Tuesday, 16 June 2026

 Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (14:44): I rise to make a contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. This bill makes a number of amendments to Victoria’s education framework, including measures relating to students’ use of personal electronic devices in schools, teacher registration and regulation through the Victorian Institute of Teaching, improvements to student data systems through the Victorian student register and the unique student identifier and becoming more inclusive of First Nations people. In particular the bill requires all schools to implement policies restricting student use of personal electronic devices during school hours, reform teacher registration and regulatory process through the Victorian Institute of Teaching and expand the Victorian student register to support national data reforms, including the unique student identifier. The bill makes a minor statute law revision to the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010. The bill seeks to address a number of areas of the state’s education system in one bill, which provides a consolidated approach to the reform.

Six years ago the government implemented restrictions on mobile phones and electronic devices in non-government schools during school hours, a policy which has had strong support across the wider education sector.

I wish to focus more on this part of the bill. As I mentioned in this place recently, unfortunately my community just a few weeks ago experienced firsthand a very serious assault on a student that was filmed on a phone in the schoolyard and then shared on social media. It was horrific to see young girls inflicting such an awful assault on a young girl and then that content posted. There was another horrific incident the week before, when a group of girls attacked and bashed two 11-year-old girls, following them home from school when they got off the bus. Again, this was a vicious and sickening attack that was filmed and shared on social media, and the footage was hard to watch. What is so alarming about these incidents is the young age of these perpetrators – 13 and 14 years of age. It is alarming to think that children of that age want to inflict such harm on others. As you can imagine, these violent incidents have traumatised the victims, left families distressed and left many members of the community deeply concerned about the safety of their children. Victoria Police are currently investigating these incidents. These are not isolated incidents, and youth crime and youth violence have increased. What is incredibly alarming, as I have mentioned, is the young age of many of these offenders.

The bill does provide an opportunity for stronger protections and clearer expectations around the misuse of devices in our government schools, something that is needed to address this ongoing issue. Some of the footage that you see on social media these days, regardless of whatever platform you see it on, has an impact, and that impact can have a significant impact on a child now and well into their future. Schools must be a place of safety, learning and respect. What we have seen are ongoing incidents where fights, assaults, bullying and acts of humiliation are increasing and being deliberately filmed on mobile phones and personal devices and shared online for entertainment, attention or social media status. This behaviour simply magnifies harm far beyond the original incident itself. A student who is assaulted or bullied no longer only experiences the trauma once in a schoolyard or on the street. Instead, that footage can be replayed, reposted and circulated indefinitely. That humiliation becomes permanent and public. It follows young people into their homes and onto their devices and significantly impacts on their own mental health and wellbeing and puts them at significant risk.

Teachers, principals and families are also becoming more deeply concerned about the growing culture of bullying and intimidation and the increasing number of social media posts from students’ devices. Staff are also reporting situations where behavioural incidents are escalated because students are attempting to record them for social media content rather than to de-escalate the whole situation or even to seek help. Parents are alarmed that images or videos of their children can end up online without consent, and in some cases footage involving minors has circulated widely before schools or even families are aware of its existence and presence. We know that once material is online, removing it completely is very difficult and challenging.

This bill is a step in the right direction. Mobile phones, wearable devices and personal devices will be proscribed as a minimum standard for registration under the bill. It is hoped that this policy itself will improve student focus on learning and increase socialisation and physical activity during breaks so they are not just an opportunity to create social media content. We need to have students socialising with their peers and becoming more active. Too many hours are spent on devices and less time is spent interacting and socialising. However, if we are serious about supporting student safety and mental health and wellbeing and addressing the increasing incidence of antisocial behaviour and the level of assaults and escalating youth crime that we have been experiencing, so much more needs to be done. When young people find themselves heading down the wrong path, we need strong intervention, meaningful support and clear accountability to help turn lives around before more harm is done. Whilst there are some programs in schools, they are not working to address the level of aggressive and alarming physical assaults that they are experiencing. We need early intervention and pathways to address this alarming trend. The police, school organisations and the community must work together.

