Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I shall take it from all of that that I am correct, that there were about 185 students already enrolled at the Port Macquarie vocational college before it became an ATC and that therefore the extra apprentices enrolled in the four ATCs that are now open are closer to about 100, because you have not corrected it and instead have decided to give us just a whole lot of waffle.

Given that he is prepared to take these questions on notice, I will just say this to the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. As he would be aware, he has a piece of legislation in the chamber right at the moment. When we get to the consideration in detail stage of that bill tomorrow or the next day then he may ask his department for answers to the detailed questions that I have put to him tonight, because I intend to ask them again.

I will move on to another area of training policy, particularly the future of the industry skills councils. I ask the minister whether or not a review of the industry skills councils is currently under way, or has that review already been completed? I ask the minister: who was responsible for conducting the review? If it was external to the department, who conducted it and how much did the review cost?

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