Lynne Kosky

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Lynne Kosky

Lynne Kosky (born 1958) is the Member for Altona, Victoria (since 1996) in the Parliament of Victoria (Australia) and is a senior Minister in the second Steve Bracks Labor Government.

Ms Kosky served as Minister for Post Compulsory Education, Training and Employment (1999-2002) and Minister for Finance (2000-2002) in the first Bracks government. Since 2000 she has been a member of the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet, which is responsible putting together and oversighting the State’s $30 billion a year budget.

Ms Kosky was first appointed Minister for Education and Training in February 2002 and she is now the fourth longest serving of the State’s 54 Education Ministers since the Ministry was first created in 1873.

Ms Kosky’s period as Minister for Education and Training has been marked by sweeping reforms and innovation in key areas of Victoria’s education and training system, in many cases building on initiatives she had set in train in her previous Ministerial roles.

The Blueprint for Government Schools [1], which she announced in 2003, sets out how resources, leadership and school structures are to deliver quality learning opportunities for a diverse range of students.

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning was introduced in 2002 to provide a 'hands on' pathway through the final two years of post compulsory schooling as an alternative to the Victorian Certificate of Education and is now studied by over 12,000 young people throughout the State.

In the area of skills formation, in March 2006 Ms Kosky released Maintaining the Advantage[2],which provides for a major additional investment in Victoria’s vocational education and training sector to increase the skills of existing workers and adult learners, as well as apprentices and trainees.

Ms Kosky has overseen the passage of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 [3] which is the first fundamental revision of the Education Act since its original introduction in 1873. The Act enshrines the right of access of all Victorians , “irrespective of the education and training institution they attend, where they live or their social or economic status”, to a high quality education. It includes the guarantee of a place at school or a public training provider for young people up to 20 to Year 12 or its training equivalent and confirms the right of parents and students to information about both school and student performance. It also requires all providers of education and training within the state to operate within a framework that supports the principles and practice of Australian democracy.

Ms Kosky graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1980 with a Bachelor of Social Work. Prior to entering Parliament, Ms Kosky worked in education, the community sector and as a political adviser. She served a term as Mayor of the City of Footscray in 1988 and was a member of the Board of the Footscray Australian Rules Football Club (the Western Bulldogs), of which she is currently the Number 1 Woman Ticketholder.