The purpose of this study was to review five initiatives in national curriculum collaboration, which have emerged since the move to national consistency arose in 2003, and to examine reports on these initiatives published by the news media and the education profession. Searches on web sites of education organisations, an electronic magazine, and the Australian Education Index were conducted to identify documents, news reports and educational literature referring to the five initiatives. Content analysis method was applied to summarise and categorise the documents. The results showed that policy making during this phase of national curriculum collaboration has shifted from establishing national consistency to introducing standards-based education, and reports published by the news media and the education profession have increased since this shift occurred. The conclusion indicated that, whilst a national debate has emerged on this issue, only a small proportion of policy makers and leaders within the education community has been engaged in contributing to this debate.