Revelations from day three of theoften-maligned hearings,which largely spanned Grace’s several portfolios,came amid an admission that the government was“still stabbing in the dark” on its planned Olympic rebuild of the Gabba stadium.
But Farmer,the Training and Skills Development Minister,also faced questioning over the $1.9 million “Tradies in Paradise” scheme — launched in March and offering $1750 to tradespeople willing to move to the state and work on flood recovery efforts amid skill shortages.
Just two people have been paid under the scheme,after 12 applications and 870 expressions of interest. Applicants are required to show they have worked in a flood-affected council region for a period of eight-weeks with a statutory declaration.
The remainder of money spent on the program,based on an earlier pandemic recovery tourism and hospitality sector-targeted scheme,went to marketing costs.
“The advertising campaign was run across all of those other states except for New South Wales and and we are very pleased that aside from anything else it’s given us an opportunity to market Queensland,and that is never a wasted opportunity,” Farmer said,pointing to the 130,000 views the program’s website received.
“Would I like to see that there were more tradies actually applying for this program? Yes,I would certainly.”