Ms Gillard Issues a Sweeping Policy Statement and Explains Why Her Super Ministry is a Good Thing. (December 4, 2007)

Credit: Getty Images - Ian Waldier

Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, shortly after being sworn in as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Education and Social Inclusion (perhaps somewhat reminiscent of WS Gilbert's Pooh-Bah being Lord High Everything Else) told an Australian Industry Group conference in Canberra that productivity was the common thread connecting her ministerial responsibilities.

She said: "My portfolios cover a wide range of policy areas, and some have suggested they are a slightly unusual combination. But the reason why they have all been joined together is simple. In today's world the areas covered by my portfolios - early childhood education and child care, schooling, training, universities, social inclusion, employment participation and workplace co-operation - are all ultimately about the same thing: productivity. So while my portfolios can be a mouthful, I'll be happy to be referred to simply as the Minister for Productivity."

Ms Gillard went on to reiterate the overreaching policy of this Labor government:

• an education revolution to give our kids the best possible start in life, lifting investment, improving education standards, and tackling the skills challenges of today and the future;

• national leadership to build advanced modern infrastructure, including a world-class high-speed national broadband network to our schools, homes and small businesses;

• getting the balance right between fairness and flexibility in the workplace;

• supporting parents to choose to stay in work through affordable and accessible childcare;

• acting decisively on climate change and water;

• reforms to make our taxes more internationally competitive and to lift the red tape burden on small business;

• creating a new culture of innovation in Australian businesses, generating the jobs of the future;

• bring the socially excluded back into the economic mainstream, by giving them the skills and social capital they need to re-enter the workforce;

• a plan to fix our Federation and end the duplication and buck-passing between governments; and, of course;

• all of these reforms will of course be underpinned by sound and conservative budgetary policy.

Of course to state the bleedin' obvious -- the devil's in the detail.

With regard to education the deputy PM spoke of:

THE HUMAN CAPITAL REVOLUTION

The education revolution is the key factor, and has to start with the young. We know that investing in high quality early childhood education and children’s services yields a high rate of return measured in terms of individual achievement, productivity and participation.

That’s why our Plan for Early Childhood is going to be a big economic policy priority. It’s a comprehensive plan that includes:

•  Fifteen hours a week of high quality preschool for all four year olds;

• Development of 260 additional childcare centres on school and community sites;

• An increase to the Child Care Tax Rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent (up to $7,500 per child); and

• New parenting programs in 50 disadvantaged communities.

I will be working closely with the responsible Parliamentary Secretary, Maxine McKew to implement this important agenda.

The Education Revolution also has to transform our schools. We intend to raise standards by increasing school accountability, improving the quality of teaching and developing a new national curriculum in cooperation with the states.

Access Economics has estimated that increasing the proportion of young people completing school or an apprenticeship to 90 per cent would boost annual GDP by 1.1 per cent by 2040 – meaning $9.2 billion or $500 for every household in the country.

Our goal is to do just that – lift Year 12 equivalent retention rates to 90 per cent. And we’re going to turn every school in Australia into a digital school, by allowing every student in Years 9 to 12 to have access to their own computer at school and eligible parents to enjoy a 50 per cent education tax refund for the purchase of computer equipment, books and other education necessities.

I know a big concern of the Australian Industry Group is the shortage of skills and the need to revolutionise trades and vocational training in our schools.

As your It’s Crunch Time report pointed out, more than half a million people between the age of 15 and 24 are in neither full-time work nor full-time education – a major risk factor for a lifetime of unemployment and social disadvantage. All the while severe skill shortages exist in many areas.

The Reserve Bank Governor has confirmed on at least 20 occasions that problems like the skills shortage are constraining growth and putting upward pressure on inflation.

We’ve been listening. And in response, our Skilling Australia Plan will deliver 450,000 more training places – 90 per cent of which will be at the higher Certificate III level – with priorities driven by industry need through employer input and our new statutory training body Skilling Australia.

This will be underpinned by our $2.5 billion plan to build new trade centres in 2,650 secondary schools.

We can’t compete with the worldwide higher education revolution unless we improve the quality of our universities and keep some of the best minds here.

That’s why a Labor Government will double the number of national undergraduate scholarships to 88,000 and double the number of post graduate scholarships to nearly 10,000 students across Australia by 2012.

We will also create 1000 high-value mid-career research fellowships, valued at $140,000 each, to help reverse the brain drain. And we’ll be reaching out to young people, in a way that hasn’t effectively happened over the past decade. I look forward to working with our new Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis in making this a reality. [our emphasis]

While Ms Gillard spoke in some detail about how the Rudd government intends to implement revising the Coalition's workplace relations policy; whether Labor, now that it is in power, has the intention of effectively rebuilding the university sector, and if so how it will go about it,  remains an enigma