Thursday, 28 August 2025

Ministers statements: Christian College Geelong bus crash

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:27): I rise to update the house on the tragic events that happened at Stonehaven. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the Geelong community and all members, particularly the parents of the young girl Milla Killeen. She died yesterday. Her parents would have sent her off to school, and she died on the Hamilton Highway when her bus rolled over. My deepest sympathies go out to Milla’s parents, family members, friends and fellow students during this heartbreaking time. I spoke with Christian College Geelong principal Dr Mathilda Joubert yesterday. She described Milla as a beautiful person with an infectious personality and a talented basketballer who had only recently represented her college at the state basketball championships. Milla was a treasured member of the college, and her loss, as I know, is being deeply felt by all the students and staff.

It is a very big school in the Geelong region, Christian College Geelong. There are some five campuses around Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast, and I want to acknowledge the members of Parliament – the members for Geelong, Lara, Bellarine and South Barwon – who I know have all been deeply impacted by this tragedy.

The Department of Education is onsite now at Geelong Christian College. There is a team of multidisciplinary psychologists, counsellors and allied health professionals helping the school and all the school community get through this tragedy. We will continue these supports right through as long as we need to and make sure that we continue to support this school in need during this time.

I do want to pay particular thanks to the first responders and emergency services. You can only imagine what they confronted when this bus rolled with the young people and the students. The 20 minutes before help arrived must have felt like a lifetime for those young people in distress. I can only imagine the scenes that they confronted. Equally I want to acknowledge University Hospital Geelong and the Royal Children’s Hospital for all of their support.

Grief and trauma ripple right through a community, but one thing I do know is that this makes it a time for the Education State to come together. These recent tragic events remind us of the importance of coming together during a time of need.