The Department monitors the attendance of all students who remain enrolled at government schools, and responds when these students fail to attend. For young people that have been granted an exemption from attending school, the Department monitors apprentices, trainees and those completing the equivalent of Year 10 of secondary education at TAFE. However, the Department does not monitor young people post Year 10 in full-time work or vocational education programs until they turn 17 years of age. In accordance with the law, it is a parent’s responsibility to make sure that a child is attending school or involved in an approved alternate activity until they turn 17 years of age.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #226 - released 1 November 2012

Between 2004 and 2006, the number of signalling failures, signalling downtime and the number of trains delayed as a result of signal failures all fell. RailCorp’s on-time running performance improved over the same period. The fall in failures is a clear indication of improved performance. Changes in the definition of on-time and to the timetable during 2005 and 2006 however make it difficult to determine whether improvements in response downtime and signalling delays are due to a true performance improvement. To build upon this strong base, RailCorp needs to determine with more confidence the number and duration of signalling failures the network can tolerate without impacting on service levels.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #170 - released 15 August 2007

We see considerable potential for the Ministry of Transport to plan and manage interchanges more effectively, so as to make better use of our public transport network. We believe that the Ministry now needs to focus more on multi-modal transport planning and interchange performance. It needs to assign responsibility for the coordination and oversight of inter-modal operations to an entity resourced for the purpose. Without this it will continue to be very difficult to identify and address unmet needs, seek and secure stakeholder funding, and monitor and evaluate system performance.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #168 - released 6 June 2007

We consider that students and teachers have significantly better access to computers than was the case when we did our 2000 audit. Teachers and students are also increasingly using computers for teaching and learning. The Department of Education and Training has been proactive in advancing Information Communication Technology (ICT) into schools. However we found that teachers and students are less likely to use computers if there are problems with infrastructure or technical support.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #166 - released 9 May 2007

State Transit has developed fleet management plans and maintenance standards that meet its regulatory and contractual obligations as a bus operator and are consistent with vehicle manufacturers’ standards and best practice. However, assumptions used in fleet management plans to forecast fleet growth may not result in the most efficient and effective outcome for State Transit. Forecasts fail to take account of opportunities to redesign or reduce services where they exceed contract requirements and are difficult to justify on a commercial basis. Of greater concern are the consequences arising from bus maintenance practices not meeting State Transit’s own standards.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #97 - released 29 May 2002