On Sunday in Shepparton there is a walk being organised by the families of the two 11-year-old girls that were brutally attacked. The families and the community are calling for change and highlighting the desperate need to address the rise in youth crime. The event is called Tipping Point, and the slogan is ‘Enough is enough’. We cannot continue up this path of increasing youth crime and increasing physical attacks. Everyone deserves to feel safe at school and in the community. The event is also very focused on the escalating cycle of youth crime across the board – weak bail laws and a weak justice system that constantly sees reoffending. People are not feeling safe in their communities. Just this past week we had the Victoria Police chief commissioner Mike Bush double down on his criticism of the state’s justice system, declaring that his members are quite used to teenagers they have arrested being allowed back out on the streets. That is why, on this side of the house, we have a plan to tackle the crime crisis with 3000 more police officers, tougher sentencing for serious and repeat offenders and early intervention and diversion programs to help young people get back on the right path. That is what is needed: investment into addressing the escalating crime of our state. People are angry, fed up and have had enough.

Coming back to the bill, the bill also strengthens teacher registration and regulatory settings by improving oversight and reinforcing child safety protections, which is important. It is critical that every child feels safe in their school. It is also critical that parents have reassurance that when their children do go to school, they are in a safe and cared-for space.

There are some concerns around student privacy and data security in an increasingly digital education environment and the data governance risks that come with the amendments contained in the bill. The expansion of the student register will increase both the volume and sensitivity of student data collected, which raises legitimate concerns around data security, especially given the number of education-related data breaches that have occurred this year alone. Parents rightly expect that when their children attend school, their personal information will be protected.

Last month a number of universities here in Victoria and across the country, as well as TAFEs and public schools, were caught up in a global data breach. We are living in a time where cyberattacks and data breaches are becoming increasingly common across both the public and the private sectors. Schools hold an enormous amount of sensitive information about their students. When personal student data is compromised in such breaches, the consequences can be significant and long-lasting for students and families if hackers are able to get hold of such information. Parents are understandably concerned about who has access to this information, how it is stored and whether adequate safeguards are in place. As schools rely more heavily on online learning platforms today for learning purposes, apps and digital systems included, the responsibility falls back on government to ensure that there are strong cybersecurity protections. It is not just an IT issue, it is a student safety issue, and we must do everything we can to protect personal data and information.

In my last few minutes I would like to acknowledge all of our hardworking teachers and staff, who do incredible work and who play a significant role in children’s lives and their safety every single day. One of my daughters, as I have mentioned in the chamber before, is a teacher and she loves her job. I visited her school just last week, and the students were very excited about the clothes drive initiative that is currently being organised and hugely successful. The community donates clothes and then the school gives back to the community. Anyone can call in and get what they need. This is the third year that they have run the clothes drive, helping many families and providing a really great opportunity for children to understand that there are people out there in need and needing more support. The smiles on their faces when they were unpacking the clothes and seeing some of the donations was really fun to be part of. As I said, I think it is really important when we come into schools to also see children learning new things and understanding about community initiatives and how they can also make a difference within their communities.

But we must also make sure that our teachers have the resources and the support that they need. We know teachers are experiencing burnout. They often do way more than what they are expected to, working after hours supporting students and doing all the things that they need to do to be fantastic teachers. I am really proud of my daughter as a teacher, and I love hearing her feedback and also about the opportunities for how we can improve that space, something that we should be working hard on every single day to make it better. Teachers deserve so much recognition for what they do, because I can tell you it is more than just a job, absolutely, for many, many teachers, not just my daughter. I think in this place we need to make sure we have the right policies in place, that we can protect children and that we make sure that every single day we are working towards that goal.

 Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (14:53): I rise to contribute to the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, and I have to agree wholeheartedly with the member for Shepparton and her comments about teachers and how hardworking they are. It is definitely more than just a job. It is a vocation, it is a calling, and our dedicated teachers deserve all of our respect and certainly recognition for the hard work that they put into teaching our young people – teaching our future.

