Minister Barr: Significant steps towards fixing federation
- Written by ACT Government
Released 23/07/2015
The nation’s leaders have taken the first steps towards major reform of Australia’s Federation.
At yesterday’s leaders retreat, we discussed the challenges facing Australia as we strive to deliver improved health services, new infrastructure, fair and affordable access to housing, training designed for real jobs and a school education system that helps Australian children stay ahead in a globally competitive world.
Now is the time for an honest and candid conversation with the Australian people about these issues. Now is the time to bring forward a plan for Australia’s future, with party politics put aside, which examines the roles and responsibilities of the different levels of government.
We have unanimously agreed to focus reform on health, education, infrastructure and housing.
A new focus on primary care and keeping people out of hospital is necessary. When it comes to chronic care, the issue of diabetes, heart disease and mental health require particular attention.
There was also recognition of the need to consider working towards extending Medicare to cover treatments in hospitals based on efficient pricing.
Despite considerable increases in resources in recent years, Australian students are falling behind their international counterparts. We must arrest this decline. Increasingly, childcare is the delivery mechanism for early childhood learning.
We committed to improving the transition from early childhood learning and school including consideration of an earlier start to school, greater equity in the application of childcare funding to learning for the year before school and improving teacher quality which is critical to delivering better educational outcomes. The Queensland Premier and I will work together to develop options to progress reform in school education.
We must reform the vocational education and training sector so that training helps young people get jobs when they finish, as well as providing real pathways for older workers to transition between careers. We committed to change that will see a more demand driven system, greater engagement with business about their skills needs to deal with emerging industries and new ways to help support students.
We agreed to consider a shift in responsibility for VET to the Commonwealth provided States and Territories could elect to remain TAFE providers within a national system.
In relation to housing, we focussed on greater access to affordable housing, increasing supply and better access for vulnerable people to social housing.
We also recognised that a place to call home was a fundamental human need. There was agreement to look at ways to reduce spending duplication between the Commonwealth State Housing Agreements and the Federal Government’s provision of rental assistance to low income people.
- Statement ends -
Section: Andrew Barr, MLA | Media Releases
