Tuesday, 18 November 2025

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (19:10): (1425) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is to reinstate the P–12 college complexity allowance. The recent changes to the student resource package, or SRP as it is known, removes the P–12 college complexity allowance. Although this change is being phased in over several years – and we have plenty of P–12 colleges in my electorate, such as Manangatang P–12 College, who have written to me, and also Murrayville Community College, who have also written to me, and the likes of Robinvale and Merbein, which are also P–12 colleges – this will have significant and long-lasting financial impacts on those communities. Once these changes are fully implemented the cuts will result in reduced VCE subject offerings, which will limit pathways for senior students, and fewer VET and applied learning opportunities, which are critical for local employment readiness, because we know that engagement in tertiary education out in our electorate in the great north-west of the state is much, much lower than in the rest of the state, so employment readiness is vital, particularly through VET subjects. It also impacts through decreased capacity for one-on-one learning support, especially for students with additional needs.

The complexity allowance has enabled schools like Manangatang and Murrayville to provide tailored academic and wellbeing support, including literacy and numeracy intervention, mentoring and social and emotional programs. We know in the state of Victoria, the Education State, that literacy and numeracy are at a historic low, so now you are disadvantaging remote communities like Manangatang and Murrayville even further – it does not make sense. There will be less flexibility to attract and retain high-quality staff willing to work in small remote communities. Murrayville Community College in fact is the most remote school in Victoria, and it is being disadvantaged by this government once again. When is the straw going to break the camel’s back?

I have had letters from both principals, and Natasha Mudie from Murrayville Community College said:

Our school is a small and successful college serving a remote community and we do not understand why colleges like ours, which performs such an important role in our community, have been singled out for a reduction in the SRP. We have never been wasteful with our resources and have been able to use them extremely effectively to achieve excellent student outcomes in the past.

I ask the minister to reinstate the P–12 college complexity allowance.