Page 1787 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2022
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warranted. We will await the outcome of both these avenues of inquiry before determining our next steps.
If this procurement is found to have been undertaken without integrity and probity, or if CIT cannot demonstrate that it delivers value for money, then, as minister, I will take further action. I do not want us to get ahead of ourselves in detailing what that further action will be. Frankly, I think Ms Lee has done enough today in even bringing on this motion before the government and the Auditor-General have had a chance to properly consider this matter.
But let me be absolutely clear: as the public provider of skills and training in the ACT, the government expects and requires CIT to use public funds appropriately and efficiently in the pursuit of its mission to deliver high-quality vocational education and training to Canberrans. That is what we expect, and that is why we will continue to pursue this matter until we get some detailed answers. I am happy to come back to the Assembly with more information, when we have it, and to detail any next steps the government may take on the basis of that information.
Ms Lee interjecting—
MR STEEL: Ms Lee has criticised me for asking some hard questions of CIT, as a minister should do in relation to this matter and as is appropriate with the governance structure of the CIT. Unlike Ms Lee, we are not going to overreach on this. We are going to pursue this matter in a measured and responsible way, as Canberrans should expect from their government.
Ms Lee interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Ms Lee, you were heard in silence.
MR STEEL: I commit to keeping the community and members of this place updated as we pursue this matter. I also table, as Ms Lee requested, the original letter from March 2021 to the chair of the CIT board:
Canberra Institute of Technology—Consultancy services—
Copy of letter to the CIT Board Chair, from the Minister for Skills, undated.
Copy of letter to the Minister for Skills from the CIT Board Chair, dated 5 March 2021, including CIT’s Contemporary Organisational Transformation Report.
MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (10.24): I commend this motion to the Assembly. My colleagues and I fully support this motion. We do so also on behalf of the many overworked teachers and students. It has come as no surprise to me that this minister is unable to manage the finances and has allowed practices with no integrity to pass through his office when it comes to the CIT. He has constantly favoured the CIT over other providers of vocational education and training, to the detriment of the rest of the sector. So to hear that he allowed these contracts to pass through his office and he did nothing about it comes as no surprise to me. His inaction, his negligence, has failed not only the sector but also the CIT teachers and students.
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