Page 1461 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 2021
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workplace consultative committee provided for within the CIT teachers’ enterprise agreement and the general staff agreement.
As Minister I will continue to engage directly with the AEU and the CPSU on matters relating to the CIT and the skills sector more broadly, because there are significant reforms that are coming in this space, which are being led by the federal government, and we want to make sure that the public provider remains critical to the delivery of skills education in the ACT. We are quite concerned about some of what is coming out of the federal government, and we will continue to work with the AEU to make sure that the CIT remains a strong public provider of quality vocational education and training.
MR BRADDOCK: Minister, other than employee representatives, what ways does the government plan to ensure that educators are represented in CIT’s strategic decision making in the situation you just described?
MR STEEL: I will continue to meet with the AEU directly. As it happens, Val was my year 7 SOSE teacher, so we know each other quite well from way back. That is the kind of place Canberra is. I also went to university with the CIT industrial advocate. We will continue to engage with the AEU regularly through various mediums and through those consultative committees. I have asked Leanne Cover, the CEO of CIT, to meet regularly with the AEU, particularly during a time when these reforms are being discussed. Those could have a very significant impact on the operations of the CIT, and we want to make sure that staff are well placed as we move through those reforms. We also want to make sure, in particular, as we move into the new CIT at Woden, that staff are supported in that process and that they have the digital capabilities to work in an age where the CIT is looking at a cloud campus model so that staff can transition and support students in the best way possible.
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—legal services
MRS KIKKERT: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Minister, section 24A of the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act mandates that an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander suspect must not be asked to consent to a forensic procedure unless an interview friend is present. For years, the government funded an interview friend program. The JACS website claims that the Aboriginal Legal Service still offers this program, but ALS had to stop when your government defunded the service two years ago. The Ombudsman’s March 2021 report states:
ACT Policing advised that the list of interview friends—
for Indigenous suspects—
is now maintained by Anglicare.
But Anglicare have confirmed that they have never provided this service and do not know why police keep ringing them to ask for Aboriginal interview friends.
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