The newly elected Federal member for Lyne will lead a deputation of Taree and Port Macquarie ATC interests to the deputy prime minister Julia Gillard on September 18.

At stake will be the future of the colleges in Taree and Port Macquarie, and the several hundred students on their rolls.

Both colleges were funded by the previous Howard government, their futures only assured until the end of 2009.

“Our campaign team has been chasing Ms Gillard for a meeting, and I am pleased she has confirmed that she will meet with a delegation from the region on September 18 at 12.30pm,” Mr Oakeshott has announced.

“This is now an opportunity for us all to resolve the future of these facilities.

“Personally, I am not an ideologue one way or the other on the future of skills based training within our region.

“I am not biased on who delivers it. My priority focus is that we have it, and that we get more of it”, Mr Oakeshott said.

He will invite two representatives from the Catholic education system and two representatives from the public education system to be a part of the delegation. “I will leave it up to both parties involved to resolve who will represent them at this important meeting.

“As part of the lead-up to the meeting in Canberra, I will meet with the local representatives as many times as is necessary, to resolve a position locally that we can then put to the minister as a combined voice of the communities of the Mid North Coast, on behalf of all interested parties, and on behalf of all students within this area,” Mr Oakeshott said.

“There have been a lot of assumptions made by a lot of people about the politics of the Australian Technical Colleges.

“The facts are that the previous Federal Government committed taxpayers’ dollars to a building located on Catholic Education land.

“Now, with the change of government, we have a situation where a new government campaigned on a policy of ‘no more funding’ for ATCs post-2009.

“The meeting with Ms Gillard will therefore be an opportunity for our community to put the needs of local students and local businesses first, and the party political battleground of education second.

“I will be expecting the participants in this delegation to Canberra to do likewise.”