This bill has some incredibly important components to it, and the one that the member for Shepparton spoke at length about is one that I wish to speak at some length about as well. It is the requirement of non-government schools to have a policy restricting student use of personal electronic devices. That includes not just mobile phones but also watches and audio devices. There is a whole range of different things. I know, having been a teacher myself, that some students can be very creative in trying to get away with having those devices in class. There are others nodding in the room who are aware of that creativity. Perhaps there are some people in their lives who try to get away with that.

It is something that teachers really do require, this kind of tool. It helps them to be able to control the classroom and to make sure it is a really safe learning environment. I was having a bit of a look around, because we know anecdotally but we also know now with academic research that smartphones and far too much screen time has a real impact on mental health. I was reading through a paper produced by the Columbia University’s department of psychiatry. It is well worth reading, but it pretty much confirms what we kind of already know now. They acknowledge that smartphones have transformed the way we communicate. Long gone are the days where we had the telephone on the very, very long cord that we used to take under the door, shut the bedroom door and sit on the other end and hope that, if you had a second line in the house, a sibling or a parent did not pick it up to listen in. You could hear – it would change the sound in the background, and you would say, ‘Get off the line!’ But as parents you knew who was calling your child because you probably answered the phone. Now we do not know. These smartphones are everywhere. It is such a great move to make sure that the classroom can at least be a place free from them. I will tie this in too with the social media ban for under-16s.

I was speaking with my sister-in-law, who is very senior in her role over in the UK. She was a teacher for many, many years in secondary college and now works closely with students throughout all of Leeds who cannot attend school. She works in the local council there, because they do not have state governments – it is local councils that deliver education. We were having a chat this morning as I drove in about the impact of screens on young people and their mental health but also their capacity to learn. Screens and mobile phones, smartphones, that can follow you around, where you can be bullied no matter where you are, are really, really damaging. The UK has just moved forward with a social media ban. They are actually going a little bit further than we have. I think this is a great thing out there. It is a great tool for parents. I do digress from this bill somewhat, but it is related.

I think that this bill, in requiring non-government schools to have policies that restrict the use of these smart devices at school is very, very welcome. I know it is welcome amongst teachers, I know it is welcome amongst parents, and I know it is welcome amongst students as well, because there are issues with these devices, and if there can be a safe space where they cannot access them, that is good for everyone involved. I think it is a great, great move forward.

I did mention before the Columbia University studies. They said:

… studies have shown a correlation between heavy social media use and depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidal ideation. The platforms are designed to be addictive, using algorithms that feed users content based on their preferences and interactions, keeping them engaged for longer periods.

They also said:

Social media platforms, while enabling us to connect with others and share experiences, can also contribute to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

Life is already tough when you are a kid. It is particularly challenging when you are an adolescent. You certainly do not need these on you at school, in the classroom. Be a kid, switch off from these devices, have conversations with people, learn how to read others and develop your social skills. It is so fundamentally important. I am so pleased that we are on a unity ticket in this chamber on this one. I think we all know that these phones, whilst they have brought some great things along with them – I mean, I used to have to go through the Encyclopaedia Britannica to find facts, and now I can do a quick search and generally locate all those things I have always wanted to know – they have brought a lot of harm as well. This is a very welcome piece of legislation. I am so thrilled to be speaking on it.

Another really important part of the bill is the strengthening of Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the education systems, including early childhood education and the training systems, to improve cultural safety and responsiveness and to support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations learners. That is fundamental. When I do an Acknowledgement of Country, I do often speak after I have heard a beautiful Welcome to Country by a local Wurundjeri elder, and I reflect on the fact that when I went to school what we were taught about First Nations history in this country was pretty abysmal. Then when I became a teacher – and it is 20-odd years since I was in the classroom teaching – what we were teaching was not that much better. That was only two decades ago.

Where we are now and where the level of education and understanding is coming to now is a much better place than where we have been. We still have further to go, but it is so critical and so important that we understand the First Peoples of our nation, that we have an appreciation for the first educators and the first students in this land. I think it is very, very important that we do this, and this legislation takes us absolutely in the right direction when it comes to that. It actually aligns with key elements of recommendation 48 made by the Yoorrook Justice Commission in 2025. It is going to introduce a new duty on the responsible departmental secretaries to ensure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training is made available to anyone working to support learning or wellbeing in or across early childhood, schools, TAFEs and adult community and further education providers as well as state-funded registered training organisations. That is a great move.

