So says Greens MLC John Kaye, who spoke during Monday night’s Politics In The Pub.

The open-forum event, hosted by the Goulburn Greens, highlighted community concern for the future of the local campus, described as once the “jewel in the crown of country colleges”.

Led by a panel comprised of Dr Kaye, union representative Wayne Adams and former member of the teachers federation Dr Michael Cotter, discussions centred on budgetary restrictions, staff cuts, course costs, dwindling enrolment figures and the creation of private provider market competition.

Dr Kaye, a member of the parliamentary committee inquiring into vocational education and training in NSW, said that TAFE NSW had lost more than 2,800 employees and had more than 83,000 fewer students than four years ago.

“What has happened to TAFE has been malicious policy,” he said.

Mr Adams, a former teacher with 30 years’ experience, echoed the claims.

“It’s hard to be positive and I don’t wish to be negative, but I do believe if we don’t stand up and try and do something we are going to lose Goulburn TAFE,” Mr Adams said.

“We had 47 full-time teachers when I started. I made a count up the other day and we now have 13 full-time teachers at Goulburn TAFE.

“(As for enrolments) I have been given a particular statistic that suggested they are 27 per cent of last year. Turn it around and that means it is down 73pc.”

Dr Kaye said the story of TAFE was one of heroes and villains.

“This story has a number of people who you have to call villains, and most of those are politicians… but I want you to know that there are some real heroes in this story, they are the full time TAFE teachers in NSW,” he said.

“They have kept a world class TAFE system operating with fewer teachers, with fewer resources, with fewer opportunities. A lot of their support and expertise was stripped out but it still operates.

“No matter how grim it looks, the committee has seen some really wonderful things happening in TAFE. Appalling things being done to TAFE, but wonderful things being done by TAFE.”

A 40-strong crowd listened as Dr Kaye, Dr Cotter and Mr Adams outlined the need for strong local representation on the issue.

A question and answer session following showed just how distressed the community had become, Dr Kaye said following the event.

“People are distressed because they have seen government after government hack into TAFE,” he said.

On such citizen was Bob Stephens.

“What I’m a bit more skeptical about is the ability to put the egg back together… what are we going to do about this?” he asked.

“There should have been 2000 or 3,000 people at this event tonight in Goulburn, and we had 40-odd, so we can feel good but we will go away from tonight and nothing is going to change.” Dr Kaye urged Mr Stephens to have faith in the “growing community response”.

The vocational education and training inquiry report will be released on December 15.

“We need a new deal for TAFE that not only ends the competition policy, but crucially reinstates the funding, brings down the fees, reinstates the positions that have been lost and once again has those TAFE teachers doing that transformational magic,” he said.

“We can reinstate TAFE.”

TAFE Illawarra’s Manager District Operations for the Highlands David Guthrey and Goulburn MP Pru Goward were apologies on the evening.

Mr Guthrey had not returned requests for comment by the time of print.

Ms Goward was unable to provide comprehensive comment at this stage.

GREENS MLC John Kaye said Goulburn TAFE was a “typical example” of the future of facilities across the state.

“In rural communities like Goulburn, there are specific needs that TAFE has met for so long and people will begin to discover if TAFE does fall apart,” he said.

“There is growing community response to the cries of help from TAFE that every politician is going to find increasingly difficult to ignore. While I don’t think this is going to happen without a huge effort, there are real possibilities to turn around people like Pru Goward and Angus Taylor.

“They, in the end, are servants of their community and they need to understand their community does not want TAFE privatised. They do not want to lose critical facilities like the childcare centre or the arts facility that’s being sold off.

“TAFE is the great iceberg. The vast majority of it exists out of sight but it is critical to the future of every rural community across NSW. We, the TAFE teachers, the Greens, the supporters of public education, have been working hard so that the community understands what is at stake here.

“It’s a classic case of you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, and people now need to confront the awful reality that without a change in government policy, there will be a future without TAFE and there will be a future without critical services for women, people with disabilities, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, refugees and working class Australians seeking a trade.”