On 3 December 1973 the Australian Government appointed the Committee of Inquiry into Labour Market Training. The Committee was asked to report as quickly as possible on the following terms of references: "Bearing in mind that the Government's commitment to a policy of full employment requires the implementation of an active manpower policy, and
 * that training for employment is a means of achieving
complementary economic and social objectives;
 * that although Australia is well endowed with physical resources, a major constraint on development lies and is likely to continue to lie in the area of human resources;
 * that the work force needs training appropriate to the wide range of skills necessary to match the employment opportunities that emerge from technological development in the form of new and different occupations and needs retraining that will enable the work force to adapt to changes in those skills; and
 * that more effective utilisation of our labour force can be achieved through properly planned and flexible programmes of training for all occupational levels in industry and commerce -
 the Committee of Inquiry will investigate and report to the Minister for Labour on -
 (a) the role that training should play in an active manpower policy;
 (b) the extent to which opportunities for training and retraining
     should be provided or improved;
 (c) the broad methods of training and retraining that should be
     used;
 (d) the methods of selecting prospective trainees and allocating
     trainees to prospective employers;
 (e) the rationalisation of existing schemes of training and
     retraining; and
 (f) the level of allowances that should be paid to trainees and the
     question of taxation in relation to such allowances."

The Committee was made up of a Chairman, Prof. D. Cochrane (Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Politics, Monash University); two Members, Mr P. Clancy (Federal Secretary, Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia) and Mr E. Donohoe (Managing Director, Donohoe Furniture Pty. Ltd.); and two Executive Officers, Mr Richard Smith and Mr Ian O'Malley (both officers of the Department of Labour).

Earlier in 1973, following consultation with the tripartite
National Steering Committee on Training for Industry and Commerce, (now reconstituted as the National Training Council), the Hon Clyde R. Cameron MP, Minister for Labour had proposed to the Government the introduction of a national system of labour market training to be called the National Employment Training Scheme (NETS).
A key feature of this scheme was that it would comprehend, within one overall framework, a flexible system of labour market training which could provide opportunities for individuals to enhance their positions in the labour market and, at the same time, provide scope for the selective introduction of special programmes of training designed to meet labour supply deficiences. In doing so it would replace the various employment training schemes administered by the Department of Labour with the exceptions of the Employment Training Scheme for Aborigines and the Permanent Forces Resettlement Scheme.

The Government decided to defer consideration of the proposed new scheme pending the report of an inter-departmental committee of Australian Government Departments set up to examine all training and living-away-from-home allowances paid to persons undergoing training under all the various training schemes conducted by the Australian Government.
Subsequently, the Government decided to appoint the Committee of Inquiry to consider all aspects of labour market training within the context of an active manpower policy including the question of training and living-away-from-home allowances. The report of the inter-departmental committee was made available to the Committee.  The Committee first met on 7 December 1973. It decided to invite written submissions from those Australian Government Departments represented on the inter-departmental committee and to invite for discussions the Chairman and the employer and trade union
representatives of the National Training Council.
In addition, the Committee invited comment and opinion in relation to its terms of references from the community through nation-wide press advertisements.
These were circulated on 13 and 17 December 1973.

Interest in the subject was evident from the immediate response to these advertisements. In all a total of 56 organisations and
individuals responded. A list of the persons and organisations which subsequently presented detailed submissions to the Committee is set out in Appendix 1 of the Committee's report.
In order to give the authors of submissions the opportunity to amplify and discuss their papers with the Committee, a number of meetings were held in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra during February and March 1974. A list of the organisations and individuals who met with the Committee is also contained in Appendix 1 of the report.  The Committee presented its report to the Minister for Labour on 23 May 1974. The report was presented to Parliament on 18 July 1974 and ordered to be printed on 13 August 1974.

(Note: Most of the information in this entry is taken from the introduction to the Report of the Committee: Parliamentary Papers, No.1808 of 1974.)
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