NT Government Accused of Deceit on Jobs Training

The Territory Government has been caught gilding the lily regarding the success of its jobs training projects in the Territory.

Just last week the Chief Minister was boasting to the Parliament about the success of reaching our target of 10 000 new apprentices and trainees over four years.

The Chief Minister claimed: That is a magnificent achievement and actually bears out that sometimes it is good to be bold in setting the targets that you are trying to achieve.

This morning in Estimates it was revealed that just half of those who commence training actually complete the course.

“Magnificent my foot, once again the Government has twisted the facts to make a poor result look better than it is,” says Terry Mills, Leader of the opposition.

“Rather than injecting 10,000 new apprentices and trainees into the Territory economy over 4 years the Government has delivered just half that number.

“It has totally failed to deliver on its promise and the results are being felt by all Territorians.

“The ongoing struggle to get a qualified tradesman in a timely manner at a reasonable price is a source of huge frustration for many families.

“The shortage of qualified tradespeople feeds into the very high cost of living in Darwin and Palmerston.

“Equally concerning is having a Chief Minister who has so little regard for the difficulties facing Territory families that he pretends things are much better than they really are.

“There’s a pattern of deceit about the behaviour of the Chief Minister.

“When confronted with the official statistics showing rising rates of violent assault he claims it’s nothing more than increased reporting of domestic violence.

“His claims, made using public money, that juvenile offenders can only go into diversion twice when it’s simply not true.

”Or his denial about the failure to deliver the promised cultural centre, art markets, amphitheatre, sculpture walk and beach volleyball courts et al at the Waterfront and not admitting the project is late and over budget.”

2008-06-18