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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-14 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

TRUCK-DRIVING SKILLS SIMULATOR

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:28): Mr Speaker, I say from the outset that I support and agree with the comments you made in reply to a question from the member for Mitchell. I suggest that it would be wise for him to take the trouble to acquaint himself with the facts in relation to the operation of the Joint Parliamentary Service Committee, when he may be better informed and make wiser counsel on the matter. I am happy to discuss it with him at a later date.

Today, I want to bring a matter to the attention of the Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education concerning the 793D truck-driving skills simulator at the Port Augusta TAFE campus. I am advised that the simulator is to be removed. The 793D simulator, which was secured last year by the state government's Resources and Engineering Skills Alliance and TAFE SA in partnership with Thiess Australia, trains people in skills to meet mining industry demands. I am advised that $1.1 million was contributed to this program, which was run in conjunction with the Exceptional Circumstances Drought Program to provide farmers with skills that would enable them to seek employment in the mining industry.

I believe that the simulator has been very successful and, with such success, it is difficult to understand why the state government has contributed funds when this simulator may have already been moved to Prominent Hill. A press release issued by the minister on 28 May this year states:

Port Augusta TAFE's $1.1 million dump truck simulator is proving to be very popular with would-be mining industry recruits. Employment, Training and Further Education Minister…says almost 200 people have expressed interest in the 10-day training program…The training program includes site visits to Prominent Hill and Roxby Downs.

I make the point that this has been a successful program. It has been brought to my attention that it would be far better if it were to remain at the TAFE facility at Port Augusta where it can serve a wide range of people. I am concerned that this may limit access to these facilities. I understand that not only private money but also government resources have been put into it. It would appear to me that TAFE—as an organisation which provides training—is the appropriate place. I ask the minister to have this matter examined as a matter of priority in order to ensure that we get the best use of this facility so people are not prevented from accessing it and getting the benefits of the training. Unfortunately, the situation in certain parts of the state in the agriculture sector is not as good as it could be and there could be a further demand by people seeking training.

Secondly, I raised in the house in June the problems facing Wirrabara Timber Preservations, a company that deals in fence posts and treats other things, as well. It is a small company which was hit with a licence fee of some $26,000. Now this would have bankrupted the company. I raised the matter here and a promise was made to come back to the house. The company has now been in correspondence with the Minister for Environment and Conservation. The fee increased from $1,180 to $26,350. I understand it has been cut back to about $11,000—which is still beyond the capacity of the company to pay. It is an absolute nonsense. I think that the highly paid, insensitive bureaucrats who are making these representations would be getting paid probably twice or three times as much as the company is making in profits. If it is their idea to shut down the company and put two or three people on the unemployment heap, well, they had better be accountable for that.

My other concern is that we are facing uncertain economic times. It is not the role of government to try to make life difficult for small companies by imposing unrealistic, unfair and outrageous charges on them. I call on the Minister for Environment and Conservation to bring these people—who could only be described as insensitive bureaucrats—to their senses in order to have a common-sense approach.

Time expired.

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