Page 2546 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
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provides, it is essential that we look to the future. We cannot simply rest on our laurels and hope that CIT continues along as it is. We must ensure that we are best placed to provide training and skills as our city grows.
We already have, as a government, made significant changes to the governance structure of CIT. Changes to the CIT Act have created an independent board which will ensure that CIT is flexible and responsive in a marketplace that is becoming increasingly competitive and contestable. This budget will continue to support CIT by ensuring that its campuses and physical infrastructure continue to support education and training of its students.
We have made, through this budget, over a $10 million investment into delivering a campus at Tuggeranong town centre. Mr Doszpot spoke about that. This campus is not simply to expand services to Tuggeranong but to deliver courses in a contemporary setting. We are finalising the lease arrangements. I know people are waiting to hear when that is completed and we have said that we will be ready to deliver from second semester next year. That was always our plan and that continues to be our plan.
The new CIT Tuggeranong will be a part of a long-term campus modernisation strategy to ensure that CIT maintains a contemporary and industry-relevant teaching and learning space for students and staff. To this end there is an additional investment, on top of the investment in CIT Tuggeranong, in both Reid and Bruce campuses to help them modernise as well. The purpose of these physical changes is to ensure that CIT delivers the highest quality education and training with the best outcomes for our students and this community.
To this end the ACT government will provide $70 million to CIT to subsidise its courses and support students and this will ensure that CIT delivers over 3.4 million training hours this year. That is significant—over three million training hours delivered through CIT, our public provider. It is an important institution for the future prosperity of this city and we remain committed to this.
There have been some comments around Auslan. Many of those answers were provided to the estimates committee. There are other providers that offer Auslan training in addition to CIT. We remain committed to Auslan training at the CIT. We remain committed to having industry-relevant and competitive training offers and we remain committed to CIT. Mr Doszpot, whilst he remembers CIT, managed, I think, to forget CIT in his election commitments back in the 2012 election and I hope he does not make those same mistakes as we lead up to 2016.
I close by offering my respectful regards to all staff and providers through CIT and, again, take this opportunity to remind members here that CIT is a quality institution. It is not a place, as Mr Doszpot takes every opportunity to make claim to, of systemic bullying. That has been found and I would ask Mr Doszpot, through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to stop implying that CIT has that trouble. It is disrespectful to those there. It is not providing benefit to CIT and, indeed, is damaging to its reputation. So I just ask, through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for Mr Doszpot, should he continue with those false claims, to be aware of the reputation damage that it does to such a great institution.
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