It is so important, as I said before, that we develop an understanding of our First Nations. Across the hills, I have got to say, if you go to most of my primary schools, you will see embedded in their curriculum a deep, profound connection and learning about First Nations. It is one of the most heartening things to see. When I turn up to a school, if there is a wedge-tailed eagle flying overhead, I can guarantee there will be at least a bunch of children going, ‘Bunjil. Bunjil’s flying over us. Bunjil the protector’s flying over us.’ It is so wonderful to see that. That did not happen when we were children at school, and it certainly was not happening when I was teaching 20-odd years ago. It is happening now, and long may that continue, because we still have further to go.

This bill 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. Well, ‘Hear, hear’ to that. The bill also will require some changes to the Victorian student register, and it will expand the information that needs to be collected and retained to include country of birth data and any other information prescribed by the regulations. Under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement 2025–2034 heads of agreement, our state is required to implement and contribute to the national schools unique student identifier, and the aim of this is to create a lifelong education record for students across educational institutions across the country, so this bill is quite important.

I just want to say before I finish that investment in education is paramount to everything we do. As a former teacher, it is fundamentally important to me that we continue to invest in our education across this state, and I am so thrilled that we are going to be putting in more than $9 million to upgrade and modernise the wonderful P–12 Sherbrooke Community School in Sassafras. It is an absolutely fabulous school there in the hills. They have sheep on their property there in the front. It is just one of the most special schools to go along to. It is a fabulous school. I am thrilled that we are going to be upgrading and modernising it. It is in need of it. The staff are incredible. Now we are going to have buildings that will match the level of skill, care and professionalism of the staff at Sherbrooke P–12 community college. I am delighted, I am very, very happy, to commend this bill to the house.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (15:04): I am pleased to rise today on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I am very happy to follow the member for Monbulk, and I agree with a lot of what the member has just contributed. I did have a bit of a chuckle when she was talking about telephone devices and how it used to be in the old days, with the long cord and hiding in the cupboard so your parents would not hear you talking to whoever you were talking to, and then listening intently for that click – when they tried to pick up the phone and spring you on who you were talking to at the time. It was a good time back then. One thing about back then, in the 1980s, when I had a mullet, is that we were safe at home. Then we were able to go home after school, and we would not get hassled on any devices. It was actually a really good time. If you happened to get bullied at school that day, you would go home and you would be safe. You would talk to your mum and dad about it. That harassment would not follow you home, as it does today with these kids.

That is why – I will touch on this, and people might find this surprising – I am totally in support of the federal government and their reforms on social media and banning kids under the age of 16 from social media. I actually think that is a good, positive thing – I really do. I have mentioned in this chamber before that I think this is probably the next step we should take: any social media account should be verified. I actually think that is really important. We have taken that first step, but I think the next step should be verification of social media accounts so you do not get the trolls and you do not get the undesirable people trying to infiltrate your children or have some result that they want. I just think verification of a social media account would be a very positive step in keeping our kids safe.

The member for Shepparton touched on it earlier – this is why we do not oppose this bill – when she was talking about her area, where kids are videoing kids getting beaten at school. I think it happened on two occasions, and it was young girls that were doing this. That is horrific for any parent. If you were sitting at home and that popped up on your feed, to see your child being beaten, bullied and harassed at school, it would be heartbreaking, because as parents we all want to keep our kids safe. That is what we are there for. That is what we aspire to do. If you saw that come up on your feed, posted by someone else, you would be absolutely horrified.

We have brought in in this chamber – we did not oppose this either – the post-and-boast laws. If these kids did that – I do not know if they are being charged or not; I do not know the full history of the story. But the post-and-boast laws are very important to stop that type of behaviour. This is why when we are talking about the devices and the restriction of devices in government and non-government schools it is actually really important, because it must be infuriating. Even in this chamber now, if you look around, you can see how many people are on their devices.

