Ministers statements: teacher workforce
Natalie HUTCHINS (Sydenham – Minister for Education, Minister for Women) (14:29): I am delighted to update the house on the Andrews Labor government’s support for student teachers through the rollout of cost-of-living incentives. Talking to student teachers, it is really, really easy to understand how these incentives will help them with their everyday lives. Last week I visited Australian Catholic University, where I met with some fantastic young student teachers as they were in their learning place, and I was delighted to announce that this government is supporting preservice teachers in rural and regional settings by investing over $32 million to help cover the costs of meals, accommodation, travel and relocation. I am pleased that this funding will be able to support over 11,000 paid placements, because we know the experience that these student teachers get in the classroom is an absolutely critical part of learning to be a teacher. This initiative complements the great work that we have announced with the Country Education Partnership and what we are doing in coordination with Teach Rural, on which I updated the house a few weeks ago. Our investments will ease the cost-of-living pressures and make it easier to undertake a placement in our rural and regional schools.
This budget also delivers $241 million for targeted initiatives to attract more teachers and support more teachers in our classrooms. This includes $13 million to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the teaching profession through a number of cost-of-living measures and tailored supports to encourage them to stay in the system long term. This will support more teachers for our schools, adding to the already 5000 new registered teachers we have had in place over the last two years, which is twice the national average. Can I thank our teacher workforce for the commitment that they show every day in our schools.