At the start of last week, Victoria’s 31 Local Learning and Employment Networks were hailing Labor’s election promise to keep them going.
By week’s end, the Napthine government had upped the ante, offering a threefold increase of its original promise of $3.2 million for LLENs to wind-up by the end of this year.
But its new offer still fell well short of the four-year commitment its opposition put on the table.
Labor has promised $32 million for the next four years; the government offered $8 million for next year alone.
The LLENs were left stuck between a rock and a hard place, welcoming both commitments and still wishing one or the other had committed the full $13 million a year required to continue their current services to young people, their schools and employers.
Hume Whittlesea LLEN chairman John Fry said the organisations would have to do more with less, including cutting staff, if full funding wasn’t restored.
LLEN Network chairman Mike Grogan said ongoing funding was imperative in light of the latest jobless figures, which show the unemployment rate is at a 17-year high of 20 per cent, with Melbourne’s north recording one of the highest rates in the state.
Helen Grimaux
