Do not pass go, do not collect $200 - the priority given to Vocational Education and Training research and policy

In order to understand how Vocational Education and Training (VET) research may be used in the policy making process of state and territory governments in Australia, it is necessary to examine the competing priorities that demand the attention of the decision makers. While the public VET system has a long record of skills development for individuals who are deemed to be disadvantaged, there are other institutions and organisations that have an emerging interest in the same groups. The provocative analysis provided by Wacquant on the notion of 'prisonfare' proposes that justice systems have been given a new role in economic society - to control those people that inhabit the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. This paper will analyse one Australian jurisdiction's relative priority given to the resource allocation made to justice initiatives compared with VET over time in order to see which of these two policy areas has assumed dominance in government decision making. This can then serve as a guide to VET researchers as to the types of knowledge required to best position VET in the arena of competing policy interests.