Court critical of Dawkins in Vocation case

Private training provider Vocation, contravened the Corporations Act

The Federal Court has found the former listed training provider made misleading and deceptive statements to the market concerning government subsidy cuts to two of its colleges. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission brought a case against Vocation, as well as Mr Dawkins and company executives, Mark Hutchinson and Manvinder Grewal.

While Mr Dawkins’ honesty was not questioned, Justice John Nicholas, said that in August-September 2014, “he accepted what he was told by management much too uncritically, and without challenging the correctness of the advice or the assumptions on which that advice was based. In this regard, I am satisfied that, in doing so, he failed to exercise the care and diligence that could be expected of a person in his position exercising reasonable care and diligence.”

Mr Dawkins is a former federal treasurer and as employment minister made major reforms to the training system.

A penalties hearing is set for Wednesday.


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