Month: December 2022

New syllabuses released this week require a renewed focus on core skills in English and mathematics to boost learning outcomes for all students.  
 
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the changes for years 3 to 10 are significant milestones in NSW’s once-in-a-generation Curriculum Reform.
 
“It is vital that NSW students are developing strong skills in both literacy and numeracy so they can succeed in school and beyond,” Mr Perrottet said. 
 
“If our NAPLAN results have shown us anything, it’s that we need to focus on the explicit teaching of grammar, sentence structure and punctuation in high school, along with better preparation for mandatory HSC maths.
 
“Focusing on those foundational skills is key to success and there’s no better place to start that journey than at the beginning of a child’s education – in primary school.”
 
Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said the new English syllabus for primary and high school builds on the reformed Kindergarten to Year 2 syllabus, released earlier this year.
 
“Our focus on phonics in those early years is a game-changer that is already delivering results,” Ms Mitchell said.
 
“The year 3 to 6 English syllabus will build on the success we are seeing in the early years with an increased emphasis on grammar, which is key to writing well.
 
“It also requires teachers to ensure students in years 3 and 4 can read fluently and decipher new words quickly. For students in years 7 to 10, they will be taught ways to interpret unfamiliar words and use grammar to express complex ideas.”
 
For the Maths syllabus, key changes include ensuring students develop stronger foundations in sequencing and reasoning.
 
“In primary school, students will now develop a deeper understanding of maths and will have the depth to master important skills before moving on to another concept,” Ms Mitchell said.
 
“In other words, students will need to not only know Pythagoras’ Theorem; they will need to be able to explain how it works in practice and why.”
 
In Years 7 to 10, a new flexible Core-Paths structure will better prepare students for Year 11 and 12 maths courses and mandatory HSC maths.
 
The NSW Education Standards Authority, who are responsible for delivering NSW Curriculum Reforms, will provide schools with support materials as they implement the new syllabuses.
 
The new syllabuses will be available for teachers to plan and prepare during 2023 and will be taught in all NSW schools from 2024.

The Australian and NSW Governments have signed a landmark 12-month Skills Agreement to address the current skills shortage and deliver Fee Free TAFE and more vocational education places for the people of NSW.

The $319 million agreement will deliver a significant boost to the NSW skills and training sector.
This will provide immediate support through approximately 120,000 Fee Free TAFE and vocational education and training (VET) places in 2023.

The course list will see approximately 40,200 fee-free places in the care sector (including approximately 10,000 in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector), 9,900 in technology and digital, 6,900 in agriculture, 5,200 in construction, 5,000 in hospitality and tourism, 1,200 in sovereign capability, and 51,400 in other priority sectors including foundation skills.  

The Agreement will increase opportunities and workforce participation of priority groups, including First Nations Australians, young people (17-24), people out of work or receiving income support, unpaid carers, women undertaking study in non-traditional fields, people with disability and certain categories of visa holders.

The 12-month Skills Agreement confirms TAFE’s central role in the VET sector, increases opportunities and workforce participation of priority groups and addressing skills gaps in the economy.

Fee Free TAFE and more VET places in NSW come at a crucial time as the State works to strengthen its workforce in a range of sectors of National and State priority. 

The Agreement includes an Australian Government commitment of $1.32 million for essential VET data infrastructure reform in NSW and $7.5 million from the Australian Government’s TAFE Technology Fund to improve training facilities in NSW.

The $7.5 million commitment from the TAFE Technology Fund will upgrade essential infrastructure for training at TAFE NSW campuses. 

All Governments have also agreed to a vision and guiding principles for longer-term VET reform to commence in 2024.

Brendan O’Connor MP, Minister for Skills and Training said:

The Australian Government recognises the urgency of the skills crisis facing the nation, and the challenges particular to NSW, which is why this Agreement is so important.

If we want to provide greater opportunity in NSW for secure and rewarding employment, we must be able to skill and reskill our workforce.

Whether it’s a need to build our care sector, construction, hospitality and tourism, or technology and digital sectors, we need to deliver these skills at a time of acute skills shortages.

I’m thrilled to make this joint investment to expand opportunities for all people in NSW.

Alister Henskens SC MP, NSW Minister for Skills and Training said:

The NSW Government has invested a record $3.1 billion in the skills and training sector this financial year to help people get the skills they need for the jobs they want.  

NSW is leading the nation when it comes to skills and training and this additional $164 million investment from the Australian Government recognises our State as the economic powerhouse of the nation.

This additional investment in fee-free training places will target priority industries and help address skills and labour shortages that are hampering businesses across NSW.

I welcome the Australian Government’s investment in this space and look forward to continuing to work together to strengthen the pipeline of skilled workers in NSW.  

NSW is turbocharging the development of its sovereign industrial capability in critical industries like defence, aerospace and manufacturing through a $15.2 million NSW Government investment in its Research Networks.
 
Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology Alister Henskens said this year’s funding plus a three-year extension for the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), the NSW Defence Innovation Network (DIN) and the NSW Space Research Network (SRN) provides more opportunities to turn ideas into real-world solutions, jobs and new industries.
 
