Page 1321 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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Motion (by Mr Berry) agreed to:
Page 2, line 29, omit "and Projects".
MR BERRY (11.59): I move:
Page 3, proposed subsection 19D(1), omit all words after "construction industry" to the end of the proposed subsection.
This is the main thrust of the amendment which I have moved. As I mentioned earlier in relation to the in-principle debate, the issue arose out of concerns by representatives from the union movement that the issue of tightening up the expenditure of funds on training needed to be addressed in the course of this debate. As a result of consultation between the unions, myself, and the Minister Mr Duby, agreement has been reached to delete the words proposed in the amendment and, as a consequence, tighten up the expenditure of the funds, which the board has the power to do in terms of the legislation. I think that is all that needs to be said in relation to the matter, Mr Speaker.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (12.00): Mr Speaker, the words to be deleted occur at the end of a paragraph which begins:
The Minister may apply money out of the Fund for the purposes of training in the building and construction industry ...
Then the words to be deleted are written - "or for any other purpose connected with that industry".
Mr Speaker, originally those words were included so that, if needs be, the Minister may authorise expenditure of funds in areas which, by absolute dictionary definition, may not be included in the word "training". The sort of thing we are talking about there would be a promotion to indicate that a career in gas fitting could be very exciting. It would be to generate more people to come into that particular industry. That was the general intention and that, of course, is a very commendable idea.
After discussions with the unions and with the opposition, persons were concerned that in some future time, when there may be a far less reasonable person than me sitting in the ministerial office, the Minister may take it upon himself or herself to use that section of the Act quite literally and spend money out of this training fund for any other purpose, as that clause admittedly says. After discussions between the unions and the Vocational Training Authority, it has been determined that the word "training" is sufficiently broad not to exclude expenditure by the Minister or the Government in areas such as the ones that I have outlined. Accordingly, the Government supports this amendment and will not oppose it.
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