Grievance Debate

Construction Industry Training Board

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:10): Well, well, well, it all seems to be happening again for the member for Unley, does it not? As Minister for Innovation and Skills, the same issues that were raised in this place less than 12 months ago about appointments to the Construction Industry Training Board have all been refreshed once again.

First, we had the extraordinary situation that the close acquaintance of the member for Unley, Mr Nicholas Handley—apparently the chair of his Unley Forum fundraising arm for his efforts as the Liberal Party member for the seat of Unley—should somehow find his way to be appointed to the Construction Industry Training Board, despite the fact that the legislation requires that people must have experience in the construction industry.

Did Mr Nicholas Handley have experience in the construction industry? No, of course he did not have experience in the construction industry, but apparently, according to the Minister for Innovation and Skills, the fact that he was an accountant qualified him to understand what a business of a construction firm must be like in general terms so that he would qualify to be a member of the Construction Industry Training Board. Of course, very quickly after this was raised in this place by the opposition, the minister came forward with amendments to the Construction Industry Training Fund Act to try to change the qualifications for those people who must be appointed to the Construction Industry Training Board, to remove the requirement that people must have experience in the construction industry.

You can imagine that that was a slight not just to those five representatives, previously required to be on the board, of employers within the construction industry—construction companies basically—but also to those three people who had to be previously appointed to the board, who were representatives of employees. The board was deliberately constructed to ensure that it had representation from construction businesses and construction workers. Because of the Nicholas Handley affair, uncovered in this place under the watch of the member for Unley, legislation had to be changed in order not to further embarrass him.

I would have thought that that should be enough to embarrass the minister not to make the same mistake again, yet here we are, the opposition taking phone call after phone call and email after email from people outraged about the appointment of Mr Derek Clark as acting chief executive of the Construction Industry Training Board. Why are they outraged? Because the CITB did have a chief executive and it was someone who was experienced in the construction industry. The former chief executive was hounded out from that role. They were only appointed in May 2017, less than 12 months before the last state election, but apparently for the minister that was enough of a stain of having been involved with the previous Labor administration that they had to be forced out of the role.

She was the national director of operations for the Civil Contractors Federation. That seems to tick the box, I think, for having experience in the construction sector, but now, after she was forced to vacate that role, we have the appointment of an acting chief executive, Derek Clark. I have nothing against Mr Clark; I am sure that he is very highly regarded in his field of expertise, and you may ask what that is, Mr Speaker. He is a very experienced auditor. In fact, I hope for the benefit of the minister that he specialises in risk, because the minister seems to surround himself with risk in the conduct of his duties.

We have someone who has no immediately identifiable experience in the construction industry being appointed to this board. The opposition is told that not only is Mr Nicholas Handley somebody with a lot of experience in the member for Unley's Unley Forum fundraising arm but apparently, we are told, Mr Derek Clark is as well. These are the questions that were put to the minister today in question time, and very quickly those answers reverted to, 'I refer members to my previous answer', i.e., 'I don't want to incriminate myself any further,' or, 'I can't stop digging down and I don't know how to dig up.' This behaviour by the minister and the government has to stop. This is an august institution that should not be sullied with his partisan appointments.