Canberra Institute of Technology has categorically denied allegations that unqualified students were allowed to work on hired electric vehicles without the companies’ knowledge.
The allegations were made by Independent MLA Thomas Emerson under parliamentary privilege in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday afternoon (27 May) as part of a motion on whistleblower protections.
Mr Emerson also sought leave for the publication of the Public Interest Disclosure made by a CIT employee, but this was denied, with a blindsided Chief Minister Andrew Barr lamenting that Mr Emerson may have jeopardised an ongoing investigation.
Mr Emerson said the PID alleged that CIT’s Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence had been training unqualified students using private hire cars from companies such as Hertz, “pulling elements apart and putting them back together without telling the hire car companies”.
He added that CIT management had approved the practice, which posed “significant risk of injury or death to staff, students and the general public”.
Mr Emerson said this had happened last year in the ACT and interstate, where CIT had been delivering courses.
He said the whistleblower sent the PID to CIT CEO Dr Margot McNeill in January, but it had not been acted on.
“The unsafe activities continued, there was no effective investigation or enforcement action, no known referral to the Integrity Commission, no acknowledgement that the whistleblower’s disclosure had even been formally recognised as...
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