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Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

Closing the Gap — Indigenous early childhood development — children and family centres

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	17.5	74.6	67.8	55.2
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs	-	-	-	-	-
Total	-	17.5	74.6	67.8	55.2

The Government will provide $292.6 million over six years from 2008‑09 (including $38.8 million in both 2012‑13 and 2013‑14) to improve access to child care and early childhood services for Indigenous Australians. This measure will contribute to the establishment and operation of 15 new children and family centres in urban areas and will expand the Government's contribution to the establishment and operation of 20 centres in rural and remote communities that have high Indigenous populations. The centres will deliver integrated services that offer early learning, child care, and parenting and family support programs, and facilitate access to maternal and child health services and other support services. This will contribute to strengthening health and education outcomes for Indigenous children.

This measure forms part of a National Partnership agreement with the States and Territories, agreed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). Further information can be found in the COAG communiqué of 2 October 2008.

Early childhood education and care — information for parents

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	2.6	1.9	-	-

The Government will provide $4.5 million over two years from 2008‑09 to improve the information available to parents on child care services through the establishment of the mychild.gov.au website. The information on the website will include the fees charged by services, service vacancies, quality and other information relevant to parents' decision making in selecting a suitable child care service.

Further information can be found in the press release of 22 October 2008 issued by the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Indigenous non-government school education programs — application of indexation

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	1.4	3.9	6.0	8.4

The Government will provide $24.5 million over five years from 2008‑09 (including $4.8 million in 2012‑13) to apply the Average Government School Recurrent Cost index to Indigenous-specific non-government school education programs. The programs affected, which include Supplementary Recurrent Assistance, Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme, Whole of School Intervention Strategy — Homework Centre and English as a Second Language — Indigenous Language Speaking Students, are currently indexed under other arrangements.

The Average Government School Recurrent Cost index is applied to recurrent funding provided to government and non-government schools. The index is a schools specific index which is calculated annually based on average state government expenditure on schools.

This measure will form part of the new National Education Agreement with the States and Territories, to be negotiated by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) for commencement on 1 January 2009.

Indigenous secondary scholarships corporate partnership

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	-	12.5	2.5	5.0

The Government will provide $20 million over three years from 2009‑10 as a contribution towards secondary school scholarships for Indigenous students to attend boarding schools. The funds will be invested and managed by the Australians Indigenous Education Foundation, with additional funds which more than match the Government contribution expected to be raised from corporate, philanthropic and private sources over the life of the initiative.

The first scholarships will be provided in 2009 for the 2010 school year. Using the investment earnings, and capital funding as necessary, the Foundation aims to provide up to 2,000 scholarships to students of up to six years duration over the next two decades.

Maximum level of socio-economic status funding entitlement for non-government schools with a high proportion of Indigenous students

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	0.5	1.2	1.4	1.5

The Government will provide $5.5 million over five years (including $0.8 million in 2012‑13) to ensure that the maximum level of socio-economic status funding is provided to non-government schools with high enrolments of Indigenous students. This will apply to schools with 80 per cent or more Indigenous student enrolments or to schools in very remote areas with 50 per cent or more Indigenous student enrolments. Eligibility for maximum funding in any calendar year will be based on the Indigenous student enrolment level in the previous calendar year.

See also the related savings measures titled Transitional project assistance — National Indigenous Literacy and Numeracy Strategy — offset and Non-Government Schools Establishment Assistance — offset in the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio.

Non-Government Schools Establishment Assistance — offset

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	-0.5	-1.2	-1.4	-1.4

The Government will redirect funding from the Non-Government Schools Establishment Assistance program. This measure will provide savings of $5.3 million over five years from 2008‑09 (including $0.7 million in 2012‑13) to offset the Government's commitment to ensure that the maximum level of socio-economic status funding is provided to non-government schools with high enrolments of Indigenous students.

See also the related expense measure titled Maximum level of socio-economic status funding entitlement for non‑government schools with a high proportion of Indigenous students and savings measure titled Transitional project assistance — National Indigenous Literacy and Numeracy Strategy — offset in the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio.

Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme — establishment

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Immigration and Citizenship	-	1.5	3.1	3.9	3.8
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	1.0	1.3	1.6	1.6
Office of the Workplace Ombudsman	-	0.5	1.0	1.4	1.5
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade	-	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.3
Total	-	3.4	5.8	7.2	7.2
Related revenue ($m)
Department of Immigration and Citizenship	-	..	0.1	0.2	0.3

The Government will provide $23.6 million over four years to support the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme. This measure will allow up to 2,500 workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to be employed in the Australian horticulture sector over three years. The Government is conducting the pilot to examine whether a seasonal worker scheme could contribute to foreign aid objectives and assist Australian employers.

Further information can be found in the press release of 17 August 2008 issued by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Productivity Places Program — 15,000 additional places

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	44.9	-	-	-

The Government will provide funding of $44.9 million in 2008‑09 to provide an additional 15,000 Job Seeker places, at the Certificate III level qualification, under the Productivity Places Program.

This measure increases the number of training places provided under the Skilling Australia for the Future initiative to 701,000 over the five years from 2007‑08 to 2011‑12 to ensure that Australians can develop the skills that industry needs. See also the related expense measure titled Productivity Places Program — 56,000 additional Places in the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio.

Further information can be found in the press releases of 10 September 2008 and 17 September 2008 issued by the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Transitional project assistance — National Indigenous Literacy and Numeracy Strategy — offset

Expense ($m)

	2007‑08	2008‑09	2009‑10	2010‑11	2011‑12
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations	-	-	-	-	-0.1

The Government will redirect funding from the National Indigenous Literacy and Numeracy Strategy program. This measure will provide savings of $0.2 million over two years from 2011‑12 (including $0.1 million in 2012‑13) to offset the Government's commitment to ensure that the maximum level of socio-economic status funding is provided to non-government schools with high enrolments of Indigenous students.

See also the related expense measure titled Maximum level of socio-economic status funding entitlement for non‑government schools with a high proportion of Indigenous students and savings measure titled Non-Government Schools Establishment Assistance — offset in the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio.

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