“We are investing in our human capital to help our innovative researchers unlock their potential and turn their ideas into solutions that will grow the economy and secure a brighter future for the people of NSW,” Mr Henskens said.
 
“The defence and aerospace industry, including the space industry, and smart sensing technologies will be critical to our nation’s prosperity and NSW is best placed to lead the way when it comes to innovation and commercialisation of research in these areas.
 
“Our Research Networks foster collaboration between government, academics and industry to find solutions to some of the most complex challenges we face.”
 
Through the NSW Government’s commitment, the DIN is providing $450,000 in funding to support three defence innovation projects in its Pilot Project grant scheme:
 

• The University of Wollongong, Western Sydney University and NSW companies BlueZone Group and Vyom Tech will develop a prototype system to assess military diver health
• Western Sydney University, in partnership with The University of Sydney and Australian company AU Cloud, are examining how to fuse data sources and distribute data processing across a constellation of satellites, and
• The University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney will deliver a system for monitoring the structural health of autonomous air vehicles.

 
Defence and Aerospace NSW contributed $3.2 million of the total funding towards the DIN and SRN. Director Mike Gallagher said the funding would increase NSW defence capabilities across all domains.
 
“DIN is a key enabler for our sector that ensures that NSW remains at the forefront of delivering the high-tech capability to the Australian Defence Force,” Mr Gallagher said.

The NSW Government will build a new education campus in Westmead, changing the game in how our children learn in Western Sydney.

The new campus will be co-located within the Westmead Health and Innovation District and includes a new 1,000 student primary school with a pre-school, and a 2,000 student selective high school.

Premier Dominic Perrottet said the campus will enable partnerships with major hospitals, medical research institutes and university campuses – providing students with an integrated learning experience.

“This will change the game in how our children get an education, allowing them to learn alongside our world-leading doctors, nurses and medical researchers.

“We need to continue to look at innovative ways to better prepare our students for the jobs of the future whether that be in STEM, healthcare or medical science. That is exactly what this new way of learning will look to achieve.

“Students will be able to leverage off the world-class health and research facilities that are already located within the Westmead Health and Innovation District.”

Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said this government is delivering for the future of NSW.

“Building a selective high school in the heart of the health and innovation district is an Australian first and will provide unparalleled opportunity for students,” Ms Mitchell said.

“The Liberals and Nationals in government are delivering an historic school building program, investing $17.7 billion so that thousands of students across the state benefit from hundreds of new and upgraded schools. 

“Working in partnership with local hospitals, universities and medical research institutes we have the opportunity to deliver a world-class teaching and learning facility as part of the Westmead Health and Innovation District.”

The NSW Government is investing $8.6 billion in school infrastructure over the next four years, continuing its program to deliver 160 new and upgraded schools to support communities across NSW.

The Westmead Education Campus will be funded through the NSW Government’s $5 billion WestInvest Program, which was established to fund transformative infrastructure projects across 15 Western Sydney Local Government Areas.

Thank you Ben for that introduction.

Can I also acknowledge my Ministerial and parliamentary colleagues and the Leader of the Opposition here today.

Michael Miller.

The Bradfield Board of Governors

Ladies and gentlemen.

I want to thank the Daily Telegraph for hosting the Bradfield Oration once again.

This is one of my favourite events because it combines two things I love – bold ideas and our beautiful city.

In fact every year, new ideas are born in this forum by the people sitting in this very room.

And they change our city – and our lives – for the better, just like Bradfield did.

Let me start off by saying something that there should be no disagreement with.

I believe Sydney is the greatest city in the world

I love this city and everything about it.

Now I know it’s not perfect –  but I even love its imperfections.

We are Australia’s first and greatest city.

We are the heartbeat of this Great Southern Land.

And we are the face of Australia to the world.

We are unique in that even though our feet are planted firmly in home soil, our perspective is global.

If you ask the people of Melbourne, who’s your competition, they will most likely say Sydney.

But for Sydney, our standard isn’t local – we’re competing with the world’s greatest cities like London, Tokyo, New York & Paris.

But our biggest threat isn’t another city.

Our biggest threat is the status quo.

Our tendency to rest on our laurels and accept things the way they are.

I think the life of John Bradfield offers us three important lessons to overcome this risk and take our rightful place as one of the world’s great cities.

Lesson #1

The first lesson is that you have to persevere because change is hard and takes time.

The Harbour Bridge wasn’t built in a day.

Back in 1815 it was a bridge first suggested by convict and architect Francis Greenway.

Before Bradfield picked it up in 1900 with his own vision.

It wasn’t until 1923 that construction actually started.

And it wasn’t all smooth sailing, with opposition and protests along the way.

But Bradfield kept going and eventually his vision was realised.

This is a lesson that our government has learned, as we have turbocharged our building boom.

Over the last ten years we have built schools and hospitals, metros and motorways.

The highways and light-rails, parklands, museums and stadiums.

And we have seen that making change is like waging a war on the visible, trying to move people to a future that they cannot yet see.

