The Australian Government is leading the way in building Australians’ understanding of money, announcing in the 2007-08 Budget a package to support its commitment to increasing financial literacy.
‘The Government announced its commitment to giving all Australians the chance to better understand their money as part of its Election 2004 Policy, Super for All and Understanding Money,’ said the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Peter Dutton.
‘We’ve delivered on our commitment, and now we’re building on those achievements by giving teachers more of the support they need to teach financial literacy in our schools and continuing to get the message out to everyday Australians that understanding your money is an important life skill with considerable benefits for everyone.’
‘We have national agreement to all Australian school children receiving financial literacy education from Kindergarten to Year 10 as curriculum is renewed from 2008 onwards. And last year’s Understanding Money campaign, website and handbook, were a great success: getting people to think about managing their money better and encouraging them to find out more’.
The Financial Literacy Foundation is already developing a national strategy to provide guidance on the delivery of professional development for teachers to support implementation of the National Consumer and Financial Literacy Framework. The Budget initiative will provide further, practical support to schools and teachers in equipping teachers to deliver financial literacy education.
The Budget initiative will also reinforce and extend the messages of the first Understanding Money campaign: raising people’s awareness of financial literacy and its benefits, and directing them to the Understanding Money website and handbook for trusted, reliable and easy to understand information if they want to know more.
‘Australia is a world leader in advancing financial literacy. We’re one of a handful of countries making significant progress in this area and these initiatives demonstrate that we’re continuing to lead the way’.
For further information on the Government’s financial literacy initiative or find out more about managing money better, visit www.australia.gov.au/understandingmoney. To order a free handbook, visit the website or phone the toll free number 1800 236 235.