Dr LIM - 2004-08-26
The CLP would not close the Northern Territory Open Education Centre but would, instead, enhance its services. Will you now declare that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre will stay open and continue to serve Territorians as the Territory’s premier distance education facility?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Greatorex for his question. This is one of the recommendations within the secondary report that has aroused some controversy - there is no doubt about that - from a fair range and cross-section of both educators and students who utilise this service. I say again - and I do not know how many times I have said this since I received a copy of the report officially from Gregor all those months ago - that government has not made a decision on any one of these recommendations, and will not, until such time as SOCOM NT and Sheila O’Sullivan has rounded up all of the consultation. The third phase of the consultative process has only just completed. There is a huge body of work to be done by SOCOM NT to get all of the feedback into a meaningful format so that that can come back to the department and then back up to government. It is at that point then that government will go through the recommendations from a decision-making point of view - based on, of course, all of the feedback against each of the recommendations within it.
It is unfortunate when one aspect of a report gets so much attention, because it comes at the cost of fair and due consideration of all the other aspects of the report. The member for Greatorex knows as well as I do that, in the Territory - because of logistics, its nature and geography - we are going to continue to have a distance education model and centre.
What comes out of that feedback, I do not know. I have spoken to Sheila O’Sullivan, but this has been a rolling process through many months. I do not know all of the feedback that has come back in.
He is asking me to make a decision on one aspect of a very comprehensive report, on one recommendation alone, and I am not going to do that. Cabinet and I have held the line on making any decisions on this until the consultative process is through and the information is back to government. The situation remains unchanged.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Greatorex for his question. This is one of the recommendations within the secondary report that has aroused some controversy - there is no doubt about that - from a fair range and cross-section of both educators and students who utilise this service. I say again - and I do not know how many times I have said this since I received a copy of the report officially from Gregor all those months ago - that government has not made a decision on any one of these recommendations, and will not, until such time as SOCOM NT and Sheila O’Sullivan has rounded up all of the consultation. The third phase of the consultative process has only just completed. There is a huge body of work to be done by SOCOM NT to get all of the feedback into a meaningful format so that that can come back to the department and then back up to government. It is at that point then that government will go through the recommendations from a decision-making point of view - based on, of course, all of the feedback against each of the recommendations within it.
It is unfortunate when one aspect of a report gets so much attention, because it comes at the cost of fair and due consideration of all the other aspects of the report. The member for Greatorex knows as well as I do that, in the Territory - because of logistics, its nature and geography - we are going to continue to have a distance education model and centre.
What comes out of that feedback, I do not know. I have spoken to Sheila O’Sullivan, but this has been a rolling process through many months. I do not know all of the feedback that has come back in.
He is asking me to make a decision on one aspect of a very comprehensive report, on one recommendation alone, and I am not going to do that. Cabinet and I have held the line on making any decisions on this until the consultative process is through and the information is back to government. The situation remains unchanged.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016