I am honoured to have been reappointed as the Minister for Education and Training.
The Coalition took to the election strong, clear policies in early education and child care, schools and higher education, which I look forward to delivering.
Our early education and child care reforms have been the subject of extensive consultation and will direct the greatest support to those families working the most hours and earning the least. The Prime Minister and I have committed to seeing them legislated at the earliest opportunity.
We are committed to ensuring the delivery of reforms in school education that lift outcomes for all Australian students, ensure the record funding we will continue to deliver into our schools is distributed according to need, increases the overall excellence of our educational outcomes and addresses those areas where student performance can be further improved.
Our determination to ensure equity, excellence, innovation and budget sustainability in higher education remains. Submissions on the position paper released as part of the 2016 Budget close on 25 July and I look forward to working with all stakeholders to deliver reforms that are enduring and ultimately give long-term policy certainty to students, universities, research institutions and other higher education providers.
Our outstanding research sector, including our universities, remains central to our innovation policies to drive stronger collaboration between universities and industry.
I look forward to playing a leading role in finalising the redesign of Labor’s failed VET FEE-HELP scheme, seeking where possible to ensure consistency of approach across the tertiary education sector. I welcome the appointment of Karen Andrews as my Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills who will bring strong focus to apprenticeships and other aspects of vocational education.
I also look forward to playing a leading role in Australia’s $19 billion international education sector, including implementation of our recently released International Education Strategy 2025.
I look forward to working with Members and Senators across Parliament to deliver our education, training and child care reforms.
I extend my thanks to Richard Colbeck and Scott Ryan for their hard work, drive and policy initiatives in the areas of international education and vocational education respectively.