Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (17:10): I rise to address the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I will be frank, I was not expecting to be addressing this bill this week, but because of the circumstances the house finds itself in, this bill has been brought forward, and I am now in a position where it is being considered by the house and I am now making a contribution on behalf of the opposition. This bill does a number of things. It seeks to strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across the education system. It requires all schools to implement policies restricting student use of personal electronic devices during school hours. It seeks to reform teacher registration and regulatory processes through the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). It seeks to expand the Victorian student register to support national data reforms, including the unique student identifier. It seeks to introduce information sharing and governance changes across the education system and further seeks to make minor and technical amendments to improve legislative clarity and administration. The bill also makes a minor statute law revision to the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010. So there is a bit in there, and I intend to address a number of those points.

It is, according to the government, part of a broader suite of education and social policy reforms being progressed by the Allan Labor government. It reflects a number of policy priorities for the government, including embedding Aboriginal recognition and self-determination within legislation. The bill also aligns with national reforms including the rollout of the unique student identifier. Concerning Aboriginal recognition and self-determination, in particular, this bill inserts a formal statement of recognition of Aboriginal people; introduces guiding principles requiring decision-makers to consider self-determination; expands the definition of parent to reflect the Aboriginal understanding and Aboriginal parenting structures; and formalises, but does not mandate, that Aboriginal histories, cultures and perspectives are included across all learning areas in line with existing government policy. It requires consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders on policies and system targets, although I might add that the specifics around consultation requirements are not specified in this bill. It mandates availability of cultural understanding training across the education workforce.

In the area of restriction of personal electronic devices, this bill seeks to require all registered schools to implement policies restricting students’ use of devices during school hours. It links compliance with these policies to school registration requirements and applies across the government and non-government school sectors. In relation to the teacher registration and regulatory reforms, including those impacting the Victorian Institute of Teaching, this bill seeks to expand information-sharing powers for teacher registration and assessment and strengthens the interim suspension arrangements and review processes. It broadens the registration register to include disciplinary conditions and outcomes. It adjusts governance arrangements of the VIT council and streamlines health assessments and investigative processes. Specifically in relation to the Victorian student register reforms, this bill seeks to expand the type of data collected, including country of birth and other prescribed information, and supports implementation of a national unique student identifier system. This bill further seeks to enable greater flexibility in ministerial orders, remove certain administrative constraints on appointments and introduce minor technical amendments, as I have previously addressed.

In considering this bill on behalf of the opposition, I have sought to engage with a number of education stakeholders and I might say, Speaker, in reference to your previous ruling which you have just given in this chamber, I will not make direct reference to the advisers in the chamber present this evening, other than to say that I am grateful for the engagement of the minister’s office and the Department of Education in this process. I am grateful for the briefing which they offered the opposition.

I am further grateful for those present from the department and the minister’s office taking a series of questions on notice. And Speaker, I think that you will be as surprised as I am, but I have never had as comprehensive a response to the questions that were taken on notice during that bill briefing as I had, as provided by the Minister for Education’s office, no doubt supported by the Department of Education, and for that I am grateful. I also indicate at this point that the opposition intends to not oppose the passage of this bill through this chamber.

There are a number of other stakeholders that I sought to engage with as part of this process. They include Independent Schools Victoria, the Australian Education Union, the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, the Victorian Principals Association, the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, the Australian Principals Federation, the Australian Catholic Primary Principals’ Association, the Country Education Partnership, the Australian Christian Lobby and others. I am grateful for the feedback that those and other organisations gave on this particular piece of legislation. Both Catholic and independent school representatives have welcomed in particular the ban on electronic devices, and they are quoted in subsequent media articles. I note that on the day that that was announced by the government they did so I believe in a Catholic school, and that event was attended by the CEO of the VCEA Elizabeth Labone, who was quoted in a media article as saying:

We welcome today’s announcement and are supportive of all measures that enhance student engagement and learning.

The CEO of Independent Schools Victoria Rachel Holthouse also noted:

We welcome today’s announcement and acknowledge the government’s efforts to balance access to electronic devices with the need to support positive learning environments and student wellbeing.

I do place on record a note that I received from the Australian Christian Lobby, who raised concerns regarding the Aboriginal reconciliation and self-determination provisions within the bill, particularly in relation to curriculum content and implementation. ACL expressed opposition to key elements of the bill, including clause 5 and related provisions, arguing that they may introduce an unbalanced perspective in the Australian curriculum:

Clause 5 appears to promote a one-sided narrative … while overlooking the contributions and advancements brought by British settlement.

ACL also raised concerns about the practical operation of the provisions, noting that while some elements are framed as principles based, they may become effectively mandatory in practice through associated requirements. ACL further noted that these concerns indicate that aspects of the bill relating to Aboriginal recognition and curriculum content are likely to attract further scrutiny and debate. In our view, having taken into consideration all of those matters, as I say, our position is to not oppose the bill.

The bill includes a number of broadly supported measures, particularly the extension of mobile phone restrictions across the non-government school sector. The provisions relating to Aboriginal recognition and self-determination are largely in our view symbolic insofar as that they are not compulsory and are unlikely to materially change what is taught in schools as it currently stands. The expansion of the VIT powers to strengthen child safety and oversight we believe to be a positive reform.

There is one other stakeholder that I did engage with, but they did not formally convey their views to me in writing. Therefore I raise their concerns during the course of this debate but do so with reference to a memory of a conversation we had rather than an email that I received or a formal response that I received. That was in a conversation with both the Australian Education Union and the Independent Education Union (IEU), who raised concerns around changes to a requirement for the head of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. From memory, their view was that they believe it is reasonable for the head of that organisation, given it is the Victorian Institute of Teaching, to have a current teacher registration.

I am somewhat sympathetic to that view, I might say, and I expressed that to both the AEU and the IEU at the time during the course of those conversations. But in fullness, I wanted to convey at least my memory of that conversation. Thank goodness for privilege, because my memory of that conversation may not be accurate in the slightest. But I believe it to be so. Perhaps next time the AEU and the IEU can convey their thoughts to me formally via email.

I will now refer to some of the questions that were raised during the course of the bill briefing. In relation to the Aboriginal recognition and self-determination amendments, I did have a question around how these amendments were determined, in particular whether these particular parts of the bill in fact fulfilled the Department of Education’s obligation following the passage of treaty legislation. And I was, I will admit, somewhat surprised to understand that the process undertaken to bring these amendments to the house today operated somewhat independently of the treaty process and whatever is now required of the Department of Education and the Minister for Education with reference to the treaty legislation. The amendments that are in this bill were developed and refined, as I am advised by the department and the minister’s office, through consultation with Aboriginal community representatives as well as stakeholders from the early childhood education, schooling and vocational education sectors, including the union and the principals association. But they further note here the proposed amendments are not in response to obligations or considerations arising out of treaty, and so I just simply note that at this point in time. I note that and signpost it, I guess. I dare say that for the Department of Education and the Minister for Education to fulfil their obligations under treaty, they will be required to bring further amendments with a thematic similarity, perhaps, to the ones that they are bringing here. But I just note that at this point in time to simply say for those interested: watch this space.

In relation to the amendments to the student register, I did have a question during the course of the bill briefing. There is a new requirement for a country of birth to be captured, and my question at the time was how in this particular instance does the bill, through the government, I guess, choose to define ‘country of birth’, because country of birth could mean nation state; country of birth could mean through an Aboriginal Indigenous lens the land in which you were born in accordance with the tradition of those elders and that societal structure. I thought, given one of the stated intents of the bill is to expand Aboriginal reconciliation and self-determination, that that was a fair question to pose. I have been advised that ‘country of birth’ within this bill means the nation in which a student was born, and in collecting this data, the department relies on the standard Australian classification of countries produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I am further advised the majority of countries which can be listed as a student’s country of birth under this arrangement are independent sovereign nation states but that there are some exceptions to this – Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales within the United Kingdom, for example.

I did further ask during the course of the bill briefing – in relation to data that was being collected, this bill enables a new data point to be collected, but I did ask the question: was consideration given during the course of developing this bill to the existing data points that were collected, and do they still remain relevant today?

I will give you just one example if I may. A local father of a couple of kids, when he registered his first child at the local state school, filled out the registration form. During the course of filling out that registration form, one of the questions that was asked was – and I am paraphrasing, as I have not got the form in front of me – ‘How far away do you live from the school that you are seeking to register your child at?’ During the course of the proceeding years, when it came to registering his second child, this father found himself in a similar circumstance, and the answer had changed between the first child’s registration at the school and the second child’s registration at the school. It had changed from 400 metres in the first instance to 1.4 kilometres in the second instance, but it was still a change. On registering their second child, they dropped off this form at the school office and noted at the office that they may need to change the details that were registered for their first child, only to be told, ‘We don’t use that information anymore. Don’t worry about it.’ It appeared, as has been reported to me, that regarding the information collected through the school registration process, certainly within the state system, in that instance there was more concern around emergency contact details, medical information et cetera. I do not question that that sort of information should be prioritised, but this particular parent was quite keen to have the information provided to the school updated.

That is why I raise the question: if this bill now requires more information to be collected, was the process of developing this bill, taking it through the cabinet process and bringing it here for consideration, also an opportunity for the Department of Education and the minister’s office to ask what I believe to be a fundamental question about what data we currently collect and whether we need to collect it? I thought it was a good opportunity to reduce a bit of red tape – reduce the questions perhaps or sharpen the questions that parents are asked during the course of registering their child at a school. I would have thought that information relating to the distance you live from the school where you intend to register your child would be helpful – perhaps for the Department of Transport and Planning, for example, or perhaps for local councils in relation to school safety or well-used transport routes or from a road maintenance or footpath maintenance perspective. It perhaps highlights what I believe to be a broader concern, and I will wear my Shadow Minister for Government Services hat in saying this. It is a bit like those orange cards that you fill in on arrival back into Australia. I am not entirely sure where all of that information goes – I do not think anyone is. There are many, many, many data points that many departments in the state collect. I am not saying at face value that that is a bad thing, but I think that there is an opportunity to be using that data in a better way to help inform the decisions that policymakers make, to be data led in our decision-making and ultimately to help Victorians in a more direct way.

I will move on to point 5. Following the amendment to the minister’s powers to make acting appointments, I further ask: what sorts of limits would apply to the way in which these appointments are made? This bill, as I understand it, enables the minister to effectively make an acting appointment with certain existing limitations removed. I understand why that may be the case. It may take some convincing for someone to step into an acting position, and that may need to be incentivised, but I ask that question through the prism of public accountability and the fact that we should not be paying employees of the state whatever.

There needs to be some sort of accountability and justification mechanism.

I am advised here that under the act the minister may make an acting appointment where a member is absent or otherwise unable to perform the function of their office. In general, I am told that appointments to authorities may be made for up to three years, as noted above. There is an example that is offered here as well – on the one hand, where an acting appointment is made to cover a substantive member’s absence, the acting appointment’s term cannot be for a period which is longer than the substantive member’s absence. The appointment and remuneration guidelines issued by the Premier regulate the making of appointments, including acting appointments to government non-department entities. So I am of the belief that there are sufficient guidelines in place for that not to be an issue.

Item 7, I did ask how the Victorian Institute of Teaching is going to transfer the relevant data held in the RODA. For those playing along at home and who need a bit of an explainer on that acronym, that is the Register of Disciplinary Action onto the Register of Registered Teachers. I asked: is this data held all in the same system? Will there be any audit or other assurance of that data transfer to ensure it is all correct? The reason I asked that question was because the information that is held on this system is, well, it is quite personal information. It is the difference between the future professional progression of a teacher or otherwise, depending on the behaviour that they are accused of or otherwise. And so I believe that, specifically when we are dealing with information as sensitive as that, the incorrect transfer of that information or misuse of that information, or if security processes and procedures and scaffolding are not considered around that information, then that can have implications for an individual which may be detrimental to their future professional opportunity. For that reason, I was very keen to understand the safeguards that the department and the VIT had in place.

I was told the following: the RODA is maintained as a manually updated PDF document, with information entered and amended through administrative processes. VIT has a register of disciplinary action policy that is guided by a set of principles to ensure the RODA is accurately recorded and appropriately disclosed in accordance with the statutory requirements. You would imagine that was the case. I have been further advised the Register of Registered Teachers is generated as an automated extract from the teacher registration database, with information populated directly from system-held data. VIT advises it has audit processes in place to review information contained on the RODA, including cross-referencing against the RRT to ensure all relevant information can be accurately included on the RRT to meet the new requirements in the bill. VIT will also conduct a data-cleansing exercise to ensure that from the commencement of the new provisions, VIT is able to publish conditions, limitations, restrictions, cautions and reprimands, where appropriate, in a consistent and compliant manner. I further advise the department has engaged closely with VIT in the development of the amendments in the bill, and VIT confirms it has the capacity to implement the required changes when the provisions come into effect after royal assent in early June.

