House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-08 Daily Xml

Contents

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY TRAINING BOARD

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:58): My question is to the Treasurer. Have government representatives had any discussions with the Construction Industry Training Board about transferring around $3 million from the training fund to the government and, if so, why?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Treasurer, Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education) (14:59): I have had some discussions with both the Chairman of the CITB (Mary Marsland) and the CE of the Construction Industry Training Board about issues. I have concerns about the way the levy is expended in that not enough of the levy is expended on entry point training and too much of it is spent on upskilling people already in the industry. I am a bit concerned that there is the potential there for industry, essentially, to cost shift the training responsibilities—which should be their own—onto the levy; and I would like to see more of the levy be spent on new entries into the construction sector.

I have had discussions with the CITB on that basis. Exactly how we achieve that, we are working through those issues with them, and officials from the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology are having discussions with them on an ongoing basis about how we go about that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Flinders.