The Australian | 2 March 2014
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Chris Robinson, the chief commissioner of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), has told Senate Estimates that ASQA received 2625 complaints in the first 30 months of its operations, which began in mid-2011..
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The agency had received 17,500 applications to register new training organisations, re-register existing ones or
permit them to offer new courses. It had rejected 17% of applications for new organisations — almost one in five — and 7.4% of applications from existing organisations.
Government senator David Bushby also grilled Robinson about the processes under which he and his two fellow commissioners were appointed.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, who has responsibility for vocational education, is on record as saying there is “far too much regulation in the system”.
Macfarlane has set up a VET Reform Taskforce and ASQA itself is being reviewed by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers.