I was pleased I asked the question, and I am pleased and grateful for receiving the comprehensive answer that was provided to me by the department and the minister’s office, because, free of politics, information such as this should be considered with the greatest degree of sensitivity.

I further asked how many people are on the RODA, the register of disciplinary action, at the moment and was advised that there are currently 335 entries on the RODA. VIT is in the process of auditing all existing entries to ensure they comply with the publication requirements applying to both the RODA and the RRT. This includes verifying accuracy, relevance and appropriate treatment of information in light of the legislative changes.

I might say at this point in time to those from the department or the minister’s office who are present or watching along at home that it does concern me that the VIT as part of this process will verify the accuracy of the data. Fair warning that I fully intend at some point in time, whether it is through a question on notice or whether it is through the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee process, to ask specifically this question: in the course of this data-cleansing exercise undertaken, was there a point in time where there was any data that was sought to be verified and found to be inaccurate, and what were the circumstances around that? I would like to think that a current database that holds information as sensitive as the information that we are considering at the moment would be accurate without a shadow of a doubt. But if there are inaccuracies, I would be very keen to understand those.

Not all teachers on the RODA, I am advised, will appear on the RRT, because information about a teacher may be recorded on the RODA even if they are no longer registered, whereas the RRT only records information for teachers who are currently registered. Again, I am grateful to the department and the minister’s office for providing a bunch of that information. The assurances that they have provided are fair assurances, to the point where I was able to take the position of not opposing this bill to the shadow cabinet, which they agreed to and which the coalition party room has also agreed to.

I might say that in relation to the changes to what technology can be used and cannot be used in schools, I understand why the government is doing this. I understand that the government wishes for this to be front of mind when those who live outside the bubble of this place consider the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. But I will also add that there were many schools that did not wait for the government to introduce this legislation to make these arrangements compulsory before they put that into practice within their own schools. In fact I think you will find that the Catholic sector and the independent sector had largely banned mobile devices, AirPods and smartwatches prior to this bill being introduced. Credit to them, I think that they recognised quite early in the piece the distraction that these provide to students in a learning environment and the distraction that they perhaps provide to students through an explicit instruction pedagogical structure, and they themselves, without the need of the government introducing this bill, implemented these changes of their own volition. I think credit should be given to them for doing so and recognising their students’ learning opportunity.

Finally, I will say this: although it has been a bit of a kumbaya contribution in many respects and a non-partisan love-in on behalf of the opposition, there are a bunch of things that could be done a hell of a lot better in the education space, and it would be remiss of me, with a minute to go, not to mention some of those. On maintaining the Education State label on the on the numberplates: I am just not sure it flies. In fact I think it does not fly. I reserve my right, in holding the shadow portfolio of not only education but also government services, as someone who could actually make the decision, with the engagement of one person, to suggest that we change that arrangement. I will consider my options in that regard.

Look, there are a number of things that could be done better in this state, and just as one example, there is the impact that the government’s schools tax is having on the independent sector. I note the changes that they made during the course of the last bill, but I also note the contrasting position of the opposition. We are going to scrap the tax on independent schools. We will, not just for the independent sector and the Catholic sector, the non-government sector, but also for the government sector, because education matters.

 Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Medical Research) (17:40): I do thank the member for Sandringham and Shadow Minister for Education for the bipartisan approach he has had to this really important legislation, the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I am just going to very much begin with – he spoke about the slogan –

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Education, unfortunately you have already spoken on this, so I am sorry but I cannot allow you to have a second chance.

Ben CARROLL: I seek leave.

Leave granted.

Ben CARROLL: Again, I echo my comments before on the bipartisan way the shadow minister has approached this bill. This bill is important for a few different reasons. The Labor movement is the party of Mabo, the party of land rights and, under Jacinta Allan, also the party of treaty.

The SPEAKER: That would be the Premier.

Ben CARROLL: Premier Allan. The Education Act 1872 is one of the oldest acts on the statute book, and it is very interesting that it does not recognise our First Nations people. Premier Allan’s government are fixing that, and this is in National Reconciliation Week, which we know concluded yesterday, putting truth, justice and healing at the front of everything we do. I always say as the Minister for Education when I am speaking at many different events that our first students, our first educators, were Aboriginal people, and Australia’s Aboriginal history and culture within the education system are crucial to building understanding while granting Indigenous people their respected place in the Australian story and in the Australian education system. We recognise how important they are and that they count. I have had the great honour of being able to sit down with Noel Pearson on more than one occasion and learn from him as one of the greatest educators we have in Australia, so I am really proud that we are doing this, because as the Yoorrook Justice Commission said, it is not about words, it is about deeds. We saw the great Travis Lovett himself just this week walk some 900 kilometres to Canberra as part of his National Walk for Truth. I think in Victoria what we are doing is so important, and I know the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association and the Australian Education Union have been calling for this reform for some time.

Equally though, we are the jurisdiction that led on phone-free schools, and now we are leading on screen-free schools. We know all the evidence. Whether it is loneliness, young people not being able to develop the relationships that they should be able to or the effect it has on the prefrontal cortex, the reward system, the biggest social experiment we have at the moment is social media and how smartphones are rewiring a generation. All the evidence shows, particularly at those foundation years, that getting smartphones and screens out of the classroom is having a really big impact on students’ learning: they are concentrating more, classes are calmer and they are getting deeper relationships with their fellow peers. This is something that the government system led on, and it has been so successful that the non-government sector have also asked for coverage for them to introduce mobile phone bans, and not just that but digital devices, EarPods – all of those things that we know are distractions in the classroom. Widening this policy to make it a statewide policy will be a really important measure that we know will help everyone in the Education State deal with having the best opportunity they can have in the classroom.

We know there is no more important investment than in education. That is why we are also, though, doing really important work around the teacher registration system, making sure that the Victorian Institute of Teaching gets all the support it needs to and making sure that our teachers feel valued and feel respected.

They are the biggest lever we have in the classroom, and I could not be more proud of the improvements we are making to the registration framework to further strengthen the teacher registration framework under the leadership at the VIT. Currently we are working very hard to make sure that with the reviews of teachers everything gets done as quickly and efficiently as possible. We are also going to make sure though, through this, that we expand the information available for teachers on the register of teachers and enable the removal of obsolete or unnecessary information from the register of disciplinary action, as well as widening the pool of eligible candidates for the chairperson of the VIT. We know more and more now that we have to widen and make sure that our boards within the Department of Education have multiple skill sets, and that is what we are doing through this legislation.

We are really proud of our reforms. The shadow minister did touch on the Education State and the logo. It is very clear for us that this is not just a slogan on the bottom of our numberplates – it is a track record of investment and achievement and delivering results. When you look at Victoria we have the best NAPLAN results in the nation, the best NAPLAN results in our history, the most students strong or above, the fewest students needing additional support, the best results for priority cohorts, the strongest results for disadvantaged and First Nations students and the highest number of young people engaged in school or work. These results are no accident. They are due to the sustained investment of nearly $40 billion under the Andrews and Allan Labor governments.

What we will be delivering soon are the highest paid teachers in the nation as well, and we will also be giving a really substantial pay rise to our education support staff. We know that schools are now more than ever service systems in the local community, and whether it is the work we are doing through the Glasses for Kids program or the school breakfast and lunch programs, we are making sure every school is not just about the bricks and mortar and what happens in the classroom, it is a place of wellbeing, it is a place for families to come. We are doing everything we can to make sure the school environment is as strong as it needs to be.

I could not be more proud to have stood with the Premier and the Minister for Disability on the day of our budget, where we announced a record investment in disability inclusion. Wherever I move around the school system, everyone talks about how we are addressing some of the most vulnerable kids and their needs. We are a government that has upgraded every specialist school across the state. But more than that, with the work we are doing inside the classroom we are identifying students that need tutor learning support and interventions to help them catch up and stay up and be with the rest of their class. We know the federal government is embarking on a whole reform agenda around the national disability insurance scheme. I think what they are doing is an important thing that they need to go on with. But when you look around Australia, there is no more of a gold standard in supporting young people with autism in schools than in Victoria. I know the Minister for Disability in the other place, with me, the Premier and the Treasurer, is working very hard to make sure that when Thriving Kids comes on board, as it will one day, Victoria is a national leader on how we support more speech pathologists, more early intervention and more support for our schoolkids in the classroom.

That leads me to also talk a little bit about some of the work we are doing in mental health. The mental health in schools initiative – it is great to see the Albanese government putting more support to that as well. But again, we have had the public sector leading on that, and it is wonderful. I was with the member for Footscray just recently at one of her local Catholic schools. That is now being widened out to all schools across our state, and that is something we are very proud of. In terms of capital investment – everyone has heard me talk about this regularly – one in two schools built across the nation is built right here in Victoria, and there is a substantial upgrade program. But more than that, we are opening them up for community use. We know we need to do everything we can. When you are building these new schools with new auditoriums, with basketball and netball courts and with ovals, we need to open them up for community use.

A lot of the members of the government are very proud and very engaged in this, particularly out in Melbourne’s west, where I am from. The member for Point Cook has been a strong advocate where they play cricket all year round, the great, strong Indian diaspora. Making sure all those ovals are open for community use has been a game changer for that local community.

Finally, I want to give credit to the Department of Education for the work they have done in preparing this groundbreaking legislation. As I said at the outset, it is about more than words, it is about deeds. But I also want to just give them credit for the work they are doing inside the classroom through the rollout of the Victorian teaching and learning model 2.0, the VTLM. That is a game changer. It is going to feature very strongly at the Age education summit coming up. I know the shadow minister will be there with me. We are seeing the science of learning – world’s best practice – being rolled out in every single classroom across our great state. I often will say that Victoria’s future is written in our classrooms. Our students are our most important resource. Cures for cancer, combating climate change – it will all be on their shoulders and something this legislation will help them achieve.

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (17:51): There is nothing like a bill contribution at 10 to 6 while juggling a toddler to make you appreciate the work our teachers do. So I might lead, before I get into the bill, with a shout-out to our teachers and also the amazing work that they do in our lives raising our children. As the minister and shadow minister said, really the future of our state is in their hands. It is a lot on their shoulders, but they are pretty remarkable people, aren’t they? In our shadow minister’s contribution he made it clear that we will not be opposing this. Extending mobile phone restrictions to non-government schools is sensible policy, and the VIT reforms to strengthen child safety protections are also welcome, and we support those measures.

But I might take this chance to speak about education on a local level and some of the issues that are not in this bill. I recently had the opportunity to meet with Benalla P–12 students and their leadership class, speaking about what they think leadership opportunities are within their school. Many MPs get the chance to do civics classes and leadership classes and assemblies, where they get to speak to our students, and it is one of the highlights of this job. I often think out of the mouths of babes comes the truth, because ask a student what is important to their community and I reckon half the time they are more on the money than most adults in our community and they are more passionate about the future of our communities as well. I also got the chance to meet with a Broadford political leadership class, and boy oh boy, did they really lead the advocacy for our community. They spoke about the road conditions and the need for an extension at their secondary school. They spoke about the impact not having a secondary school in Kilmore is having on their local community – on the opportunities in the whole region of such a significant growth corridor when you do not have access to an education that is convenient, that is achievable and that your family can afford as well.

I will take this chance to speak about the Kilmore secondary college and the work that Corey Walker – I have to do a shout-out to him – and a group of passionate locals are doing in our community. They were absolutely heartbroken – not angry, heartbroken – because their children cannot access a public secondary school in their community. Kilmore is one of the fastest growing regions in Victoria and its population, based on a target of this government, is set to increase by 300 per cent, and yet it does not have access to a public secondary. As of a couple of months ago the education zoning cut straight through the community and divided families and friendship groups, and there was no school of choice. A bit of a silencing approach meant the Allan Labor government has removed that zoning under the condition the neighbouring schools can actually accommodate that extra amount of students.

Broadford was promised support for an increase to their specialist classes, because otherwise they cannot deliver the Victorian curriculum next year. There was a planning oversight – I hope it was a planning oversight – because next year they are going to be accepting potentially an extra 100-odd students from Kilmore and they cannot deliver the curriculum in Victoria to those students. I have some of that evidence here. Right now – these are Department of Education figures by the way – when it comes to the arts, the school is 705 square metres under entitlement; technology, 320 square metres under entitlement; science, 430 square metres under entitlement; and performing arts, 900 square metres under entitlement.

What that means for the kids at school at Broadford is very creative planning by the school, I have got to say. It means classes in corridors and classes in a wellbeing portable that has got asbestos. When the Department of Education came to fix the asbestos, they fixed it on the wrong building. They went to the wrong one because the facilities are so deteriorated. It means they have got more than eight classrooms, portable classrooms, running off a generator. In fact they have 22 relocatable buildings and another eight coming next year to accommodate the extra students, but they do not enough space to deliver the curriculum because they do not have space for specialist classes.

