Hi John,

I’m still feeling a bit down after witnessing the farce that was the Liberal, National and Labor Parties teaming up to rip up $4 billion in TAFE Funding opportunities.

It was cheap, it was political and as usual it was short sighted.

My heart goes out to those kids in regional Australia because, by Jesus, they're about to get slapped again. They're going to have to move away from their friends and family to get a decent education, and that is shameful. They could have been leaders in their community. They could have settled, started a family and brought more business and work to their community. Instead, they go to Hobart, Sydney, Melbourne, and most of them will never come back. Imagine what we could have done for those kids if we'd actually used the money from this fund. Our kids could have got the training they'll need for the future.

What a bloody shame.

I think Australians deserve the truth. So, I’ve launched a Name and SHAME Campaign. With your help, we’re going to run Facebook ads around Australia targeting each person who voted against my compromise amendment that would have provided $1 billion for rural and regional TAFEs.

Wondering who they were? You can see the names of the senators below. There’s a lot of them.

My party will be chucking in as much money as we can, but if we’re going to reach all of Australia with this message, I can’t go it alone. If you have some spare dollars, and only if you have some spare dollars, please consider donating to name and shame the people who did this.

Thank you,

Jacqui

P.S. Here’s a good outline of what happened yesterday if you missed it.