Thursday, 19 March 2026

 Tim READ (Brunswick) (10:03): The Victorian number plate is dishonest because it brags that we are the Education State when it should say an education state of emergency. Stacked up against every other state, Victoria sits dead last in per-student public school funding and our teachers are the lowest paid in the country. The Allan Labor government is short-changing our students by about 13 cents in the dollar below the minimum standard for our kids to get a basic education. Victorian Labor is denying $2. 4 billion of promised schooling resource standard funding through to 2031. In 2026 alone, that means $650 million less for our underfunded public schools and teachers. Every other state except Victoria has a timeline to reach 100 per cent of the headline schooling resource standard funding rate by 2034. The ACT is already above 100 per cent, Tasmania and Western Australia will reach it next year, but Victoria is trailing at the back of the pack. Last week hearings began for the Greens-initiated inquiry into public school funding in Victoria, and it is not a moment too soon. Our teachers will be striking next week, and no doubt that will be an inconvenience to some parents. But the greater inconvenience will be to future generations if the Allan Labor government does not act now to fund education properly.