The Treasurer called – I heard this from multiple sources – the principal in, and the school committee, and told them $16 million was coming: ‘Be quiet for six months, and $16 million is coming.’ When the budget arrived, they got a call the week prior, and they are going to get two Mod 10s without toilets and without a sink for a staff room, and they are going to be running off a generator. Tell me this is not where the Education State has slipped to. This is concerning, because as the minister and shadow minister said, the kids are our future. Invest in an education. It should not be disadvantaged based on where you live.

I heard the closing remarks from the Minister for Education about the focus on tutor learning and the support. Right now Broadford Secondary is offering that through donations, through community fundraising, because they do not have it in their budget. This is the reality of my community when it comes to education. Seymour Secondary College has to fundraise to get electricity upgraded to run an air conditioner on a new building. This is where we are at with planning in Victoria.

I am concerned about the relationship the Treasurer had with the Broadford school committee as well as the principal, because they are there to offer our kids stable, supportive educational opportunities, and they were misled. I am being polite because of the time of the day and the ears in our presence. But this is their future. I know of one senior teacher that is going to quit next year because she knows where it is going. This is a great school of choice, yet they do not have the facilities to deliver the Victorian curriculum. That is incredibly concerning.

I also want to talk about the impact of removing the education zoning. A lot of the comments from the community have been, ‘Is this to kick the school down the road?’ Because Labor have been in government for over a decade. If they wanted to support a public secondary school in Kilmore, they would have done it by now. The land has been offered. It is there waiting. There are three primary schools, on top of two that already exist, that have been approved – five primary schools and not a public secondary school in one of the highest growth regions in Victoria. It is deeply concerning.

How did we get here – I want you to ask me. How did we get here? We got here because of a figure called 12 per cent. We got here because when you look at new infrastructure spending in Victoria, regional Victoria gets 12 per cent. We are sick of fighting for the bare minimum. We are sick of fighting for an air conditioner at a school that has gone through a heatwave in summer. We are sick of fighting for black mould to be removed from our portable classroom. We are sick of fighting for electricity that powers classrooms. We are sick of fighting for teachers that are leaving in droves because of the facilities they are forced to work in in regional Victoria, and we are sick and tired of forcing our kids onto buses outside our region.

That is why the Nationals and Liberals, if elected in November, are committing to a fair share guarantee. We do not want to fight for this. Our kids do not want to fight for this. It is a fair share guarantee that will make sure our kids get the education and the facilities that they deserve. One thing I forgot to say is that right now, throughout my region, an analysis of our school buses shows they are currently oversubscribed by about 35 per cent. That means that at the start of every term my office is inundated with kids left behind because they cannot get on a school bus. Not only is there not a school in their community, they cannot get on a bus to get to a school. That is what we are dealing with. That is the bill that should be in front of us. A fair share guarantee for regional Victorians. A fair share guarantee for the kids in regional Victoria to get the education that they deserve. Labor has had a chance to govern and they have not delivered for regional Victoria. The Nationals will deliver a fair share guarantee.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (18:01): I am very pleased to speak on this bill, noting that the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026 will make improvements to our education system across the board. If you think more broadly, our state has led the way with treaty, and so it is consistent that we would make appropriate amendments particularly when it comes to Aboriginal recognition. We are strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the education –including early childhood education – and training systems to improve cultural safety and responsiveness and support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations learners. I will just note that this aligns with the key elements of recommendation 48 made by the Yoorrook Justice Commission in 2025 and is part of our recognition of First Peoples as our first educators. I am really, really proud of these reforms, and they are certainly most welcome and, as I say, consistent with advancing self-determination for Aboriginal people in our state.

A further reform that we are bringing about – or actually we have already led the way on, sorry; I was understating that – with our public schools is introducing a new prescribed minimum standard for school registration, requiring that all Victorian schools, both public and non-government, have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices– mobile phones, wearable devices and audio devices – during school hours. I know that these changes have already made a significant impact in terms of the ability for students to actually learn and to focus in the classroom. Having taught for a little in another life, for a little portion of my life – nothing on many here who have had longer careers in teaching – it can take sometimes seven commands to get one step or one element of the class process through, so to speak. So adding 20 or 30 devices around the classroom, I can only imagine, because when I taught there was no such thing as a mobile phone. You did not have to worry about it. No, you were just worried about making sure eyes were forward, focused and that the directive was taken on board. I can only imagine what it must have been like to date for teachers to have not only to manage the class, keep everyone focused, make sure that they are actively learning, but then to attend to these very distractive devices, not only for students, I might add, but for adults as well. I think we all know how distracting mobile devices can be. So this is absolutely fantastic that there will be unison for all schools in Victoria.

I will also acknowledge that the member for Sandringham did say that there were a number of non-government schools that have already embraced this. That is absolutely fantastic. It just shows that there really is a solid recognition of the significant impact and benefits that are derived from taking away unnecessary distractions in the classroom, but not only the distractive – is there such a word, distractive? I am going to use that word for now – element, but also the impact on mental health and self-esteem of social media. It is well documented now, and hence the national reforms, that we also are very much embracing those here in Victoria, when it comes to social media.

It is really about calming that space in the classroom, not providing the unnecessary and perhaps quite destructive impact of a smartphone and all that comes with that. So this is a really welcome reform, and I am really pleased that all school students will now be adhering to these changes.

We are also improving the teacher registration framework. It is obviously critical work that the Victorian Institute of Teaching undertake in terms of regulating the teaching profession in our state. I remember duly going through those processes, as is appropriate. Ensuring that there is even more efficiency and actually enhancing their ability to attend to those real, high-risk regulatory matters has got to be a good thing as well.

I did just want to note – because I noticed there were a couple of issues raised in the chamber by one of the Nationals members – that the Liberals and Nationals have made a commitment to cut funding in regional schools, and we need to make sure that the broader community knows about this. We know that recently the Leader of the Opposition announced they would commit 25 per cent of school infrastructure funding to the regions. The problem with that, though, is that this would mean a cut from more than 30; I have actually been told it is 31 per cent that Labor is delivering right now. That is probably just a perspective to be taken on board when you are looking at the infrastructure spend in regional Victoria by our government. These are the choices that people will be able to make. I just think that might need to be factored in when we are having discussions about investment in our schools. And I might take that discussion a little bit further. Our record does speak for itself when it comes to building the Education State. Since coming into government we have invested $20.1 billion, noting that last time the coalition were in and when they had the chance, they slashed more than a billion from education – just noting that. We have choices, comparison – just putting it out there.

But anyway, we are delivering on our commitment to build 100 new schools by 2026, including 19 new schools opened this year, which is absolutely fantastic, and Narrarrang Primary School is certainly one of those in my area. It is an absolutely fantastic school. It has a kinder onsite – I have spoken about this before – that will be opening in 2027. That is virtually built now, as we speak. Also there is going to be a multipurpose community hub. That is really well developed as well, and shortly we will have a formal acknowledgement for the whole community. Further to points that were made by the Minister for Education, school grounds can be used in many ways that can benefit the whole community. Certainly, I think that many people have reached out locally. I do not think it only applies to the inner areas – it is growth suburbs as well. On the one hand it is preventing the double drop-off, because if you have one child at kinder and one child at school, you can drop them both off and pick them both up at the same time, but it is making a better use of those fantastic gyms and multipurpose facilities outside school hours as well. We have funded over 2400 school upgrades at more than 1250 government schools – $294.8 million to upgrade and modernise 31 existing schools – and we are building schools faster than ever before. So if there are those wanting to query our investment, query our prioritisation, I think the record stands for itself.

Just a bit of a further perspective: if you are looking at Victoria versus the rest of Australia, 50 per cent of the schools that have been built across the whole of Australia in the past 10 years have been built right here in Victoria and by our government. So I think when we are looking at comparisons, certainly you can see that there is strength in the numbers and it is hard to argue with those numbers – 50 per cent in Victoria versus the rest of the country. It is just something, I think, to be factored in as well.

I think it would be difficult to question the prioritisation that we offer. I want to take up the member for Sandringham. Calling Victoria the Education State – I think we can proudly stand by that. We have brilliant schools. We have the best teachers in the country in Victoria, and we most certainly are backing them in. We have recently reached an in-principle agreement with the Australian Education Union that will see teacher and principal salaries rise by at least 28.3 per cent over the next four years, starting with an increase of 12 per cent by October 2026. I will note that the agreement recognises the significant value and expertise education support staff bring to our classrooms, with all education support staff accessing allowances and the introduction of qualification requirements for higher salary classifications. On that note, Victoria, the Education State – let us say it loud and proud.

 Tim READ (Brunswick) (18:11): I rise to speak in support of this bill, which reforms Victoria’s education system by embedding Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the curriculum and mandating cultural training for educators. In doing so it answers the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s call to genuinely acknowledge Aboriginal people’s rights, cultures, histories and perspectives within our education system and its curriculum. While our schools are critical to the future of Aboriginal children and young people in Victoria, especially our public schools, Yoorrook made it clear that:

First Peoples children are being failed by the Victorian schooling system.

In recent years Aboriginal students in Victoria have seen higher kindergarten attendance, better literacy rates and more year 12 completions, but wide gaps remain for many educational outcomes compared to other Victorians. Yoorrook found that educational inequality for First Peoples in Victoria stretches back to colonisation itself. Successive discriminatory laws, the forced concentration of communities onto missions and reserves and the sweeping powers wielded by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines deliberately denied First Peoples access to meaningful education. The state of Victoria embedded disadvantaged by decree, and this legacy of educational inequality continues to the present day. Victoria is not on track to meet half of the education targets in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. It is also deeply concerning that Yoorrook found that schools are too often culturally hostile places for Aboriginal children, contributing to high levels of student disengagement, absenteeism and suspension. Similarly, a 2023 Commission for Children and Young People inquiry heard that for Aboriginal students:

… a culture of low expectations is compounded by racist attitudes. For those living in care, these experiences can be exacerbated because of their removal from family and community and culture.

So it is heartening to see this bill, which embeds Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the curriculum and mandates cultural training for educators.

About four out of five Aboriginal students in Victoria attend a public school, so funding our schools properly is critical to supporting Aboriginal kids to thrive at school. But I do not see how you can close the gap for Aboriginal students in Victoria while grossly underfunding the schools they attend. Victoria currently sits dead last in per-student public school funding compared to every other state, and our teachers remain the lowest paid in the country – hopefully not for long. Last month I met with staff and school council members at Brunswick South Primary School. They told me that they only receive $1700 of funding per year per Aboriginal student to provide them with 32 hours of additional literacy and numeracy support and that many Aboriginal kids miss out on this support because they are not testing low enough. These minimal supports do not cover what these students actually need, so the school is funding extra supports out of its own funds for its Aboriginal students and for other students with disability and neurodiversity who get no additional funding.

The result is a staffing budget deficit of around $200,000 for this small primary school. Recognition of the distinct rights and histories of Aboriginal students in our schools will have little meaning if it is not matched by properly funding the public schools where the vast majority of Aboriginal kids go.

On another note, before I finish, I also want to flag the Greens’ concern that this bill seeks to remove the requirement that the chair of the Victorian Institute of Teaching council be a registered teacher. The primary function of the VIT is to:

… regulate members of the teaching profession to ensure quality teaching ...

Our view is that this independent organisation should be chaired by someone with teaching experience. I understand that any decision to fill this position with a non-teacher bureaucrat would not be well received by the teaching community.

 Michaela SETTLE (Eureka – Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture) (18:16): I am delighted to rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026 – such an important bill, I think. Certainly all of my colleagues in this place understand the absolute – more than importance, the great leveller of education. It is the way that we bring all of the community along with us. I know that there has been an enormous amount of work done in this space, and we quite rightfully are the Education State. It is a bill that speaks to everybody across Victoria. When you talk to parents at a school gate or teachers in a staff room or young people in regional Victoria trying to build their life, they all want the same thing. They want a strong educational system that helps every child succeed, and of course that is what this is all about.

I would also back in the comments from the previous speaker from our side in response to the member for Euroa’s contribution. To suggest that in some way regional Victoria does not get the support in the education system is just a nonsense. As she also pointed out, in this budget alone, 31 per cent of the budget funding for school upgrades is going into regional Victoria. So if anyone is out there thinking that the Nats’ commitment of 25 per cent is a good deal, I would suggest that it is nothing less than a cut and that the 31 per cent that we are investing into regional schools is as it should be. We should be backing our regional schools.

Within my own electorate, you see it on the ground. Woodmans Hill college in the previous budget received $10 million for a year 7 centre, which is a really important centre. When you are coming through from primary school into high school, it is a big adjustment, and to have a hub for the year 7 students is incredibly important in that transition. So that was a $10 million commitment a couple of years ago, and it is now open and operating, which is wonderful.

But in this current budget, there was $19 million for Bacchus Marsh college. Bacchus Marsh, of course, is growing at an absolute pace. We on this side are absolutely committed to making sure that the supports are there for all of our families and wonderful students. So I was really delighted to see that commitment from the Treasurer in the budget for $19 million for Bacchus Marsh, and it will go a long way to really supporting that school. I think it gives it the capacity to support more than 300 students.

