Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-30 Daily Xml

Contents

WorkReady

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:42): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question about WorkReady.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The minister has claimed both in the public domain and private meetings that in arriving at the WorkReady model there was extensive industry and RTO consultation relating to WorkReady funding allocations. My question for the minister is: can she provide the names of specific organisations, the representatives of each and the respective date that she met with RTOs and consulted them on funding relating to training in broadacre agriculture?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:43): As I have said in this place before, we undertook extensive consultation with—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has the floor.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: It's hysterical. As I said, extensive consultation took place, not only in terms of a series of meetings with major stakeholders, including major industry representatives and associations, but also, we invited submissions and received over 1,500 submissions. I can list all of those if the honourable member really wants but I think that's—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Yes, please.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I'm not happy to waste the time of my officials, but I will take that on notice and I will bring back the comprehensive list of the participants who contributed to that consultation in terms of providing us with submissions and also a list of the meetings that were had.

As I said, it was a comprehensive consultation. We had a subsidised training list of around 900. Feedback from the industry was quite clear that they believed it was far too many and it complicated the way we approach subsidised training. They indicated that there were many who were completely outdated and out of mode. Really, it was the industry who requested that that task be undertaken. So, we listened to the industry and, as I said, undertook a comprehensive industry consultation session that enabled us to arrive at the current subsidised training list.

I have said in this place many times, and in public, that we've indicated the best fit possible from that extensive dialogue, but we will continue to listen to the industry. TASC will continue its dialogue. I have asked them to continue to engage with key industry stakeholders to ensure that we have that list right and to make any further changes that might be needed. So, it is a piece of work that is in progress and will remain in progress to ensure that we have the most up-to-date and industry relevant focus on subsidised training as possible.