MEDIA RELEASE
Liberal candidiate for Bass, Michael Ferguson, has congratulated students, parents, staff and employers on their successful campaign to force the Bartlett government to see sense and maintain the Australian Technical College.
“I totally reject any statements that say the original model was flawed as political grandstanding. Let’s not forget that Labor created this crisis by continually undermining the ATC and crippling its funding.”
“It took protest rallies, empassioned pleas and a visit to Canberra to make the Bartlett government see what was already blindingly obvious to everyone else: that the ATC colleges are among Tasmania’s best performing educational institutions. To even contemplate shutting them was madness that David Barlett, as education minister, should have known.”
“Instead he put everyone through the wringer, and now wants thanks for wasting everyones time with his bungling.”
“The ATC saga makes it easy to see why Tasmania Tomorrow is in such a shambles.”
