In Brief, April 09

Friday, 01 May 2009 12:34

What do you, a government supplier, need to know? Here is the news from the month of April.

Paul Holloway, the South Australian Minister for Urban Development and Planning, has this month heralded over $6 million in grants for local councils both in the metropolitan and rural areas of the state. Councils in Adelaide will receive the biggest funding push, with over $4 million heading for metropolitan municipalities. “These millions of dollars in grants, besides providing work for landscapers, designers and trades people, also ensure a lasting legacy of upgraded facilities such as bikeways, picnic areas, bridges and play equipment for South Australian families,” Mr Holloway says. Details of projects to receive funding can be found at the website of Premier Mike Rann.

The Municipal Association of Victoria has announced the foundation of a new coordinated procurement centre for local government in the state. Named MAV Procurement, the centre will attempt to propagate "procurement strategies that support local economic and industry development". MAV CEO Rob Spence said the centre would build upon existing MAV collaborative procurement projects. ""The procurement centre will achieve bottom-line savings by harnessing councils’ economies of scale to collectively purchase products and services," Mr Spence said.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is planning to axe as much as 10% of its workforce come budget time in May. "The Government imposed a 3.25 per cent 'efficiency dividend' for this financial year, which required each department to cut spending by the same percentage." The Herald notes that these job losses come after 250 positions were trimmed from the department late last year.

Another segment of the Rudd Government's financial spending blitz is expected to begin trickling down soon, with Julia Gillard releasing a statement last week announcing $200 million dollars for vocational education. Entitled the "Training Infrastructure Investment for Tomorrow Program", the funding has been deemed to be part of the Federal Government's overall "nation-building infrastructure package". Ms Gillard, Minister for Education, said in her statement that applications for the grants of up to $10 million each for TAFE institutes and other eligible colleges. She stressed that this funding was bidirectional, being aimed at developing skills training based on localised economic conditions and developing programs offering "green skills" training.

Also on the education front, the final response of the Federal Government to the Bradley Review into Higher Education is expected imminently. Minister Gillard has indicated in recent months that the Review, released in October, would be on the government's Budget agenda. "The full detail of the Government’s response will be released in May at the time of the Budget,", said Gillard at a tertiary education conference in Canberra in March. Professor Denise Bradley was commissioned in March 2008 to produce a report on current and future trends in the higher and tertiary education sectors and how those trends meet existing and emerging needs. The report's recommendations emphasise greater inter-system coordination and collaboration, particularly in vocational education, and the development of stronger integration of vocational training with higher education.