Tuesday, 14 November 2023

 Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for Medical Research) (14:11): As I was saying, the Allan Labor government is committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all Victorian school students. We know, as Nelson Mandela once said:

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

He said in his book Long Walk to Freedom:

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Yesterday the Premier and I convened the first meeting of our cabinet subcommittee on social cohesion. This is about strengthening in Victoria our social fabric and making sure we continue to foster a harmonious, diverse and multicultural society.

We know education does play a critical role in understanding and confronting our violent past right across the world, but at the same time education does have a role in developing those programs and that curriculum to inform future generations of crimes past. That is why I am very proud that our school environments do provide a welcoming and inclusive environment from the classroom to the playground. It is important that we continue to provide culturally safe programs and a culturally safe curriculum. I am very pleased about the Holocaust education that we have embedded in our school curriculum so young students learn about the history and the atrocities of World War II through their history and realise at years 9 and 10 that nothing like that is ever to be repeated and nothing like that should ever occur again and they know what occurred during those very, very awful times. It is why, as I said before, we are investing $30 million in our Islamic schools right across Victoria to make sure that people of all faiths get the background and education they deserve. I am very proud of what the Allan Labor government is doing. No matter where you live, no matter what your background, our schools and our kindergartens indeed will be places for every Victorian student, and we will continue to get on and build the Education State.