Mrs HICKEY - 1998-10-14
Industry spokesperson David Malone has said the Country Liberal Party is overseeing a crisis in training. The minister said on radio this morning he did not walk away from Mr Malone’s assessment. Can the minister explain why he is overseeing such a woeful situation in training in key industries like construction and mining?
ANSWER
Thank you Madam Speaker. As usual, the honourable member across this aisle misreports and misrepresents the situation because Mr Malone also acknowledged the fact that there are a number of issues involved here, some of which government has influence over and some of which government does not.
What we have in terms of training in the Northern Territory is a scenario that is a partnership between government and industry. We have a training authority with a board that is run by industry. We have industry training advisory boards that are run by industry. Our major component is that we pick up the tab. What has been noted by industry is that there is a lot that we can all do and to put the blame on government is like the typical opposition comment: ‘I have a headache, so what is the government going to do about it?’
The fact is that the opposition leader has quite blatantly misreported and taken out of context that particular comment. I would invite any honourable member to have a look at the transcript of what was said, and to look at what is being done in that particular area.
This is a partnership between government and industry. I think the reason the opposition finds it very hard to grasp this issue is because they cannot relate to industry and industry cannot relate to them. Industry doesn’t support the opposition and that is, of course, on record. This is a case where the opposition is totally out of step with both government and industry. Industry training in the Northern Territory is a model of cooperation between government and industry and we will continue to work with that.
ANSWER
Thank you Madam Speaker. As usual, the honourable member across this aisle misreports and misrepresents the situation because Mr Malone also acknowledged the fact that there are a number of issues involved here, some of which government has influence over and some of which government does not.
What we have in terms of training in the Northern Territory is a scenario that is a partnership between government and industry. We have a training authority with a board that is run by industry. We have industry training advisory boards that are run by industry. Our major component is that we pick up the tab. What has been noted by industry is that there is a lot that we can all do and to put the blame on government is like the typical opposition comment: ‘I have a headache, so what is the government going to do about it?’
The fact is that the opposition leader has quite blatantly misreported and taken out of context that particular comment. I would invite any honourable member to have a look at the transcript of what was said, and to look at what is being done in that particular area.
This is a partnership between government and industry. I think the reason the opposition finds it very hard to grasp this issue is because they cannot relate to industry and industry cannot relate to them. Industry doesn’t support the opposition and that is, of course, on record. This is a case where the opposition is totally out of step with both government and industry. Industry training in the Northern Territory is a model of cooperation between government and industry and we will continue to work with that.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016