Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for that. Her question refers further to the University of Melbourne evaluation which was done of the Western Australian program which found that, overwhelmingly, principals supported increased autonomy in their schools across a broad range of aspects, including both budgets and staffing, and believed that it would lead to increased outcomes for the whole school community. My colleague Senator McKenzie and my colleague the federal Minister for Education visited two Western Australian regional schools this month and saw firsthand the progress being made in implementing Independent Public Schools in Western Australia. The minister visited both the Ocean Road Primary School and the Mount Lockyer Primary School. He met with schools leaders, teachers, staff, parents and students to listen to their views about the IPS and to discuss how the federal government can make a further contribution. (Time expired)