But across the electorate, I look at what we have done over the years. Darley Primary School had a $10 million rebuild; Mount Clear saw investment in the early days – a $15 million build there; $10 million at Woodmans Hill; and the list goes on.

But what I love most about our side of the house is that innovative thinking. Something that I think has been extraordinary is the commitment to kinders in schools. Particularly in the regions it makes a really big difference. In my electorate alone we are about to open the Teesdale kinder in school. The Ballan kinder in school is up and running, and the Gordon kinder in school, and the list goes on. Any kind of suggestion that regional Victoria in any way misses out on the education spend is, as I say, nothing short of an absolute nonsense.

On this side of the house we understand that education is a continuum. It is everything from those wonderful little learners at the kinders in schools right through to the investment that I have reeled off in my electorate, and I know that there are many more across our regional cohorts. Then there is our commitment to TAFE and all of that brings for people in the regions. It is an incredibly important part.

Turning to the bill itself and strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination, it is really important to understand that Ballarat had many orphanages and, very sadly, a lot of the stolen generation were sent to Ballarat. That means we have a really broad First Nations constituency in Ballarat, because a lot of those people stayed on. We have some extraordinary people, not only the Wadawurrung, the traditional owners, but the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative, which is an Aboriginal corporation there, and just extraordinary programs. What I was really delighted about was that the Gordon kinder in school is in fact run by BADAC. They are the first Aboriginal community controlled organisation to run a kinder in a government school like that. I am really, really proud of the work they do. It is wonderful to visit. They also have a couple of other kinders in Ballarat and Ballan, and it is wonderful to visit them because of the First Nations culture that they give to every student. I will make the point that it is not just for First Nations kids – all of our kids get to experience the beautiful culture that our First Nations people bring. I give a big shout-out to those wonderful kinders run by BADAC.

Education is all about looking to support students and their families. I was so delighted that the Minister for Education this year acknowledged that kids in Ballan feel much more akin to Daylesford College. It is about the small regional communities, so the Minister for Education rezoned Ballan to include Daylesford College. I understand he is in the chamber, and I would, through you, Deputy Speaker, like to say that he has made an enormous amount of families in Ballan very, very happy. It is their chosen school, and it was just a wonderful piece of work. Through you, I extend my great thanks for that.

The bill goes to a variety of things, including reducing distractions in the classroom. I have got two boys. They are now well out of school, but I know what ratbags they were with their phones. This policy is just so important. It has obviously worked in state schools, and that is why we would like to see that benefit extended out to kids all across Victoria.

I want to give a particular shout-out to our teachers, and there is a little bit of personal indulgence here. My youngest son Sam is now an education support worker.

Martha Haylett interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: Yes, on ya, Sam! This is his second year. He went through in a traineeship; he has his cert III. He fell in love with it, like all of our wonderful teachers do. I think it is one of those jobs that really is a vocation. He is looking at going off and doing his full teaching degree, and that is because he knows that it is a really valued profession. In all of the negotiations through the EBA it has been really clear that we value all that teachers do for our kids.

To see that negotiation come to a point where they were recognised for all that they do through a much-deserved pay rise was just a wonderful thing. I know that my son Sam loves his work, and all of the teachers at Rosanna Primary School, where he is an education support, are just so committed to the kids in their care. I am delighted that we have been able to acknowledge that through this most recent EBA.

To the bill, in closing, it is a wonderful bill and so important. What a fantastic education minister we have. I commend the bill to the house.

 John LISTER (Werribee) (18:26): In the short time available before the break I want to speak about this bill and this amendment to the Education and Training and Reform Act 2006 in which we are strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in education; requiring that schools have a prescribed minimum standard for registration and a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones; improving the teacher registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching – something I know very well, still being a registered teacher –and enabling country of birth data and other information specified to be part of the Victorian student register so they can be assigned a unique student identifier.

Some of you may have heard this before, but I used to be a teacher – in fact I am still registered and I am going to keep that going. The issues addressed in this bill are things I have had a lot to do with, and tonight I want to go to a few of these reforms in more detail. The bill introduces a new prescribed minimum standard for school registration – every school is registered through the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority – requiring that all Victorian schools, public and non-government, have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices. By making this a requirement through the VRQA, it means all schools need to implement this important wellbeing policy.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

In discussing the mobile phone ban and extending it in law, I would like to take this moment of parliamentary privilege to express my grievance with the following former students who would never get off their phones in class: Brody; Max; the other Max; Luke; Indi; Jamie; Xander; Michael, who was renowned for watching local footy replays when he should have been doing English; Shania; Tia; Brandy; Imogen; Amelia – actually this is unfair, she did always listen to me when I told her off for being on her phone; Tanika. Chloe; Bailey; and Janaya – I do not know what Janaya was listening to on her phone, but it was probably trash. This list is not exhaustive. If I caught you now, you would be breaking the law, not just doing my head in.

I know they will not be watching Parliament closely; they will probably be on their TikToks or their Snapchats, whatever the kids are on these days if they are over 16. But if they were, I would want them to know that the time lost to mobile phone use at school is destructive. Not only are kids not learning to regulate or practice patience with their instant gratification machines in their hands but mobile phones are a safety risk. I cannot tell you the number of times something kicked off in the schoolyard where it was provoked through a messaging app. Teachers used to be able to sense and see escalating tension between students, but with the proliferation of phones at school this disappeared. This ban is having a positive effect in our schools, and I thank families and students for continuing to cooperate with this policy.

In continuing to explore this bill, I want to turn to how we are strengthening our First Nations focus in schools. The bill will introduce a statement of recognition into the act that acknowledges the unique status of First Nations people and outlines historical and ongoing factors that impact First Nations learning. It will also confirm Aboriginal histories, cultures and perspectives forming part of the learning areas that are subject to that free instruction. It will also introduce a new duty on the responsible departmental secretaries to ensure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training will be made available to anyone. I appreciate this particularly because I have done a lot of PD in my time on these topics, especially as a humanities teacher. In National Reconciliation Week I think this is so vital. I will always recall the words of a lecturer from my teacher training talking about the importance of First Nations knowledge.

Sitting suspended 6:30 pm until 7:31 pm.

John LISTER: Unlike the kid that has rocked up to class and has not read the English text before he got there, I have gone through the bill. I was, before the break, speaking about the idea of embodying First Nations cultural knowledge in the Education and Training Reform Act. Earlier this evening I know the minister mentioned that the Education Act is one of our oldest pieces of legislation and also mentioned the history that sits behind it, with the principle of free instruction being enshrined in that act all those years ago. But it is important to make sure that it is a dynamic document and that it reflects the era of treaty that we are in now in Victoria. We are introducing that statement of recognition through the bill but also having that responsibility on departmental secretaries to make sure that that Aboriginal cultural understanding and professional development is made available to people who work in our system.

I wanted to briefly reflect on one of the most outstanding professional development opportunities I had in this space, which was called ‘Koori English in the classroom’. Secondary English teachers were encouraged to do this course, run by Matt Lillyst in the Department of Education, and it was all about Koori understandings of language and how you incorporate that into an English classroom, because while an English class is about learning the language of English, having an understanding of different systems of language – and particularly systems of language that are indigenous to the place that we live in – is so important.

We made the decision a few years ago to make sure that our new schools carried names from First Nations communities in the places where we are building them – names like Walcom Ngarrwa in Wyndham and Laa Yulta as well, names from the Wadawurrung language – recognising this long history and connection to the land where we are teaching our kids. In reconciliation week this is vital.

Before the break, I recall I was talking about a lecturer I had when I was at teachers college talking about the importance of First Nations knowledge. He mourned not just for the dispossession of so much understanding about our country from First Nations people – that dispossession of their own knowledge – but also for the generations of migrants to this country being denied this same history and understanding. Our First Nations people were our first scientists. They understood the landscape. The Wadawurrung people had ways of being able to tell the time of year using what we believe to be stone circles out the back near Mount Rothwell in what we call Wurdi Youang – and I could be corrected by Aunty Judy on that. I do not know if she is watching tonight, but she would definitely pick me up on that.

In talking about that, I would like to recognise the amazing work of our Koorie education support officers in our schools, particularly people like Aunty Judy – Judith Dalton-Walsh – who is a champion for our kids in the Wyndham South collection of schools where she works as a KESO. She is a proud Wadawurrung elder. I did pay tribute to her in my inaugural speech, and it is always good to get her advice on these matters, particularly when it comes to education. Her words still ring in my ears all the time – ‘Make sure you look after our kids’ – and that is what this bill is about. It is about looking at how we continue to look after the next generations in our schools. I am also proud to have worked at a school which was one of the first secondary settings to have established a reconciliation action plan, and they are going through the renewal of that plan at the moment in consultation with community.

Before I conclude tonight I want to reinforce how proud I am to work in a Labor government that has invested heavily in education in Werribee. This list is exhaustive on my side of the Werribee River: seven new schools and dozens of upgrades coming out of the ground right now at Walcom Ngarrwa, Manorvale and Riverwalk. A new high school – I am psyched to have got funding for a new high school in Wyndham Vale in this budget. Kindergartens built on our primary schools were mentioned before by the member for Eureka, this idea of getting rid of the double drop-off, and for communities, particularly communities in the regions or in the outer suburbs, how important it is to have those facilities in one place.

We have had more funding for disability inclusion in this budget, which is particularly important; tuition-free teacher degrees; and support for more teachers being recruited into our region, which I know is particularly important; breakfast clubs; affordable uniforms; the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund – all things that have benefited my community – and a pay deal for teachers on the table that will make them the best paid in the country and recognise the professionalism of education support staff through eventually having that qualification framework.

Tonight has been a bit of fun, and I have rinsed a few of my former students. We do need to make it clear that we take the education of our kids across Victoria seriously. We will continue to back our teachers, our school staff, our families and most importantly our students. I hope when I send a copy of this to my former students they see it in a good light, because that is what it is. I commend the bill to the house.

 Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Cost of Living, Minister for Renters, Minister for Men and Boys) (19:37): It is an absolute pleasure to be standing here tonight and speaking on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. We have heard from a couple of former educators. I am a former educator, and it was a time in my life that I feel very, very proud of, to be able to be in schools and –

John Lister interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: I was a pretty good teacher actually, thanks, member for Werribee. It is a time when you can make an amazing amount of change – a change in direction or a change in fortune for kids, get them on the right track and get them to a point where they can actually achieve their potential. That starts in primary schools and high schools, and I would really like to just put on record my appreciation for my local schools, whether that be Andrew Batchelor, the principal of Frankston High School and the team there – one of my sons recently graduated from Frankston High School, which is still one of Victoria’s leading public schools; McClelland College with Laura Spence there; or the Frankston North education plan, with Monterey Secondary College, Aldercourt Primary School and Mahogany Rise Primary School. Jack Mazurek and Raelene Harvey are just amazing people who dedicate their whole lives to making a change in the lives of not just children but their families as well. We have seen that in the Frankston North education precinct project with Our Place and Berry Street there as well.

I just want to shout out to Peita Cooper at Ballam Park Primary School, who does an amazing job. But also we have recently had a principal retire at Overport Primary School. Julie Gleeson was just an amazing, passionate, committed principal who wanted the best for students and wanted the best for families. It was very moving to see on their Facebook page recently her lead the whole school in song like she was John Farnham or something like that. I did not know she could sing, but wow. She has got a voice.

The bill before us today proposes a package of fairly important amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, and the key features of this bill include long-overdue recognition of First Nations people. It has been great tonight to hear some of the members on the other side of the chamber take part in that respectful tenor, because it has not always been like that. This bill includes provisions to ensure that the act effectively supports our system to become more inclusive and responsive to the needs of First Nations learners. The bill also includes measures to bolster student learning, engagement and mental health by restricting personal electronic devices in our schools, which I will speak about in one moment, and it makes important updates to improve the operation of the teacher registration framework and the Victorian student register as well. Now, there have been plenty of people who have spoken about Aboriginal recognition and self-determination, and as much as I would like to speak about that, I do want to make sure we have got a fair spread in our discussion across this bill tonight, so I do just want to touch on restricting personal mobile devices in schools.

Most people who have been playing along at home will recognise that in 2020 it was this government, the now Allan Labor government, that was the first in the country to introduce a new requirement in government schools that student mobile phones must be switched off and safely and securely stored during the day. I know that was a change, and the thing about change often is not the principle of the change, it is that something is being taken away. In this case, a lot of our youth who were used to communicating using their devices, listening to things while they were studying – that was taken away. I admit that, again, that can be hard on people, but I think we have seen the fruits of this change come to light in the NAPLAN results in Victoria. I do not think many people have made that connection. Our NAPLAN results have gone up. That is primarily because of the great work of our teachers and our students and our support teams in the schools, but also it comes at a time when we have made that change, so it would be very, very interesting to get some more data on that too. As a former teacher I can say, though, anecdotally, that without a doubt this policy has improved student focus on learning and increased student socialisation as well and physical activity during breaks. I say this anecdotally, but the example I will use is my own son. He loves his devices – no doubt about that. He has been more physical to the point where he just had basically a knee reconstruction from the basketball field –

Gabrielle Williams: Court.

