Wednesday, 18 October 2023

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (19:13): (387) My adjournment is for the Minister for Education. The action that I seek is for the minister to visit the Mildura region and meet with the Mildura West Primary School parents and citizens association and also the Mildura Clontarf Academy. Mildura West Primary is a wonderful school in the heart of the city. It is an International Baccalaureate school with terrific student outcomes, a supportive environment for parents, carers, teachers and students and excellent staff retention rates. Parent satisfaction is one of the strongest in the region. However, Mildura West Primary School simply have not got the modern flexible learning spaces that are conducive to learning in the 21st century in Victoria, despite the opinion of many teachers I have spoken to. This is despite the department having published not one but two different master plans, the latest being in 2018. Meanwhile, we would like the minister to see firsthand the main learning space, which is now full of white ants and quite literally being held together by plywood and craft board. It is preposterous. The very active parents group are frustrated, and they are tired of being polite. They are seeking a visit from the minister to see their situation firsthand and completion of the master plan as a matter of urgency.

Whilst in Mildura, we would also seek a visit to the Mildura Clontarf Academy, who are achieving amazing things with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys. When we talk about closing the gap we must include the Clontarf Foundation in the conversation, because they are actually doing it. The incarceration rate for 10- to 17-year-old Koori boys in Victoria is 23.2 in 10,000. Over the last two years the incarceration rate of Clontarf boys has been zero. In fact over the last 10 years Clontarf staff report that incarceration rates of Clontarf boys have been but two over the last 10 years. The education and employment outcomes are outstanding among the Clontarf boys in Victoria, and although enrolment is now at 320 and increasing every year, the state government support remains stagnant at $540,000, the same as it was in 2010 during its inception, when enrolment was just 128. We have some incredible teachers and amazing schools in the Mildura electorate, and I invite the minister to the region as soon as possible. The action I seek as part of my adjournment debate this evening is for the Minister for Education to visit the Mildura electorate as a matter of urgency.