The Finocchiaro CLP Government will not hold full and independent investigations into Charles Darwin University and the Batchelor Institute following recent scandals at both institutions that saw millions in public funds wasted and has instead pledged to “get better outcomes” for apprentices and trainees by implementing ‘key performance indicators’ at the institutions.

Education and Training Minister Jo Hersey’s office did not respond to questions Tuesday, including how implementing KPIs to funding agreements would prevent misconduct and training failures from continuing.

Ms Hersey announced Tuesday morning through an “exclusive” press release with other media, including the NT News and ABC, that the government’s new plan to address the problems would include non-descript legislative changes she pledged would improve governance and student outcomes at the two VET training centres, but did not explain how or provide any details of the proposed legislative reforms outside of introducing the vague KPIs.

NT taxpayers gave Batchelor nearly $15 million last financial year, while CDU is budgeted to receive $61.4 million this financial year.

The government’s announcement was made in the wake of CDU’s training scandals that saw hundreds of carpentry apprentices not properly trained and accredited, which then came to include more than 100 electrotechnology students last month who were also not properly trained.

CDU was also recently forced to back pay staff $4 million in underpayments and back in February scrapped plans to start a London-based campus after spending $2 million on it that saw the university hire mates of former vice-chancellor Scott Bowman for key roles with no oversight.

Mr Bowman left CDU just days before the London campus was canned following the TAFE scandal, while questions remain over his handling of the TAFE situation that saw him fail to disclose the accreditation failures to the government for at least two months.

Meanwhile, the Batchelor Institute has been in breach of its own governing legislation for years, was found to have used unreliable student records to obtain government funding, failed to comply with accounting standards, and had outdated internal controls.

The NT Independent revealed last month the institute had still not implemented all the recommendations made by the ICAC following its 2023 review, while continuing to appoint senior roles with no independent selection process. Despite six reviews into governance failures at Batchelor since 2017, the government has taken no action.

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley called for an investigation into CDU back in February when the problems with its TAFE accreditation system were first made public, accusing the university of “extreme incompetency, mismanagement and waste”.

“Nothing but an entire shake-up of CDU will fix the systemic problems of this chronically poor performing university,” she said at the time.

Ms Hersey did not say in the press release Tuesday what advice the government is relying on to change the legislation concerning CDU or Batchelor Institute, or why the vague changes were occurring before the government and public were made aware of what had transpired at CDU.

She said a new “partnership agreement” between the NT Government and CDU would “seek to align CDU’s training priorities with the needs of the Northern Territory”, while building “a strong relationship” with the government.

“Work on legislative amendments has begun, and I will work with the sector with a view to it being introduced into NT Parliament in early 2027,” she said in the statement.

“The new agreement will have KPIs for outcomes, rather than untied funding without KPIs. If KPIs are not met, I will look to divert resources to other training providers – it’s just too critical that we get this right.

“We must have accountability for Territorian’s money invested into our training providers to make sure that we maximise outcomes.”

CDU does not respond to the NT Independent’s questions.