Paul EDBROOKE: Sorry, basketball court – thank you, Minister. But he has been more physical. I believe his focus on learning has increased, and I have seen that. His concentration has also increased without a doubt. I am not saying it was bad before, but it has increased. I think the socialisation amongst the students at that school has also, in my observation when I visited that school, definitely not been bad; let us just put it that way.

As technology has developed, of course we have seen other devices come into classrooms, whether that be Apple Watches, whether that be the glasses that people wear now – things that can also be dangerous, things that can capture images of people, things that can be used in AI, things that can be used to create lists that we have heard about, things that can create footage and carry really, really significant risks to people in a mental health sense and also legal repercussions as well. So with all this in mind, this bill proposes to require that all Victorian schools, both government and non-government, have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices – including phones, wearable devices and personal audio devices – during school hours as a prescribed minimum standard for registration.

I know – and I see it when I drive students home that are friends of my kids – everyone has got their Dr Dre’s Beats on and one off one ear so they can hear what is going on. They have got their music on as well. They might have their AirPods in. At least in my house the fashion was to grow your hair a little bit so you actually could not see the AirPod when it was in. I do not think it was his emo period; I think it was that he just flipped his hair over so the teachers could not see. But this will effectively prescribe a minimum standard that that is no longer acceptable. I would argue with anyone – as much as I like to have an AirPod in almost all the time when I am not working or when I am studying; I do not mind doing two or three things at once – that in a classroom this is something that will absolutely benefit children and will benefit students. They would have to listen to me –

Roma Britnell interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: or indeed you, member for South-West Coast – in the classroom and pay a little bit more attention.

Roma Britnell interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: You are a distraction – stop it.

There is a harmful effect of these devices, and if I can just quickly tie that into the portfolio of men and boys, these devices are the gateway to what we are seeing can be something that is influential on young boys who are becoming men. It can lead to a pathway where we have boys going off the rails and becoming unhealthy men who make unhealthy decisions about the law, about the way they treat others, about the way they treat women and men, about their sexual practices, about consent and about what we expect from others and expect from ourselves. Certainly a lot is coming out about that, but these devices are indeed the gateway to that world where we do have people who are influencers – they call themselves influencers – but really, as one South African influencer came out and admitted the other night, the young men and sometimes older men that follow him through the internet and through their devices and phones, possibly in schools, are customers. They are his customers and nothing more. They buy his bitcoin; they buy all his trinkets, T-shirts, all this rubbish, and he feeds them rubbish. He openly admitted that. What this part of the act does is make sure that we are extending the benefits of the mobile phone policy for government schools and reducing the harmful effect of some other devices. That goes the full spectrum of being able to learn in a classroom, not having people tempted to record people or make footage of people, AI things, lists – things that are potentially very, very offensive – and on the other end, being exposed to some of these influencers on the internet. We want our education system to be able to operate without these kinds of distractions, these dangerous distractions, and that for me is a really significant part of the bill. That is why I commend this bill to the house.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:47): I rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. This is basically a bill that combines a wide range of unrelated reforms under a single piece of legislation and includes provisions dealing with Aboriginal recognition and self-determination, restrictions on students’ personal electronic devices, teacher registration reforms, student data collection and a range of administrative changes. Whilst the opposition will not oppose this bill, there are several aspects that warrant close scrutiny.

I do not disagree with the legislative changes that extend restrictions on personal electronic devices across registered schools, although I do think we need to adapt to the times and assist children to understand how to work with the technologies that we have today. Having four children and watching the transition for each one as more and more technology –

Paul Edbrooke: Have you got four kids?

Roma BRITNELL: I have got 100 kids, Paul. And the challenges – I remember the one who I had to say, ‘No, that’s not staying in your bedroom tonight,’ to and the fights that we would have. I remember my daughter conning the school beautifully with her false phones. I get the challenge. You know, hand one in and have another – it is not hard to figure it out. It is about working with the technology rather than just banning things often, so there is a challenge there but getting that balance right is not easy.

However, it is disappointing that once again the government has chosen to bundle broadly supported reforms in with a range of symbolic and poorly defined measures that create uncertainty without delivering clear outcomes. I speak of the government providing very little detail about how some of these provisions will operate in practice and how consultation requirements will be applied or to what extent expectations will ultimately be placed on schools and educators.

The legislation creates a broad obligation for decision-makers to consider self-determination principles within the Aboriginal community while offering very little guidance about how these principles should be interpreted. I have seen in practice the importance of self-determination. I know it works. I know you can get outcomes, and that should not be undermined. But just wrapping it up in a bill like this and not giving the clear guidance and understanding actually I find a little bit tokenistic and a little bit offensive to be honest, because I know how well self-determination within the Aboriginal community does work, particularly in community controlled settings.

The bill also expands on the Victorian student register and increases the amount of personal information collected on students. Given the recent data breaches affecting education systems, parents have every right to be concerned about whether the Allan Labor government has the ability to adequately safeguard information. Over the last decade I have seen enormous breaches by this government who have tried to control some information but lost control, and there have been some incredibly unfortunate situations as a result of that.

There are also concerns that the expanded Victorian Institute of Teaching powers and additional compliance requirements could further increase the administrative burden on teachers and school leaders. At a time when the workforce shortages remain such a challenge, the government should be focused on reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, not adding to it. I have a teacher who has been sharing my accommodation for the last eight months, and I listen every night to the bureaucracy that they are faced with. The level of reporting and the things they are doing are not actually helping the educational outcomes of the students who need their attention.

When discussing educational policy, it is important that we do not lose sight of what is actually happening in the schools. Warrnambool College, in the electorate of South-West Coast, which I represent, is a wonderful school with a strong community of dedicated teachers and staff who work tirelessly to support young people and who help them reach their full potential. I was visiting recently, and they have put an Indigenous garden together. The kids were proudly showing me the work that they have been doing setting up irrigation systems and learning all about science and technology with the set-up of that technological irrigation system. Every day these teachers are making an incredible difference in the lives of students while facing increased challenges with limited resources. It is probably worth recognising here the $2.4 billion of cuts, which the state Allan Labor government have pulled from education. It is another example, and I can pull many examples out, of how this government has cruelly cut funding to education.

One program in particular at Warrnambool College which deserves particular recognition is the Stars Foundation program. We have got the Clontarf program for the Aboriginal boys, and we have got the Stars Foundation, which took over at Warrnambool College and Brauer College in the last couple of years from the previous locally named programs, which is the girls program. These are really holistically supported programs that support Indigenous girls to attend school, remain engaged in their education, complete year 12 and transition into employment and further study. This program delivers real outcomes. Year 12 completion for kids in these programs is up at around 90 per cent. That is against 68 per cent where the kids are not participating in Stars. But guess what? Instead of the Allan Labor government supporting this – which is what this bill tells us, that they have got great supports for the Aboriginal community – they have cut their contribution to the funding. It was a third funded by the schools, a third funded by the foundation and a third by the state government, and they have cut that funding to Warrnambool’s Brauer’s and Warrnambool College’s Stars Foundation programs. Does that tell you we have got a government sitting here opposite us who cares about the Indigenous community, or does that tell you it is very tokenistic, just like what is in this bill? They talk about self-determination, but if they really want to see self-determination, then they should put in for these girls at school who want to complete their education and who are actually engaging in school really well because they love this program. You tell us you are going to do it, and then under the guise of secrecy, because the schools are too scared to speak up, you whip the funding out. That is the truth of what is happening on the ground.

The decision that highlights a broader problem in education is that the government continues to focus on symbolic reforms, and it is frankly insulting. Schools are being asked to do more with less. As I said, $2 billion is being cut from the recent state budget, and it just another cut that this arrogant government will continue to deny. Anyway, teachers continue to carry enormous workloads, yet workforce shortages persist. Parents and school communities are increasingly concerned about safety and student wellbeing. Meanwhile, basic infrastructure remains unresolved. Warrnambool College, again, has been waiting for far too long for a gymnasium roof to be repaired so they have a gymnasium that they can actually work in and gather in as a school. It is actually dangerous.

On days like today I will guarantee you they would not have been in there because the roof would have been leaking and kids would be falling over and hitting their heads. Now, the school’s parents association has been trying to work with the government – silence; they have been trying to work with the local Labor member – silence, absolutely nothing. They have been led along, been told they are being listened to, been told there will be funding – nothing; years of nothing.

The situation at Terang Primary School is another example where the government has walked away from a campus. Yes, it is now consolidated on another site, but they just walked away and left the small township of Terang with no understanding of what is going to happen with that campus. Is it just going to be left there? It has been for the last three years. A historical society are in part of it, but they are getting no guidance and no solution. It is a small town. It deserves support.

One last thing I want to raise about the schools is how, when the schools want to go on a school camp, they cannot get a booking on the train. St Joseph school has come to me today with an entirely unreasonable situation around the school wanting to plan for a journey to Melbourne to do a school camp, but they cannot book the train. They cannot book it unless it is within 90 days, and schools plan years ahead. I had Merrivale school contact me in April, and I am still waiting for a response from the minister. I had this problem last year with many schools. I had it the year before with this particular school, St Joseph school. And yet the transport system – and I have got the Minister for Public and Active Transport at the table – will not allow these schools to book. For this school to actually book a bus, it costs $7000. The school has been told to book one group, 59 students, at 7:30 in the morning, and the other students at 10:30. Now, can you imagine how difficult it is to get enough parents, enough teachers, supervision? I would be too scared to take kids on a trip without having them all grouped together, but trying to split them up – this is just such a disadvantage to regional kids. It makes a very unfair situation for regional communities. So I beg the minister at the table to listen to the fact that it is unreasonable for schools to not be able to book safe trips together in groups and to not be able to book in advance. I am sure everyone in this room who has got children or been at school themselves, which is everyone, knows that you just cannot book something within a month when you are living three-and-a-half hours away and you have got 100 kids to book accommodation for. I urge the minister to look into this. I have already got a representation to the minister for the Merrivale School, and this is now St Joseph that is coming to me – just change it so they can make a booking, get on the train and take the kids for an experience to come and visit the Parliament or other things that they will not see otherwise. And I will not oppose the bill.

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (19:57): It gives me great pleasure to rise this evening and make a contribution in favour of the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, an incredibly urgent bill, which is why we are here this evening, obviously, debating it. At the outset I would like to touch broadly on education and schools and schooling in Victoria. We came to government in 2014, and we said that we were going to be the Education State. We did so on the back of four years of neglect of Victorian schools, of neglect of Victoria’s training system, in particular TAFE. To use a local context for schools in Wyndham, I have said this many times before in this place that in the four years between 2010 and 2014, when we had a Baillieu and then a Napthine government, the population in Tarneit was exploding. It was one of the real growth periods in Tarneit. I mean, it has been growing ever since, let us be honest, and it still is. But the population of Tarneit was absolutely exploding, and the former Liberal government, in response to that, did not build one new school in Tarneit or in Wyndham and it did not upgrade one school in places like Hoppers Crossing and Werribee and Wyndham Vale that had been there and had been established for some time. It took an Andrews Labor government to get elected to make capital works upgrades to schools like the Grange in Hoppers Crossing; to build the second stage of Tarneit Senior College, which was neglected by the previous Liberal government; to make capital works upgrades to Hoppers Crossing Secondary College, to Mossfiel Primary School; and indeed to build 14 brand new schools just in the LGA of Wyndham.

Can we sit here with a straight face and say that those opposite would do the same? Can we sit here with a straight face and say that those opposite will do anything like that, if elected at the end of this year? I mean, we cannot. It would be nothing but a cruel joke to say that they would. Schools under a previous government – and the member for South-West Coast just spoke at length at the end of her contribution about neglect of schools in the western districts. We could reel off schools in and around her electorate that have been upgraded, including schools in Terang and Warrnambool, including schools in Geelong and Ballarat. Regional schools throughout the term of this government have been given more money than any government has given ever before. In fact in the Andrews and Allan Labor governments there have been more schools built in Victoria than in any other state combined in Australia.

Like I said, we came to government saying that we would make Victoria the Education State, and that is exactly what we have done. With early childhood, we have made kinder free for three- and four-year-olds, because all the research says to us that those early childhood years are absolutely critical in kids’ development. The member for Dandenong at the table knows exactly that, having a young child herself. We have made kinder free for three- and four-year-olds to make sure that kids have the best start in life, regardless of their parents’ bank balance, which is also obviously a fantastic cost-of-living measure at the same time.

