Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I think that our commitment to introduce an Australian baccalaureate and our reasons for wanting to do that go to the heart of the significant and bold education reforms that this government is undertaking.

I turn to the specific questions that the shadow minister has put to me. I will take on notice the questions about research and patent information and whether there has been interaction between the department, the government and others and the baccalaureate organisation in Geneva.

On the shadow minister's other questions, I make the following points. I was recently lucky enough to spend time with principals and teachers who are very aware of the fact that in years 11 and 12 they have students who are contemplating study at institutions or universities in other parts of the world and/or who have been subject to moving from country to country over time. It is the case that baccalaureates are offered here which have an international component but which do not specifically link in with the curriculum that we have in Australia and that an Australian baccalaureate is seen as being an extremely important initiative in order to meet that structural deficiency. The Australian baccalaureate will be developed by ACARA, and the shadow minister would be aware of ACARA's achievements to date—they are considerable. They will develop that baccalaureate in partnership with the state and territory education authorities.

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