter and it’s nothing to be celebrated.

“Families across the Upper Hunter will be wondering which ‘great deal’ to sell off skills training infrastructure this Government is eyeing off next,” he said.

“To sell Scone TAFE in the middle of a skills crisis is not the way to build the Hunter jobs and skills of the future. This Government clearly doesn’t value skills and education,” Jeff Drayton said.

For more information on where candidates stand: Voting 101: Upper Hunter by-election.