The member for South-West Coast also, because it is just important to correct the record for Hansard, stood up at the dispatch box – actually there is no box there, stood up at the table – and made her contribution and said that this government in its recent budget had pulled $2 billion out of education, had made a $2 billion cut to education. It is just false. Like, it is trash. I cannot say that she lied, but she just did not tell the truth. There has been a real-time increase in education funding year on year on year on year since we came to government. We can contrast that with previous Liberal governments that closed schools and that sacked teachers. But they get upset when we talk about Jeff, ‘You know, that was so long ago, everyone. What do you mean?’ They love Jeff. They still want to be Jeff. It is in their DNA to do this. They have already announced $40 billion worth of cuts to the public service. They have already announced that they will be sacking public servants. You cannot cut that deep and you cannot make those levels of savings without cutting frontline services. They have not come out and announced that they would close schools or they would sack teachers, but they have got form, and that is really all we can go by. Really all we can go by is history and the past and what they are made up of and what is in their DNA, and that is that they do not respect teachers’ work. They will go to war with teachers, most certainly in their pay. I would think there is a pretty good chance that they will sack teachers. I would think that there is a pretty good chance that they will close schools, not just across metropolitan Melbourne but in the regions as well, which is what they did last time.

Chris Couzens interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: Correct. The Swanston Street school in your electorate, member for Geelong, they shut it. They closed it. It ended up being bought by Barwon Health, from memory.

Chris Couzens interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: North Geelong. They have a long history of this, and what we know is that history repeats itself.

An incredibly important component of this bill is strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination. It is interesting that the member for South-West Coast spoke about the fact that self-determination works. It is one of the underpinning principles of treaty – the first treaty to be passed by any Parliament in Australia. Australian parliaments are late to the party on this, but we have the first treaty passed by any Parliament anywhere in Australia, with self-determination being one of the underpinning principles of that legislation. Yet we have the member for South-West Coast standing here talking about how self-determination works, whilst being part of a party that walked away from their commitment to the Victorian Indigenous community and voted against treaty; one of the more shameful acts that this Parliament has seen, at least in recent years.

We know as a government that self-determination works. We know as a government that when you consult the Indigenous community about the affairs that affect them most, about the affairs that affect them and their children, whether that be education, whether that be health care or whether that be land, that everybody gets better outcomes. We know in particular that our Aboriginal community gets better outcomes. That is why we went on a journey for six or seven years to go through the process to –

A member interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: Ten? Sorry, I have only been here for 3½ years. We went through that journey with Victoria’s Aboriginal community to negotiate treaty, for them to elect a First Nations assembly and for us ultimately to bring a piece of legislation to this Parliament that will fundamentally make the lives of Indigenous people in Victoria better. We did so because for generations people in this place legislated and told Aboriginal people how we were going to make things better for them without consultation and without including them in the process. For the member for South-West Coast to stand here and talk about how self-determination works and how she has seen it work yet be happy to be part of a party that has committed to tear treaty down if elected, is for me a little bit odd – equally as odd as a party making a commitment that one of their first acts in government is going to be to tear away treaty and to stop consulting with Indigenous people about issues that affect them.

Another important piece of the bill – I am nearly done – is the restriction on personal devices in Victorian schools. As the father of a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old who I am consistently dragging away from their iPads to get outdoors and to play sports and to read and to write, I know how incredibly important this provision in this bill is, and we need to continue this reform as technology advances. It is an amazing bill, and I commend it to the house.

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (20:07): I am very pleased to rise to contribute to the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I also want to outline the impact of the previous Liberal government, as the member for Tarneit did, the impact that that had on our schools in Geelong. Coming to government in 2014 we found those schools in a state of absolute disrepair. Since 2014 we have put an unprecedented amount of funding into rebuilding our schools, repairing the damage and making sure that they are state-of-the-art facilities for our young people – our students – to attend. In fact, as the member for Tarneit mentioned, a number of our schools were closed by the former government.

But I do want to focus on the strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination part of this bill. We are now in the era of treaty. I know all of us on this side of the house are really proud of that fact. We know that the opposition have promised to tear up treaty in the first 100 days, but I think we should be really proud of the work that we have done over the last 10 years. Gellung Warl is now in place. Aboriginal people across Victoria voted recently and have appointed Gellung Warl, the new First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, to continue the really important work that we have but also under treaty, which is so significant for the state. This bill is part of that journey, and I do want to thank the minister for his work and commitment on this. It is really significant because we do need First Nations people to be doctors, nurses, teachers – to be in those roles – and education is at the very heart of that.

I hear often around our state people talking about the fact that we do not have enough Aboriginal people to go into those roles. Well, there is a reason for that: systemic racism. That is the reason. There is no generational wealth within Aboriginal communities. There are no opportunities like there have been for non-Aboriginal people. We know that. I think the fact that we do not have that highly skilled Aboriginal workforce reflects what has occurred over the last 200-odd years – that systemic racism has been a prevention to them all of this time.

This bill will strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. It will introduce a statement of recognition that acknowledges the unique status of First Nations people in Victoria and outlines historical and ongoing factors that impact First Nations learning and wellbeing outcomes. It will also confirm Aboriginal histories, cultures and perspectives, forming part of the learning areas that are subject to free instruction in schools. In my community and when I move around the state, people are pretty clear that they do want to learn. They do want to understand First Peoples culture. They want to be involved in the celebration of that culture, and we have seen that throughout National Reconciliation Week this past week. There have been many events right across the state, and to see the hundreds or thousands of people that come out in support of reconciliation week, that will come out in support in July during NAIDOC Week, is really significant. That tells me that people do want to engage. They do want to understand First Nations culture and the impact colonisation has had on First Nations people.

Here in Victoria not only have we got treaty, but we also went through the Yoorrook Justice Commission, who have recorded through evidence and through the archives what has occurred over the last 200-odd years for First Nations people. This is really important work. I know some schools in our communities do a really good job of teaching young people or students about our history and the truth and about the oldest living culture in the world, but it is not consistent and not everybody gets the same level of learning that they should. The Yoorrook Justice Commission truth-telling lays it out in the evidence and describes the harm and the systemic racism. It is all there for everyone to read now.

I do want to make a point on the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s findings on education, in that:

The State systematically imposed substandard and limited education on First Peoples through oppressive laws, missions and reserves, and the total control of First Peoples’ lives. Education was also a tool of attempted assimilation. This pattern of educational inequity continues to the present day.

First Peoples students face structural impediments not experienced by others, with racism and lack of cultural safety undermining their educational success.

The Victorian school curriculum does not tell the full story of Victoria’s history, and many educators remain ill-equipped to teach compulsory curriculum to the required standard. First Peoples’ school experiences in Victoria are also negatively impacted by the critical under-representation of First Peoples educators, leaders and public servants in the education system.

Despite increased involvement in tertiary education, significant barriers to First Peoples’ achievement and to Victorian universities fulfilling their obligations to First Peoples remain. These include historical and continuing exclusion of appropriate First Peoples content and knowledges in university curricula, lack of engagement with First Peoples communities and Traditional Owner groups, and failure to deliver appropriate training to frontline professionals to enable them to provide culturally appropriate services to First Peoples.

Equality in education requires a foundational commitment to ensuring that the experiences of First Peoples students are meaningful, empowering, culturally safe and reflective of First Peoples’ culture, history and perspectives. This cannot be achieved through the production of even more policies and strategies that have either meaningless targets or no effective means to enforce them.

That is directly from the Yoorrook Justice Commission. And I think it is quite profound, in those words, that we as a state are now recognising that, acknowledging that, and this is what this bill is all about or is a pathway to.

The bill also introduces a new duty of the responsible department secretaries to ensure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training will be made available to anyone working to support learning or wellbeing in or across early childhood, schools, TAFES, adult community and further educational providers as well as state-funded registered training organisations. This aligns with the key elements of recommendation 48 made by the Yoorrook Justice Commission in 2025 and is part of our recognition of First Peoples as our first educators, so I think we all have a significant role in ensuring that legislation like this continues to go through this house. I know all of us on this side of the house support this bill. The impact for First Peoples is really significant, and we rely on these bills to ensure that we deliver. The Gellung Warl will obviously play a greater role in the First People’s Assembly and pieces like the education piece.

Truth-telling and self-determination are what will close the gap, and we know that. As I think the member for Tarneit mentioned earlier, self-determination is at the heart of the work that we have been doing, but so is truth-telling – having truth-telling in our schools but also having the educators delivering truth-telling in the most culturally appropriate ways – and ensuring that Aboriginal people have the same opportunities that all others have, that they are able to have that educational pathway. I commend the bill to the house.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (20:17): I too rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, and it is such a pleasure to follow the member for Geelong, who speaks so passionately and eloquently about First Nations and the work that this Labor government has done over a very extended period of time, over the 12 years, to get us to where we are: Australia’s first and only treaty. It is extraordinary.

I will start my contribution by following the same sentiment as that of the member for Geelong in terms of the importance of closing the gap and the truth-telling to happen at our schools. I had the pleasure, I think it was just last week, National Reconciliation Week, of a flurry of invites coming in for events at my local schools across the board – primary schools, Catholic primary schools, high schools, independent schools – to celebrate and acknowledge National Reconciliation Week. And I took up the opportunity to attend just one event, which was indeed a week-long celebration of different events at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, which is a primary school that sits within the most gorgeous suburb of Sunshine West. It sits within a pocket that is doing it tough; it is a bit of a disadvantaged sort of area. St Peter’s is headed up by an incredible principal, Miss Grace. Everyone knows her as Miss Grace. She is an incredible woman who in a previous career was a social worker, I think in one of our youth justice centres. She left that because she wanted to work with children to prevent them from even being within the youth justice system in the first place, and she said, ‘Where can I do that?’ And that was going and re-educating herself and going to work in a primary school, and now she is heading up this great local Catholic primary school.

I attended a luncheon on Thursday at the end of the week, which was the closure of National Reconciliation Week, and the events there at the school. It was a celebration lunch. I am not sure if any First Nations Indigenous food was on offer, but I will say it is an incredibly multicultural school. The diversity in the school hall was just extraordinary on the day. Every child, the parents, the teachers and the support staff were there, and they celebrated it with a multicultural luncheon. It was such an incredible celebration of diversity. The speeches that were made in relation to First Nations people, the importance of the truth-telling, remembering and talking about the past and what happened, telling the truth to kids as they learn the truth about Australia’s history. Some of it is heartbreakingly horrific and grossly unfair. I actually had this moment where Miss Grace said, ‘Do you want to get up and speak?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, fine.’ And I thought, ‘What do I want to tell these kids?’ Immediately I wanted to tell them about treaty, because they did not know about it, and it was not something that the school sort of talked about and all of that sort of thing. I was able to get up and talk about treaty and it being an Australian first and how proud the Labor government is in having worked on it and worked with our First Nations people here in Victoria – and we passed it here in this house.

When I sat down, the kids were really excited and they had lots of questions after and we ate lots and lots of beautiful multicultural food after and had quite a feast for lunch. The kids asked me a lot of questions, and there was a sense of sadness for me, knowing that the fight ahead of us in the next six months was just so important to win this election. Because, as the member for Tarneit said, one of the first actions of a Liberal–One Nation--Nationals coalition, if they won government, would be to repeal and kill off treaty, which is just extraordinary. Of all things that they would want to do, they put that in there. We know why they put that in there. You could never explain and have the kids there at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School understand that, because those kids, through talking about even the difficult past that Australia has had and learning about First Nations people and their incredible and longstanding culture and civilisation here in Australia, would not understand why a political party would want to take something else away that our First Nations fought for and worked with the government of the day for so long to implement here in Victoria. What a sad story to tell children, and shame on those opposite.

In the second part of my contribution tonight, I do want to give a big shout-out. Over the past eight years I have met some incredible principals, teachers and teaching support staff, as I think everyone across all sides of the chamber could readily stand here and say but I do want to give them a big shout-out. We have had many conversations with many, many different principals and teaching and support staff over the years, but those in the western suburbs are particularly passionate about making sure that kids of all ages in Melbourne’s west get a fair deal, because they know the education that they will get at that local school, whether it is the primary school or the high school, will be life changing. The teachers in Melbourne’s west, I do not know what they are like in other parts of Melbourne, but you guys are amazing and you have done an incredible job in helping raise our young kids in Melbourne’s west. It is something that I feel so proud of and you should absolutely feel proud of, and you do not get thanked enough.

I also want to give a very special shout-out. It is not talked enough about here in this place, and it is because I have quite a few special development schools in my electorate.

I have Jennings Street, Sunshine Special Developmental, Western Autistic – I feel like I am going to forget one.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Warringa. That is right, member for Point Cook.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Multicampus, yes. The teachers, the prins and the teaching support staff at that school are absolutely incredible, and the support that they provide and the education, passion, dedication and commitment to the children at those schools is absolutely extraordinary – and also to the families. Many of those families are doing it really tough, and the teachers end up becoming just like family, particularly for the parents, as their children bond with the teachers and teaching support staff. I remember the moment that we announced that we would upgrade every single special development school here in this state. I remember when we made that announcement. Each of those schools, as I have just mentioned, in my electorate that I attended as we cut a ribbon and celebrated the opening of new school buildings and facilities has been such a special moment for me, because we have not just upgraded schools that really needed upgrading but we have made fit-for-purpose facilities for children with many diverse and special needs. The children in those schools will be so much better off. The education and the facilities, where they are going to learn many different skills, lifelong skills that they will need, are just extraordinary.

