Vocational Education and Training

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): Given that we have a fully contestable market this current financial year, is it true that in fact the state government has given notice to the federal government that we will not be returning to full contestability until the 2019-20 financial year?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:27): I will have to take that on notice. I do not know what communications have occurred with the federal government except to say that what has been causing the difficulty or causing the upset at the moment is the reduction in the actual amount of Skills for All funding which is no longer there. So, that is what has caused the upset and the relatively small number of subsidised training places that are being put out there. That does not stop these private training providers from charging a fee for service in relation to their arrangements, and many of them have a proportion of their business—some a substantial proportion of their business—which indeed is fee for service. That can sustain their business models, but we accept that the reduction in government subsidy is something that will put a number of these businesses under pressure.