Members interjecting.

Wayne FARNHAM: That is all right. They are not listening. It is all good. But you can imagine the frustration of trying to be a teacher teaching a class with the constant distraction of devices all the time. It is hard. I give a shout-out to the teachers. I could not do their job at all. I would have no chance. They do an incredible job. They are there to educate our children, and they do a terrific job in what I would say, especially in some schools, is quite a challenging environment. To say we are going to restrict these personal devices is a positive step.

It is interesting – the member for Monbulk, I will reference her again, touched on earlier how our social interactions have changed over time. Now kids jump on the phone or text with WhatsApp or whatever. Even when you go out for dinner you see people picking up their phone, and you think, ‘What? I thought we were going out for dinner.’ Then you find – I hate this, to be honest – they are telling you about their lives through their phone: ‘I did this and I did that.’ I go, ‘Put your phone away. Let’s have a beer. Let’s have a conversation and be normal people, not live our lives through electronic devices.’ I actually think, especially for teachers in our school system, the restriction of devices is a positive thing – absolutely no doubt.

The other part I want to touch on here is the student data collection around this section of the bill. In a committee, I think it was last year, we talked about data collection and who owns the data and what the concerns are around that data. I can fully appreciate that data collection could need to happen in a school environment. I do not so much have a problem with that, but I think we have to be very cautious and very concerned about data collection and where that data goes and who that data goes to.

To be honest, I am not 100 per cent over this detail, so I am just expressing my own personal concern, particularly after I sat on this committee. When we talk about data collection, who owns the data and who can obtain the data? I hope in this situation that the data collected about students is kept very secure and very private. We know it happens quite often where we have big breaches of data security and big companies get – what do they call it? Pirated, or what is it?

Iwan Walters interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Yes, data breach. They get hacked. That is the word. Thanks, guys, for helping me out. We have seen it time and time again where they get hacked and that information gets released. I do not know how this is going to be structured – I am not 100 per cent over that detail – but I really hope they have thought about the security of the data collection and how we are going to protect that security and make sure that that is rock-solid secure, because the last thing anyone wants is their private details getting out into the cloud or on the internet or whatever. I really hope they have got some strong support around this data collection. I can understand it can be necessary – I get that – but I am concerned about security and data hacks that do happen. We have seen it happen with Optus. That was a big data hack in this country. I hope they have got all the security around that.

We are talking about education today. What I would like to see, particularly in my electorate, is a bit of investment in education, because I do see the government time and time again stand up and say, ‘We’ve built all these schools, we’ve done this, we’ve done that. We’ve built new schools all over the state,’ but I am yet to see one in my electorate.

Tim Richardson interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: It is a bit of a failure of the government when you have got a government that says, ‘We govern for everybody; we govern for all’, yet in my area, in my patch, member for Mordialloc, there has not been one new school in over 50 years – not one. That is not governing for all as far as I am concerned; that is governing for your own. Especially when you hear the schools they list that are all in Labor seats – you never hear them list a school in a Liberal seat. I would like to hear the Minister for Education list a school in a Liberal seat.

The schools in my area need help. They need significant investment. I am in a growing region. I have Drouin Secondary College, which is undergoing expansion at the moment. I will admit that. We have got 1200 kids on a landlocked site at Drouin High School. We have got another landlocked site in Drouin, Drouin Primary School, which just had an extension, but they cannot go any further. These are the two main schools in Drouin and they cannot grow any more than what they have grown. When the government stands up and says, ‘We’re investing in education, we’re investing in schools,’ well, my electorate needs new schools – new schools, not the expansion of existing ones that are on landlocked sites that cannot be developed anymore. A failure of this government in my electorate is the delivery of new schools. It is okay to reno an old one, but when they are landlocked and they cannot expand anymore, that is an issue. The government needs to sort itself out and start investing in schools.

 Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (15:14): It is a pleasure to rise to speak on a really substantive and important piece of legislation in this place, the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I might refer to it henceforth as ETRA. It builds upon not only a really sustained record of investment by this government in our school system but also a record of deep policy thinking and reform that has been led by successive ministers for education on this side of the house, commencing with the former Deputy Premier James Merlino, ably supported by the member for Mordialloc, and then Minister Hutchins and now the current Deputy Premier, Minister Carroll. They have had a relentless focus on evidence-based practice that improves outcomes for Victorian students irrespective of their postcode. That has been complemented by an additional $38.6 billion of new investment into our schools while growing the teaching workforce, and not just growing it but investing in it – investing in the capacity of our teachers, who are the single biggest resource that we have in our education system, investing in their capacity to make a pronounced difference in the lives of young people irrespective of where they live in Victoria.

That is the single biggest lever that we have as a government to improve social mobility, to improve economic opportunity and to improve productivity in our state. It is by investing in those young people via the relationship that they have with their classroom teachers. So too have we invested in the capacity of school leaders and the next generation of school leaders, because so much in our system is asked of our principals, our assistant principals and our leading teachers. They are really the fulcrum through which reform flows. I have seen that firsthand as a teacher in our state schools, where the principal was really the conduit through which so many reform endeavours flowed into the school. It is simultaneously a potential point of failure but also a tremendous opportunity to amplify really deep thinking and policy making and evidence-based policy that is occurring within the Department of Education and to translate that into a classroom. That cannot happen unless you have supported principals and assistant principals and others who are leading schools to translate all of that work and render it relevant in a classroom. Things like the academy supporting the next generation of school leaders is incredibly important.

Do not take my word for it; just look at the NAPLAN results. Look at the trajectory of Victoria’s NAPLAN results over recent years. These things take some time to change. A system takes time to change and for the effect of changes within it to become apparent in results, but they are becoming apparent in results. In 18 of the 20 domains within NAPLAN, Victoria is leading the nation. It does not happen by accident; it happens because of a sustained incremental reform agenda that this government has engaged in since 2014. It has transformed the outcomes that Victorian students are exhibiting. In doing so, it is transforming their life opportunities, the opportunities that they will have available to them after school, because they are equipped with the skills that they need to pursue whatever is the thing that they wish to engage and embark upon in their life.

I think there is a uniform passion for education on this side of the house, and it has been interesting hearing the contributions indeed of all members. But the reason I think this bill is so important is that talent is not restricted by postcode, as the member for Mordialloc very aptly said before. I want to talk firstly about the dimension of this bill which seeks to strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across all aspects of our education system from early childhood right through to the vocational education sector, and let us not forget the important work that the adult, community and further education (ACFE) sector does in our state as well. Ensuring that the education system is accessible and responsive to Aboriginal Victorians is an incredibly important dimension of closing the gap. We can see the divergence in outcomes that Indigenous and non-Indigenous Victorians experience. It remains an acute challenge for our state and, frankly, more broadly for our country, and we need to undertake practical, substantive reforms to seek to close that. That is why I think this bill is so important, because it seeks to do that by better embedding Indigenous history and perspectives within ETRA and within our school system and other educational settings.

The member for Mordialloc also talked really powerfully about the statement of recognition and what it, practically speaking, actually means. It is not just an abstract thing. I am very mindful of the years in which I was a secondary school teacher in a rural part of our state that had a relatively high concentration of Indigenous pupils. It was devastating to see the consequences of intergenerational disadvantage and trauma playing out in the classroom and, crucially, not in the classroom. The level of disengagement that too many young people from Indigenous backgrounds had with school was devastating because it was pointing towards a system failure that was setting those students up for failure in the longer term as well. The anecdotal evidence that was obtained by speaking with those students and speaking with their families in a pastoral sense and trying to engage and then re-engage those students in full-time education to seek to give them those building blocks and to improve those life chances was that the school system did not feel like an accommodating place for enough students from those Indigenous backgrounds.