In fact, there has been opposition to almost every project that we have built;

-from the North West Metro to NorthConnex,

-the Sydney Football Stadium to the Sydney Modern,

-the Light Rail to the Powerhouse

-even the hospitals such Tweed, the Northern Beaches and the new Prince of Wales were met with opposition

Just last week I was underground in the M4-M8 tunnel. 

A road that will mean you can drive from the Blue Mountains to Sydney airport without one single traffic light.

And yet even as this new road opens, there are still members of our Parliament who oppose it.

That shouldn’t be surprising.

Even in Bradfield’s day, the ferry operators protested the Bridge, horse and cart operators protested cars, and that certain other newspaper famously opposed the Opera House.

In the heat of short term politics, no argument is more persuasive than the argument for doing nothing.

And that’s why perseverance is so important.

Lesson #2

The second thing Bradfield can teach us is that you need to be bold and dare to do things differently.

He did this by choosing an arch design for the Bridge – a decision described as difficult and daring.

Our government has applied this lesson to the ways we have funded and built city shaping projects.

But great cities aren’t just built with steel and cement.

Great cities are about people and I want to create a better future for everyone in our city.

Let me give you three examples.

Health.

Everyone knows our entire health system nationally is under pressure.

Just building more hospitals and hiring more nurses isn’t going to solve the problem.

So we’re doing things differently and stepping up – while providing record funding. 

Millions of people across our state need a regular script from their GP.

It doesn’t make sense to clog up doctor’s surgeries just for people to get their regular medication.

So we fixed it and for the first time we are allowing pharmacists to give scripts directly to their regular patients.  

Like the boat operators in Bradfield’s time, the doctor’s union said our changes would spell the end of general practice in Australia.

Alongside Victoria we are adopting a new solution to turbocharge our GP practices with longer hours and a one stop shop of services to take pressure off our emergency departments.

On home ownership, we are removing stamp duty for first home buyers.

It was 150 years ago, some enterprising mid-level Treasury bureaucrat came up with the idea of stamp duty in NSW.

That was set at a 0.5 per cent, or 10 shillings for every £100.

A stamp on a piece of paper that stops a generation of home ownership. 
Today, that one decision – unquestioned for generations – is now responsible for one third of state’s tax revenue.

Our policy to make stamp duty optional for first home buyers has unleashed a barrage of opposition, as expected.

But I look at my kids and look at their prospects of home ownership, and I think: how can we let some 150-year-old tax – the most inefficient tax in the world – just continue to lock people out of home ownership in this city.

Now education.

We have to be willing to do things differently if we want better future for our kids.

So we’re changing the old 9 to 3 school hours, because what worked 100 years ago doesn’t suit working families today.

We’re introducing an entire new year of education in our school system called pre-kindergarten.

We’re paying our very best teachers more.

We’re adding practical trade subjects to the HSC.

And we’re introducing a new kind of tertiary education, bringing together universities
and industry to get out kid’s job-ready for the future.

All of these are a direct challenge to the status quo, the way things have always been done.

If we want to win the future, we must have the courage to innovate in education.

So today I announce a new way preparing our kids for the future.

I want kids in our West to be educated and learn from world leading doctors, nurses and medical researchers. 

So we are going to build a new $300 million education campus at Westmead.

With a new primary school and a new selective high school for our West – 3000 students from pre-K to year 12.

The campus will be co-located in the Westmead Health and Innovation District.

Alongside major hospitals, medical research institutes and university campuses – teaming up our brightest minds to support the next generation of leaders. 

This concept is the first of its kind in Australia.

I see these schools not just delivering our future Prime Minister or Premier.

I see them as a training ground in our West for our future Nobel Prize winners in medicine and science.

This is just the start and I want to see this new way of learning rolled out across the State.

Because doing things differently is the only way to set up our kids for a brighter future.

Lesson #3

The last thing Bradfield can teach us is that we must always be focused on leaving a legacy.

When he designed his bridge, he didn’t do it just for the needs of the today, but for the needs of tomorrow.

He knew the growth that would come – both in people and technology – and he built accordingly.

As he himself stated : “Future generations will judge our generation by our works.“

I want our legacy as a government to be focused on the next generation, not the next election.

To me, being a conservative is a blend of stability and change – preserving the best of tradition and innovating everything else.

And it has to be because as Burke said, conservatism is founded on a duty.

To respect not only those who have gone before us, those who are living but importantly those who are yet to come.

Our children. And their children.

To let a city like Sydney stand still is a crime against the next generation.

We must preserve and build on this city’s unsurpassed beauty, and its unlimited opportunity.

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude by saying, I want us all to live in a Sydney that is the greatest city in the world.

The buildings and the projects are part of that.

But we only build these for our people.

I want our city to be built around our families.

To be a hub of opportunity, for the ambitious and the aspirational.

A city that inspires and delights.

A beacon of hope and freedom for the world.

A city that honours our shared past.

That maximises the moments of our present.

And builds our collective future.

I believe today we face a line in the sand, about what kind of city we want to be.

We can stick with the status quo and become overwhelmed by the challenges of today.

Or we can move forward into the future filled with confidence, armed with the lessons Bradfield taught us.

Persevering when things are hard, daring to do things differently and leaving a legacy we can all be proud of.