2001 Senate Report on Gifted Education
In 2001, the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and Education References Committee Report, The Education of Gifted Students, 
identified the need for a greater focus on gifted education and greater support for regional and remote families with gifted children.
In response to the report, the Australian Government introduced a range of targeted measures by funding: $2.3 million for the development and delivery of professional development material for teachers of gifted education, grants of $10,000 to assist teacher education faculties to acquire expertise in gifted education and $550,000 for 50 workshops for parents of gifted children in remote areas.
As part of the professional development measure, the Gifted Education Professional Development Package was created. It consists of six modules to scaffold teachers’ learning over the course of a professional development program. The modules are available online.
The Australian Government provided $200,000 for the delivery of further professional development for teachers based on the extensional and specialisation modules. Workshops are being conducted in each capital city and in 12 regional centres. Five online workshops will be conducted for the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia to allow teachers in these regional and remote areas access to the material. Workshops commenced in mid 2007 and will conclude mid 2008. For more information concerning the workshops visit the Gifted Education Research, Resource Information Centre.