Governance and regulation > Governing VET in Australia: 1992-2024

This timeline provides a record of Australian Prime Ministers and Commonwealth Ministers with skills and training portfolios. Colours are used to indicate the political party in government. The name of the Commonwealth department responsible for education and training has changed over the years and the timeline also includes these name changes.

1992 is used as the starting point for this timeline, the year that: then Prime Minister, the Hon Paul Keating, released his policy statement, One nation, that included a proposal for the development of a new system of vocational education and training (VET); the Commonwealth and states and territories made the landmark decision to create a nationally coordinated training system; and the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) and its Ministerial Council were established to lead and coordinate the development of a national VET system.