Tuesday, 9 December 2025

 Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:05): As the year comes to a close I want to say thank you to all our teachers and school staff. Thank you for showing up every day with patience, creativity and heart. Thank you for giving everything you have for our young Victorians, not just teaching them but believing in them, inspiring them and making sure they get every opportunity in life to shape their own futures. The Allan Labor government will always deliver for students, teachers and families. The number of teachers we have on our government benches shows that teaching and education are in our DNA. Nothing we have achieved this year could have been achieved without our hardworking schoolteachers – not the record NAPLAN results, not our cost-of-living relief and not the support for student safety and wellbeing.

Teachers impact more lives in a single year than most of us do in a lifetime, and their influence echoes across generations. That is why it is crucial we always recognise their importance, because how can we expect them to be respected if we do not show respect for teachers inside this place? Respecting educators is exactly what the Allan Labor government has done every day since we have been in office. We have invested an extra $38 billion for our schools since 2015. We have grown our school workforce year on year since we have been in office. We have supported them through less paperwork and doing more of what they love, investing in future generations.

Others have not always shown this respect. Others have cut $1 billion from education. Some have driven teachers out of the workforce. Some others today have quoted Jeff Kennett. Jeff Kennett’s legacy, when he was in office, was the closure of 350 schools right across our state. Some things never change, and the fact is we build and they cut.