TAFE SA

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Higher Education and Skills. Can the minister update the house on the work of the task force she announced last sitting week, and which she briefly referred to earlier, which was going to do two things: to help TAFE fix their accreditation issues and to report weekly to the minister? Has it undertaken those two tasks?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (15:03): Indeed, the task force was immediately established in the week that we were discussing this in parliament. The chief executive of TAFE is on the task force. One of the board members who has experience interstate with training provision and also the chief executive of the Department of State Development, although he has delegated it to the person who is appropriate within his department working on skills policy, have formed that task force and have appointed an independent organisation to assist them.

When I spoke two or three weeks ago, the intention was that they would appoint someone externally, and the organisation they have appointed is Quorum, which is an organisation that is led by people who have extensive experience not only in the quality of training provision but also in the auditing thereof. They have appointed them not only to do the task I mentioned on the Thursday of our last sitting week, which is to investigate the internal mechanisms TAFE used to ensure that they are keeping their standards at the level required, but also to oversee the work being done in the response by the task force to ASQA towards the end of October.

That organisation is now working hard. In terms of meetings, I understand that they have had four meetings. I have had two face-to-face meetings and also two written briefings provided to me in the time since we last met.