Tuesday, 16 June 2026

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (13:50): When this bill was last up the hour was long. We were, I think, into the early hours of Friday morning, and I wanted to hold back my contribution because it is such an important bill. It has a lot of elements: how we are recognising First Nations communities as the first educators of Australia, improvements to the teacher registration framework and restrictions on personal devices in Victoria’s schools. These are key elements and reforms in this bill that come on the back of 12 incredible years of reform in education outcomes in the state of Victoria, because Victoria truly is the Education State. We have invested in thousands of teachers and education support staff, we have supported principals and we have built new schools, and when people think of Victoria, they think of the education and support that their kids get to thrive into the future.

It is why many of the NAPLAN results that we have lead the nation. It does not happen by accident. It is one thing to say something about education. It is another to have it ingrained in your soul and in your being. It is why we support our teachers and education support staff. It is why we invest in TAFE. It is why we have reformed early childhood education, because every Victorian child, regardless of their circumstance and regardless of their postcode, deserves the very best opportunities. That is in everything that this government stands for, everything that we do each and every day as a focus and a frame, so when we see a bill like this come forward it is instinctive that so many members of the government would speak on it and would have a connection to education outcomes.

I want to particularly recognise and spend a bit of a time on the introduction of a statement of recognition for the unique status of First Nations people in Victoria. This for me was quite moving at St Louis de Montfort’s Primary School the other day in Aspendale. They do the Little Long Walk every single year. If you have seen the St Louis hall, it is a grand hall with a capacity of about 700 or 800 people. The student population there is a good 550 to 600 in a given year, and the kids put together the stories of First Nations people, the Bunurong people in my community. They have First Nations leaders, as the first educators, describe what would have been in the Carrum Carrum Swamp and talk about the language – Moorabbin as ‘mother’s milk’ as its translation, or Mordialloc, which is truly around a flat creek by the sea. These are words that exist as our suburb place names that are taken from First Nations language and culture. It sustained life for tens of thousands of years, the Carrum Carrum Swamp.

A beautiful element of Port Phillip Bay that I love sharing and detailing with our kids is the fact that 8000 to 10,000 years ago Port Phillip Bay did not have water in it, or it had very little water in it. It was a flat hunting plain that sustained life into the future. You see the eyes of our kids light up when they imagine what they see and look out to each and every day, a feature of our community going up the Nepean Highway. When you hit that point of the Mordialloc Creek, which is Bunurong land, Wurundjeri country, and you look out you can imagine what that would have been. When you come through Mordialloc you know that for many, many years it sustained life and community. Tragically it was one of the last sites of First Nations contribution onsite in Attenborough Park before people were moved onto missions at Coranderrk in Healesville. You get an understanding then of our history and its significance and why it is so important that we recognise that and respect that.

As I said to those kids and as I say when I talk to students across our community, this is Australia’s history and something that we can all be proud of and celebrate. It is something that we can turn to and love and appreciate. We might not have a feeling of that connection until we learn it or embrace it, but that is truly who we are. That is the hallmark of us. It is not divisive. It is something of love and pride and respect and appreciation that is all Australians. This is the history of our nation and something that we can love and cherish. That is why responding to this recommendation, that is why respecting the recommendations of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, that is why committing to treaty is so very important in Victoria.

It is not about division; it is about loving the journey of our nation to what we are, a truly inclusive community that respects First Nations people as the true first educators and healers of country and land and waterways. It is then recognising that 7.5 million people were born somewhere else. We have built this country on the back of people coming from somewhere else, making a fist and life of it, paying their taxes, building their houses, educating their kids, creating jobs, creating businesses and doing better for themselves and tomorrow, and those that have had generations of significance here and connected through. That is truly the beautiful element of what it means to be an Australian and what it means to be in our community and country. When I look at something like this bill which enshrines that into the Department of Education, when it connects with something so important as how our kids understand this country as it has come to be, it fills me with great pride and great hope that we can all be part of that journey and that understanding, that respect and reconciliation.

When I was Parliamentary Secretary for Schools we got to talk a lot about devices in schools. I think out in your community, Deputy Speaker, we had a chat with student leaders around what that would mean. I love having a chat with student leaders about their understanding. Decisions we make in this place affect Victorians each and every day. This decision affected our students like we had not seen before, and we needed to get their understanding at that time. Some were uncomfortable about that mobile phone and devices change. The Deputy Premier at the time, James Merlino – a magnificent education minister and leader in Victoria – carries on that service now. That was something that was a bit contentious at the time. But when you speak to students about the mental health and wellbeing load, the respite they get from not having the devices attached to them each and every day makes a big difference. It is a big change. Having that more streamlined across our government, independent and Catholic schools makes sense.

A lot of those independent and Catholic schools have already gone towards that. They have seen the examples in government schools. They have seen the change that has happened, and the results speak for themselves – the mental health and wellbeing respite and the support that that provides going forward to really have that structured learning environment. We know about the formative brain development time as well, that the relationships for our teenagers are so significant in forming those connections, learnings and understandings and changes of life. To be able to do that organically without the impact of devices, to be able to work through problem-solving and reconciling things rather than being confined to our devices, is everything we hear about in terms of the impacts of social media on our kids these days. To broaden that out, to make sure that that restriction and the policies are in place for our schools, to make sure we are adhering to that, that we are aware of different changes in devices and AI and everything that comes with that and the pressures on our kids, is really important as well.

The other part is there is nothing more fundamental than the safety of our kids and our community. The Victorian Institute of Teaching does an extraordinary job. Sadly, for the tens of thousands of incredible educators that we have who support our kids each and every day – the more than a million Victorian students that get that support and that uplift from the best education in the nation, arguably in the world – we do need to ensure the safety and support of our kids each and every time. How do we deal with risk in each of its elements and make sure that where there are teachers or education support staff that breach the incredible inherent trust and support that our kids deserve, the Victorian Institute of Teaching has the support that it needs? How do we make sure it has the resources it needs, and not the administrative burden when it needs to be flexible and nimble in supporting and caring for our kids, rather than the ongoing 30-day bureaucratic timeframes for them for refreshing an interim suspension. We need that streamlining where there is no additional information to make sure that our kids are safe and supported in their school environment, that people who have breached that inherent trust and obligation are restricted and that there is not any bureaucratic overload on the Victorian Institute of Teaching; that is fundamental.

This is a bill that goes to the heart and soul of what Victorians know. We are the Education State in Victoria. We lead the nation in so many attributes of NAPLAN. We invest in our teachers and in the tens of thousands of education and support staff and we back our principals in. We are not about cuts, like those opposite, not tearing down education each and every time. We know those opposite. If the orange and blue come together, what a terrible colour that would look like. I mean, the Nationals will be extinct. The Nationals will be like Jurassic Park; we will not see any more Nationals anymore. It will be the orange and Liberal coalition, with a deputy opposition leader Jess Wilson, the member for Kew. That is what it would be. That is what we will see.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.