Occupational Licensing Amendment Bill No. 12 of 2016 - In Committee

Clauses 1 to 5 agreed to .

Clause 6 -

Section 4 amended (Meaning of continuing professional development)

Mrs Armitage - While I appreciate this bill does not specifically deal with CPD, it is carried over from the original act. It is the only place I could find it was mentioned so it might be appropriate to mention it here.

The Leader mentioned in summing up, the director, Mr Webster, would be prepared to organise some workshops on continuing professional development. I am wondering when they would be and how many there would be per year and whether they would be across the state, north west, north and south.

The Leader also mentioned, when I asked about the costs of a full-day course, Mr Webster was not here at the time, but I did get some examples and it could cost up to $4500 per one-day course by the time you took into account the cost of the course, the wages and the lost income. How many points would there be? Six points for a full-day course. It is a considerable cost and the question raised with me by the plumbers and electricians in touch with me is it is quite a substantial amount to actually have to pay for only half of the points they need for the year, and whether it would be necessary to add a surcharge to their invoices for training, particularly with costs at the moment with trades or even the community tend to feel.

Dr Goodwin - A four-day course would be worth 24 points which is two years' worth of points essentially. Continuing professional development training is included as well, not just courses. As mentioned, that could be in house, toolbox, online, attending training sessions run by CBOS and WorkSafe and they all get counted towards the points.

Mr Webster or Consumer Building and Occupational Services will be having sessions across the state, and the west and east coast will be included. At this stage, they are looking at about 10 of those sessions but will obviously continue them into the future. CBOS make themselves available at different forums about three to four times a month.

Mrs Armitage - Leader, will there be a cost for these initial courses?

Dr Goodwin - No, CBOS does not charge.

Mrs Armitage - So there is no charge for those sessions?

Dr Goodwin - No.

Mrs Armitage - Confirming then, my practitioner has this incorrect. It is not six points per day, it is 24 points.

Dr Goodwin - For a course.

Mrs Armitage - For a course. The example given was the NDA, WH&S one-day course.

Dr Goodwin - One-day course, six points.

Mrs Armitage - So it is only six points. It is not 24 points.

Dr Goodwin - A one-day course is six points but a four-day course is 24 points.

Mrs Armitage - Sorry, I thought you said a full-day course.

Dr Goodwin - No, a four-day course.

Mrs Armitage - The issue I have here is that they are saying the one-day course for the three practitioners is $4500 and it is very hard to budget if you do not know TBCITB will refund any of the money. The one example I was given was that one practitioner received $360 back on a full cost of $3500.

The concern was the cost of the course. I believe, in the briefings we had, Mr Webster also mentioned that reading trade magazines would equate to points. If we could perhaps have on Hansard some of the simpler things a practitioner can do to keep themselves up to date. I think it was also that they may be able to have morning meetings with staff and perhaps have someone from the trade come along to give some examples that could equate to points as well.

Dr Goodwin - In relation to the training board, I am advised that you can actually talk to the training board before you do the course to find out exactly what they will reimburse.

As far as what constitutes continuing professional development activities and how many points accrue for each type of activity, that is quite well explained on the Department of Justice website under 'Continuing Professional Development' under 'Information about licensing and accreditation'. For example, it goes through all sorts of things: Training or briefing delivered by or on behalf of this office - CBOS - is one point per hour; nationally accredited training delivered by an RTO, one point per nominal hour, maximum six points per day; trade journals, including CBOS Connections, one point per journal, maximum three points per year; membership of professional organisation, one point per organisation, maximum two points per year; et cetera.

It is quite a reasonably sized table which details all of that.

Mrs Armitage - I want to confirm that this has always been compulsory, even in the original act, and that it is simply being brought forward. Has the director always had the ability to change that across?

Dr Goodwin - It is the administrator, not the director.

Mrs Armitage - The administrator always had the ability to enforce the continuing professional development.

Dr Goodwin - That is right.