I talk to a lot of the parents on the school council that come to those openings. They feel really emotional because they have had a lot of input into the design based on the needs of their children. Not only has the Victorian School Building Authority and this government listened and taken on board that feedback, they have translated it into the architectural designs. What we get to cut a ribbon at and open on the day is absolutely extraordinary.

This is certainly a government that has built well over 100 schools here in this state. I was just saying to the member for Werribee, ‘How many schools have we built in Wyndham?’ In honest fact, I have lost count. He thinks it maybe is 16, but he is bragging about seven in his own electorate. I think it is over 20. Someone is going to watch this and tell me the number, but that is extraordinary. That is an extraordinary achievement of a long-term Labor government. That is why Labor governments here in Victoria matter. That is why long-term Labor governments here in Victoria matter most to people in the western suburbs, and that is why long-term Labor governments matter in outer suburban growth areas. We will always have the backs of parents and have the backs of teachers and families and kids in this state.

 Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (20:28): I follow on from the member for Laverton, and I am very pleased to do so, because she expressed some of the views that I hope to express across the course of my contribution as well, which is just how much educators and education matter to Melbourne’s west. So many people in my community come to Point Cook, the electorate that I represent, for the great education delivered by great education leaders.

I will come back to that in a second, because as the Labor Party and as a party who firmly believes that Victoria is the Education State, we are chock-full of educators and former educators. One is right in front of me right now, the most recent teacher to join the Labor Party ranks in this caucus room. The member for Werribee is doing a fine job in this place and in making sure that the Education State is a priority for everybody in this Labor government and in this Parliament in general. I want to just also acknowledge the member for Werribee and his other role, the other hat that he wears and continues to wear as a CFA member and the real challenges that have gone on in Werribee over the last week and just acknowledge how difficult that is. I had another CFA member in with me over the course of today, and we were just discussing what a tragedy it is in those circumstances. I just want to acknowledge that and thank him and all those members of the CFA and FRV who have had a really difficult time in the last week.

The member for Laverton was preceded by the member for Geelong. I always feel like I am more knowledgeable at the end of the member for Geelong’s contributions, because they are so well understood and put in such an understandable way. The Minister for Education always talks about the Indigenous people of this state as being our first educators – the longest living culture the world has ever seen.

What a proud thing that we have in this place. When I welcome people to the Parliament of Victoria I talk about the Wurundjeri people and their long history with this specific part of the land, a place of treaty for them, a place of ceremony. I remember a NAIDOC Week where Aunty Joy, one of the elders of the Wurundjeri people, stood in Queens Hall, and she said some really profound things about wanting the members of this Parliament, of this place, to continue to make laws to the benefit of Victorians and Aboriginal people. What an enormous amount of generosity the Wurundjeri people and their leadership were showing to us that day, what a gift to present to us. This was before the treaty was passed in Victoria, and they were inviting us to make decisions in this place. It was so generous because this place has been the home to colonisation and to so many pieces of legislation that have been passed that have not been to the benefit of Aboriginal people. I thank them for that generosity and that spirit of generosity that is brought forward by the elders of the Wurundjeri people on the land where we are right now.

The member for Laverton and the member for Geelong both talked about the education that is going on through our education system about our First Peoples. It is a sea change from when I went through primary school and through early childhood education settings, and we are so much better for it. Uncle Mark, one of the Bunurong people, whose lands I reside and work on, speaks of the word ‘wominjeka’ and the dual meaning of it, and I really love that there is a dual meaning to it. As he says, there is ‘welcome’ but also ‘come with purpose’. I think we have been coming with purpose in this place in terms of treaty for some time now. It is a real effort that needs to be made. It is a shame that not everyone in this Parliament has come with that same sense of purpose. They come with a very different purpose in their ambitions around treaty. Treaty should not be a difficult or novel or unique thing. It is unique in Australia. The first time that treaty has been done with Indigenous people is in Victoria, but of course it is not very novel for many Commonwealth nations. In fact I understand we are really at the end of the list when it comes to treaty.

Chris Couzens: We’re last.

Mathew HILAKARI: That is right. We should be proud and redouble our effort in Victoria, because we know that we have got so much further to go.

One of the matters that the member for Laverton went to was the wonderful leadership of the principals and the educators out in Melbourne’s west. I know that will be the case for other parts of the state, including the northern suburbs and many places across Victoria, but leadership really matters in any organisation. I remember my own school – we were a relatively middling school, a state school, my high school. A change in principal and the school really struggled; it really did struggle for a while. Another change in principal and the school became one of those lead schools across the state, something that other schools emulated. I know the leadership of the schools in the electorate of Point Cook is what really sets them apart.

We have the largest state school in Victoria, Alamanda K–9 College, and it is absolutely sought after. I get emails and correspondence almost every week from parents who would like to see their children enrolled in that school. They have got some hard zoning there because it is such a sought-after school, because the leadership, the educators and the support staff all make a world of difference in the education at that place. I always say of the schools across the community that I represent that I would trade leadership any day of the week for buildings and facilities, because it is the leadership of our teachers, of our educators, of our principals and assistant principals that really matters. We are doing some of those things that really matter in terms of the facilities as well. At Alamanda, which I mentioned a few moments ago, we are on a couple of rounds of upgrades there. Their senior school facility for the year 9s is probably the best building I have ever seen in any school – state or private, it does not matter: it is the best that I have seen.

Saltwater has some further facilities under construction at the moment, and we just announced in this budget some more facilities for Homestead. We have a huge amount of effort going into schools in the electorate of Point Cook. We opened two schools just this year as well: Yurran P–9 College as well as Ngurraga specialist school right next door to each other. There will be a kindergarten that opens up onsite next year, and the full P–9 facilities will be open at the start of the term next year. These are really big deals for a growing community like the one that I represent and ones like the member for Werribee and the member for Laverton, who are sitting around me, represent. But there is also an effort to go into those schools that are more established, like those in Altona Meadows in the community that I represent, and particularly I look forward to working more with Altona Green and some of the planning efforts that they are going through –

A member interjected.

Mathew HILAKARI: Is that your old school? Oh, there you go – Altona Green and some of the efforts that they are doing. Some of those facilities might have been in place when you were in place there, but we are hoping to see a bit of effort on the facilities there. I always go back to the leadership being the thing that matters, but I can say to every school in the community that I represent: when you take $40 billion out of the infrastructure program ahead of you, do not expect anything anytime soon. I think for the western suburbs there is a truism, which is – not that they are maybe going to be the biggest party in the opposition after this election – that the Liberal Party have never made a commitment to the western suburbs. They have never made a commitment to our growing communities. The only commitment, actually, that they have made is to putting more housing in without the infrastructure and the resources and the facilities and supports that we need. So they are a real risk for the community that I represent.

I do want to take us back to the bill a little bit as well and talk about some of those important matters that are contained in this bill, and I appreciate that the opposition is not opposing this. I would like to see in the Education State more of them talking on it, and I might even see that in a few moments. But this bill contains some really important elements around Aboriginal recognition and self- determination, and that is a flow-on from the efforts that have been underway around treaty. We have talked, and particularly the member for Tarneit talked, around the restriction of student use of personal electronic devices at school, and we know how important this is in terms of a focus on learning and a focus on positive behaviours inside the school. We also have heard speakers talk on the improvements to the teacher registration framework at the Victorian Institute of Teaching. There is a lot contained in this bill that is easy to support, and I am so glad that those opposite have found that ease of support as well on this occasion. I commend this bill to the house.

 Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (20:38): Wominjeka. It means ‘welcome’ in Wurundjeri language, the language of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, custodians of the lands encompassing the Northcote electorate, and when you walk up Hutton Street on your way to Thornbury Primary School, ‘wominjeka’ is written in giant letters on the fence of the school, artfully and lovingly created by the school community, who have tied small pieces of fabric through the gaps in the fence to create the word along Hutton Street. If you walk into this school, you will hear the word ‘wominjeka’, a warm and welcoming greeting offered across every classroom and at every assembly. At Thornbury Primary students learn Woi-wurrung language with pride. They practice greetings, farewells and introductions. They identify local plants and animal names. They name the seasons and the landmarks and family members, and they develop a deep understanding and respect for First Nations history and culture. It is a beautiful thing to witness our youngest Victorians practising Woi-wurrung in their local public school, and this deep learning and recognition of Aboriginal histories and cultures and contributions is happening right across my community in the inner north.

At early learning centres, at public and private schools – primary and secondary – it is a feature of our community that First Nations recognition has been embedded in a very tangible way across curriculums, and that is no accident. With our deep connections to Aboriginal rights movements in the inner north, we are proud to have led the way with this. So it gives me immense heart to see this element of the bill and know that in Victoria, the state of treaty, we will be strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination within the education system in a more formalised way. It is a stark contrast to the Liberal Party, who to their shame have said that they will dissolve the historic Victorian treaty in their first 100 days if they ever are re-elected. As the Deputy Premier rightfully noted, First Nations people were the first students and the first teachers on this land, and we have so much to learn from them yet. I am glad that when my daughters come home from school they have that learning included in their curriculum.

I want to turn to the element of the bill about restricting student use of personal electronic devices at all schools, because this is something that I think as a parent I am not alone in feeling quite viscerally. I am a mum to a seven-year-old and an eight-year-old, and they are in grades 2 and 3. I can confess that, despite our best efforts – mine and my husband’s – keeping them off the screens is a daily challenge. It is really hard. We see the impact it has on their behaviour. We see how it fragments their thinking and dilutes their concentration, and we see them act out in ways that do not seem normal, do not seem like their usual character. We kind of mourn the days of the 1990s that we grew up in, when having fun as a kid was not playing some mindless game app on a screen with ads every 30 seconds, but it was taking our bikes out along the Darebin Creek in Alphington or trapping lizards in the backyard. I know that is a bit nostalgic. I am a 90s kid. I am allowed to be nostalgic, and maybe it is that time of the night that we are getting like that.

The evidence is clear, though. Screens really do impact a lot of things. They impact relationship building. They contribute to loneliness and to mental health issues. They disrupt concentration and brain development. They lead to behavioural issues. I see this even with the limits that we place on our kids’ screen time. So knowing that as a Labor government we are now legislating to expand that ban to restrict devices in all Victorian schools, I cannot support this enough, to be honest – mobile phones, wearable devices, audio devices like EarPods. I know that many schools already do this, but having it prescribed across all schools is that extra step that schools and educators and families have been calling for. Removing those distractions, letting kids engage in their learning and alongside that federal ban on social media, this is progressive Labor policy at its best.

The bill also strengthens teacher registration frameworks administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. That is all about increasing the efficiency of the institute’s processes and making that back-end system work better for everyone.

I also, though, want to speak about our proud Education State and all that we have built here in Victoria under a long-term Labor government, a government that has spent the time and done the work and made the investment to deliver some of the best education outcomes that our state has seen. That includes Victorian students having the best NAPLAN results in the country, better than any other time on record. It includes our historic investment in our nation-leading disability inclusion program, and this is something that I speak to schools a lot about. My husband is an education support worker, and I know the effort that goes on in classrooms to give kids that best start, to give kids that may be struggling or that have neurodiversity the additional support and the care and the empathy and the time and the patience that they deserve to get ahead and to reach their potential. Phonics being embedded – that evidence-based teaching style – and I had the pleasure of being at Wales Street Primary School recently with the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education. We went into a grade 3 class and the kids showed us their phonics lesson, and it was just incredible to see them mouthing the sounds, understanding and being so engaged in that lesson. It was incredible to see.

It is hard to count it at this point, but I think we have made over $140 million of investment into our local schools and kinders in Northcote over the last eight years. It represents the biggest transformation of our local school network that we have seen in decades. The impact that that has for families, for kids and for the next generation of young people in our community is phenomenal, and it would not happen under any other government but a Labor government. That is new gyms, it is new classrooms, it is opportunities, it is hope, it is our Labor government investing in education, and I commend this bill to the house.

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (20:48): I am pleased to be able to rise this evening. I probably –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Member for Eildon, just before I give you the call again, if members can be mindful of the background noise and show respect for the member on her feet.

Cindy McLEISH: Thank you. Acting Speaker. I am very pleased to have that ruling by you at this early stage when I have so many important things that I need to impart as part of my contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. It was said earlier that the opposition are not opposing this bill, and there are a number of elements that I do want to talk about as we work through it, because we have got strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination through the education system and requiring schools to implement policies restricting use of personal electronic devices during school hours. These are things that I am really quite passionate about. I am not going to spend much time talking about the other areas.

