Conclusion
The Education Revolution has started. It aims to provide opportunities for all from birth, through schooling and training, to employment.
Ambitious as it may seem, this is what the Rudd Labor Government believes Australia needs. And it is an undertaking that the Government has committed to unconditionally.
The 2008‑09 Budget provides a springboard for achieving the goals of the Education Revolution. It delivers initiatives that allow implementation of the Education Revolution at every stage in life for the benefit of all Australians.
The Budget initiatives underline the Rudd Labor Government's commitment to delivering world‑class education and training. This will contribute to boosting Australia's productivity, now and in the future, and help its education and training systems become world class.
Australian families deserve better opportunities to improve their wellbeing and that of their children. The Budget acknowledges this by tackling the issues uppermost in the minds of many families, notably access to affordable, high‑quality early childhood education and child care.
This Budget provides initiatives to help turn the challenges of equity and disadvantage around.
The Budget also recognises the need for Australia to move with the times in an era where information and communication technology has become indispensable. It fulfils the Government's commitment to improving access to world‑class information for secondary school students through a Digital Education Revolution. It also assists those who choose to pursue a vocational education and training pathway.
Given the importance of higher education to Australia's future, the Rudd Labor Government is helping to make crucial changes to the sector. These changes will help universities and other higher education institutions realise their full potential and remain internationally competitive.
By providing the means for abolishing full‑fee degrees for undergraduate students, doubling Commonwealth undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships, offering new Commonwealth supported places, the Budget ensures equity for all Australian students and families. It also ensures a strengthening of the higher education sector so it can focus on its leading role of developing human capital for the nation's productivity growth and to help tackle skills shortages.
While this Budget, like all Budgets, revolves around money, it is also about people and making things work. The Australian Government recognises the vital role of the states, territories, industry, Catholic and Independent schools systems and communities in helping deliver the Education Revolution. That is why the Government will continue with its co-operative approach.
Through positive partnerships with other COAG members and school communities in both the public and private sectors, funds can be disbursed efficiently in areas where they are needed the most. Through the concerted efforts of governments, universities, school and training systems, the not‑for‑profit sector, parents and the Australian community at large, the Education Revolution will succeed.
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