The website of the Senate Committee on Education and Employment has announced another day of hearings for Friday 6 September 2024, the day the Committee was due to report.
Sources close to The Koala say that a number of the members of the committee were less than impressed (another phrase was actually used) that after interrogating witnesses from the Department of Education, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and the Department of the Treasury about timings of the release of data and being stonewalled. The witnesses used the line “it is a matter for the government as to when it is released,” which appears to prove a difficult pill to swallow given that institutional letters were sent out early the following morning. Essentially, this means they were locked and loaded at the time of the committee hearing.
In speaking with the CEO of the International Education Association (IEAA), Mr Phil Honeywood, he says “It’s unfortunate that the government’s desire to get numbers out quickly has resulted in overlooking the need for legislation to progress efficiently. At the end of the day, the legislation should drive the process, not the other way around.
“In all of this, we are none the wiser as to the 95k vocational places that have been yet to be announced,” he said.
Right he is.
More to come on this story.