I am going to start with the use of personal electronic devices during school hours. I could not be more in favour of this being implemented. I was listening earlier to the member for Werribee, who listed a whole bunch of kids who in his classrooms were addicted to their phones. What that said to me, rather than the addictions to their phones, was the fact that his classes must have been so boring that he had so many students that were willing to disengage with English. I must say, I too was a teacher at some point, and I would be very confident in saying not one student during my time was on the phone ever during my classes.

I am sure there are members in this place who could attest to the behaviour of the kids during my time teaching. But seriously, it is a concern, the level of addiction that children have to screens. It has been well documented about screen time and the negative impacts that it can have, not just physically, watching with your eyes and the stresses that that puts on your eyes, but also mentally and that stimulation that people get from continually having to hook in at what is going on. They are doing things that are perhaps inappropriate during school time and not concentrating on what they need to. It concerns me greatly, some of the things that kids are watching. There has been a pronounced increase in pornographic material being watched by young children, including in the schoolyard and things like that. So banning and restricting the use of these devices, I think, is particularly good.

I refer to a story that was told to me a number of years ago by a secondary school principal about a number of year 8 kids where they had actually got kids off Facebook in the evenings. Kids were going into their rooms, and they were on Facebook quite late. They kept responding to each other, building the stories as they go, and it was really impacting their sleep. Kids were turning up to school, and they were tired and grumpy and could not concentrate properly. They did a trial to get kids away from their social media, and it made incredible differences in the classroom. The kids were less grumpy, they were more engaged. I think that something like that just needs to be commended. Taking these restrictions further can only benefit children. I do worry still about the complete reliance on laptops and computers in the classrooms rather than having kids read and learn to write and have manual dexterity. That seems to be becoming less and less important. But that is something that I certainly agree with.

I want to talk about strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across the education system. I have listened to over the years a number of debates around education and what we have learned about the Aboriginals. When I was at primary school we did quite a lot of work understanding different parts of their culture and the ways that they lived. We had a number of Aboriginal families in the town, so people knew those families. They certainly did not live like the traditional owners had way back, but we did have that understanding, and I think it is really important that people do know a lot more about the Aboriginal culture than perhaps many currently do. That means the good, the bad and the ugly. We certainly know that there were many ugly things that did happen. In my electorate the great divide is a separation between the Taungurung in the north and the Wurundjeri in the south. Some of the things that happened to both the Wurundjeri and Taungurung and tribes further north of moving them down onto the Coranderrk settlement in Healesville were atrocious. Certainly the schools in and around Healesville have a very strong Indigenous presence within their classrooms, and a lot of work is done in those rooms about language and learning some of the arts and things, and that has been terrific. But that is in Healesville because that is very strong in that area. I think that there is a lot of work that can be done more broadly.

Some of the things that I would be very keen to see included in this would be things about what happened when people died – how did they deal with people who were dying? I go to events every now and again where they have a lot of the medicines laid out, the different plants that they used for different conditions. I think that is really quite interesting. It is probably a bit like the ancient Chinese medicine. They had things that were in place. I think it would do kids a lot of benefit to think really broadly about how things can be different. Things do not just have to be popping a pill out of a jar like we might do; there are different ways of doing things. Which Aboriginal tribes were nomads, which ones stayed put a little bit more and where did people meet? I know in my electorate there were meeting places, not unlike Parliament House here was a meeting place. Just out of Yea at Ghin Ghin there was a property called Doogallook. Doogallook is an area where tribes came from different spots and met and would have their big corroborees. Now in the main street of Yea there is a sculpture, that rusted iron type of sculpture, that depicts Aboriginals sitting around a fire. At night when the light is on it looks as though it is a corroboree, and that is exactly what it is intended to do.

My friend Angela ten Buuren was absolutely instrumental. She is a Taungurung member, and she was instrumental in getting that and another sculpture up in Yea so that people can see and understand some of the history.

Also there is a lot of language that I think could be embedded, and some of this could be embedded at local levels, because we have different things that happen in different areas. For example, in the Murrindindi shire, the word ‘Murrindindi’ means ‘mist of the mountains’. Let us go back 60,000 years and probably it was misty and foggy way back then, just like it is a lot of the time now – it is really quite an apt word. Nillumbik means ‘red earth’ or ‘shallow earth’. These are Aboriginal words, and these are words of areas that we live in. I mentioned Doogallook before, the area where people come together. That means ‘croaking frog’. It is just near the Goulburn River, and I imagine there were quite a lot of billabongs along the river there.

Some of the other towns in and around Murrindindi shire – Toolangi is ‘stringybark tree’, and there are stringybark forests there. I went on a cultural burn up in that area, and we listened to the wildlife in that stringybark forest. Victor Steffensen, who is one of the experts in Australia and is from northern Queensland, talked to us about how that stringybark forest was dying and was sick because there was nothing for birds to eat. You could not hear the birds. There were no seeds; they were covered up by mulch and things like that, and the new forest was not coming in. He talked about how sick that forest was, and it was really quite alarming.

Narbethong is ‘cheerful place’ – that is quite a nice one. And Taggerty is ‘blue-grey clay’. We all have words in our area, and I think it would not hurt children to know and understand where some of these meanings come from. Also what is particularly important is that it was 20 years ago, in 2006, that Aboriginals who went to the war were recognised for their war service. People who had been in the Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War and beyond – and who currently served – were not recognised up until 20 years ago. It was the late Aunty Dot Peters of Healesville who fought for that, because her father was killed on the Thai–Burma railway in the Second World War and was not recognised for his war service – that was just wrong. I am so pleased to know Sam Halim, who worked with Aunty Dot at the Healesville RSL, to bring this about. Now there is an enormous event at the shrine on 31 May every year, and Aunty Dot’s son Andrew, one of my mates, leads that. I am really proud to see him being actively involved in it. These are things that must be taught so that people know that history.

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (20:58): I rise of course to support the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026 – a very important bill. Of course it builds on the ongoing investments, reforms, policy measures and initiatives that we have been introducing continuously since 2014 to continue building the Education State here in Victoria. Of course this bill, as we have heard from previous speakers, contains a number of reforms and changes, but there are three particular provisions on which I do want to focus. The first is obviously around the changes when it comes to First Nations communities: recognising our First Nations communities in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. The second is around devices in schools, and the third goes to the teacher registration program and framework.

When it comes to First Nations, we have so much to be proud of here in Victoria. Of course we are the first state that has fulfilled every major pillar of the Uluru Statement from the Heart through voice, treaty and truth. We have introduced the nation’s First Peoples’ Assembly, which is essentially the voice for First Peoples here in Victoria, which has evolved through the treaty legislation we moved some months ago now into what will become Gellung Warl. That is a First Nations term meaning ‘tip of the spear’, and it will continue to be the body that will guide and provide advice to government and indeed this Parliament as well.

The second element in our reforms when it comes to First Nations relates the pillar of truth. In Victoria we established the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which was all about the Indigenous request for a truth-telling process to look at the whole history of Australia, which goes back pre-First Fleet and pre-colonial settlement from 1788 – the entire history going back 60,000-odd years of traditional custodianship of these lands in the hands of First Peoples communities.

Of course, I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the traditional custodians of this part of our land and the traditional custodians for my community in my electorate.

The other element of course is treaty – the landmark treaty, the first treaty bill that was passed here in Australia was passed here in Victoria just recently by the Victorian Labor government. A key element of treaty is the principle of self-determination, because what First Nations communities have said and what all the evidence has said, even the Productivity Commission from an economic point of view has said that embedding self-determination through a whole-of-government approach is absolutely fundamental if we are going to start working towards and making genuine strides towards reconciliation and closing the gap. Not just on socio-economic data, whether it is health, mental health or unemployment, but particularly when it comes to education.

I am really pleased that this bill amends the Education Act 1872. As we heard from the lead speaker, the Minister for Education, the Deputy Premier, just earlier, the Education Act is actually one of the oldest acts on the Victorian statute books. Victoria was established as a colony way back in 1851. This building was built in 1856. It is almost as old as Pentridge in my community. In 1856 we had this Parliament of Victoria. For all those years after the Education Act was passed a couple of decades later, there was no mention at all of First Nations people as being the first teachers on the land on which we meet. So it is important that we recognise that now in a modern Education Act, and it is even more important that we look to start embedding the notion of self-determination through the education system for First Nations communities as well to support their educational outcomes.

The second part of the bill that contains some substantive reforms goes to devices in schools. We as a government were one of the first – if not the first, I believe – in Australia to basically ban personal electronic devices through public schools. We are now looking to extend that obviously to non-government schools. The evidence is very clear around the benefits. We introduced our mobile phone ban in government schools in 2020, requiring mobile phones to be switched off and stored securely during the school day. The policy was designed to improve learning, student wellbeing and safety. The research and the data, I believe, is quite clear. I also speak from the perspective of a parent. I am a parent of two beautiful young daughters who are in grade 5 and grade 3 respectively. I can certainly attest to, like many other parents in this chamber and beyond in our communities, the noticeable difference of when a child is on a device as opposed to when they are off it. The data is very clear in that regard. It has shown that it is helping improve classroom focus and learning, it is reducing distractions during lessons, more student engagement is being experienced in classrooms and teachers are spending less time managing phone-related issues. A 2024 survey of nearly a thousand New South Wales principals found that 87 per cent said students were less distracted and 81 per cent said student learning had improved. It also improves social interaction. They are more likely to talk face to face at recess and at lunch with other students. It has increased participation in sport and physical activity during breaks and improved peer relationships and social connectedness. There is also a correlation with reduced cyberbullying and online conflict as well.

We know the risks that are involved with social media, which has frankly been the Wild West ever since it first came into being in the early 2000s and beyond. I grew up in the 1980s, 1990s era. They were very much pre-internet and pre-social media days where we were lucky. We were the generation of the Nokia 3210 where you were lucky to be able to send a text at best and maybe play a bit of a game of Snake if you had a bit of time, but nothing along the lines of social media posting or TikToking or anything like that. We have to change the legislation to reflect the challenges we are dealing with now with evolving technology. This is an important step through this bill as we continue to enforce and tighten regulations around the usage of personal technological devices in public and non-government schools as well.

The third key element of the bill is around the teacher registration program and framework and resourcing as well. In that regard, I want to acknowledge the important role of all of our teachers. I want to acknowledge the very strong pay offer that has been put forward by this government which will see Victorian teachers the best paid in the nation, with pay rises between 28 per cent to 32 per cent and substantial increases for educational support staff.

It also goes right through to our kinder and early years teachers receiving substantial pay offers. Our teachers and our education staff deserve nothing less. They are the heartbeat of our education system. They bring to life the curriculum and all of the new facilities and buildings that we have been delivering as a state government. Supporting our teachers and recognising their important work is absolutely essential.

It is a bill that really goes to the heart of the labour movement, the Labor government and who we are as a Labor Party as well, because education of course is in our DNA, not just at a state level, where we have literally put on our number plates the ‘Education State’ and put it as the number one priority from a whole-of-government perspective, but going back many, many decades. Look at the tremendous reforms of Gough Whitlam and his opening up of the university sector so that it was not about how much money your family had; you actually had access to go to university for the first time. That was seen through by Bob Hawke through the introduction of HECS to allow even more students to access university and higher education than ever before. Paul Keating continued that on, and Kevin Rudd with the building education revolution and Julia Gillard as Prime Minister through the introduction of the Gonski funding formula and NAPLAN, which still remains the benchmark for how we continue to support and understand where we need to continue resourcing our education system.

As a state government we have invested $38.6 billion into the education system since coming to government – over 120 new schools. Fifty per cent of new schools built across this country are built right here in Victoria. We have got the best NAPLAN results. It is not just about the facilities, it is also about the programs: free glasses in schools; free dental in schools with Smile Squad; free public transport for kids; free mental health and wellbeing in schools to support our growing number of neurodiverse families, particularly in my community; the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund; the free breakfast clubs program; the affordable uniform program; and so much more.

Particularly for my local community we have invested in the order of between $150 million to $200 million to improve virtually all or most of our school facilities: $22.5 million to build a brand new Coburg Special Development School, over $21 million for a new STEAM centre at Strathmore Secondary, $20 million for new facilities at Newlands Primary School, $17.8 million for a new tech hub at Coburg High School, $18 million new facilities that we have opened at Pascoe Vale Primary School, $11.9 million for a new STEAM centre at Pascoe Vale Girls College, a $10 million upgrade at Glenroy College and a further $1 million in this year’s budget and $14.5 million for John Fawkner secondary college. We just announced in the recent budget $6.1 million towards delivering the concept master plan at the Merri-bek Primary School, $6 million for Coburg North Primary School upgrades, $5 million previously for Pascoe Vale South, which we need to continue to invest in, and of course Coburg Primary School planning funding. There is more to do for West Spring Primary, Pascoe Vale North Primary, Coburg West Primary – my old school – and so many other schools. I commend this bill to the chamber.

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (21:08): I move:

That debate be adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.