ASQA chief sticks to tact

In Senate Estimates last week Senator Louise Pratt (Labor-WA) asked the training regulator how it was going in saving students from poor providers

It was a tricky question for interim chief commissioner Saxon Rice who is in the job following the government telling the Australian Skills Quality Authority to switch regulatory approaches, in essence to adopt, more consulting and less crucifying.

Ms Rice declined Senator Pratt’s proffered free kick, acknowledging the concerns of Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming, who gave the agency a frank corporate character reference for what he suggested was its heavy-handed regulation of private providers (CMM August 2). “It’s absolutely our duty to take on board the comments of the sector and stakeholders in order to ensure that we have the most contemporary regulatory model and are communicating well with the sector,” Ms Rice said.


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