It was not a system which reflected their history or indeed the breadth of the history of our state. I will not revisit the Redfern address, but I am always mindful of Paul Keating’s words when we talk about the breadth of our history and the impact that it has had upon Aboriginal Victorians. There is, I think, an incumbent obligation upon those of us who are making policy in this place now to ensure that the education system is a welcoming place for all Victorians, including and perhaps particularly Indigenous Victorians who, because of that intergenerational cycle of disadvantage and dispossession and trauma, are empirically performing at a lower level than the median student in the system. We have to close that gap. This bill seeks to do that by doing something important, by embedding that statement of recognition and making some really powerful statements of truth about the history of this state.

In the time that is remaining for me I want to talk briefly about the unique student identifier reforms that this bill includes. That is a really important aspect of the bill, both for students but also the system. Having worked in a dual-sector institution at a tertiary level before the USI system was brought in, I have seen how piecemeal our capacity to track students was and for students themselves to be able to navigate the system. Individual TAFES might have had a student number and the previous Commonwealth higher education student support number system for university students spoke only to the university sector within the tertiary system. It did not allow students to be able to navigate easily the breadth of offerings that exists in our system, to move between school and the tertiary setting that is most relevant for them at any particular time, to move from university into the TAFE sector if that had the program that was best for them. The USI is important for students, but it is also incredibly important for policymakers at both state and federal government levels to understand what the trends within our tertiary system in particular, but in all aspects of education, actually are so that funding models can be better tailored to those trends and so that industry can better understand where students are orientating themselves within that system. The member for Narracan I think made some important points about data integrity, which I certainly endorse.

Finally, in the time that is remaining to me I just want to talk briefly about the importance of the reforms to digital devices and wearable devices in schools. A Programme for International Student Assessment study in 2018 made the point that Australia had an enduring problem with low-level poor behaviour in classes, which led to disengagement, which meant it was really difficult for teachers to manage that behaviour. We have sought to improve that. We have improved that in Victoria as measured by NAPLAN results, and part of that is ensuring that teachers have the clear air, the space, to teach without the disruption and the distraction that digital devices make. There are important safeguards to ensure that students with disability, those who may have vision impairment, are able to continue to use wearable devices, for example, that allow them to fully engage in the classroom. But broadly speaking this is a really sensible reform that will improve outcomes for Victorian students.

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (15:24): I rise to talk on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, and it is great when a bill comes through which we are not opposing because we can see that the adjustments being made here are going towards helping the education of our children, making it (1) safer and (2) easier for them and also give some guidelines for our educators.

I would love to give a shout-out to all the educators across the Latrobe Valley, who have a diverse range of students that attend their schools. We really would be at a loss if we did not have such passionate people in charge of our children, educating them through. We have a problem – not only in Latrobe Valley but right across the state – with disenfranchised youth and making sure that they are engaged in the education system. A lot of the youth that are in trouble with the law have gone down the path of not worrying about attending school. That can be because of various things, but we need to make sure there is that pathway through to re-engage with these students, because that is probably the only pathway to educate them and make sure that we have a chance to alter the way their thinking is with the education system. We need to make sure we are doing things in that area.

On the data collection one – which I did hear the member for Narracan talking about, and I know he did sit on a committee talking about this – data collection is probably a crucial piece of the puzzle. We are making sure that data collected on our students is made safe in this world that we live in now. With data collection at the forefront of how we go about our day-to-day living, we need to make sure that we do have a secure way of collecting that data and then, more importantly, storing that data so it does not fall into the wrong hands. We need to make sure that we do that. I agree wholeheartedly – and I think I have heard nearly every member on their feet talking about this – with requiring all schools to implement policies restricting students’ use of personal electronic devices. There are some exceptional cases where these devices do help, but on the broader scale they are probably a distraction inside our schools, not only for the teachers but also for the students themselves. I think nowadays it does not matter where you go, if you are at a sporting event or, as I heard the member for Narracan say, out for tea, you see people on their devices all the time.

Moving around and engaging with the schools and talking to the students, probably one of the first things that you do realise is the need for the art of actually being able to hold a conversation, whether they be younger students or even teenagers. Nowadays they rely heavily on their devices to communicate, and the art of actually being able to stand up and have a conversation with another person or other people in an environment is super important for a young people’s growth as they move through from being a child into teenage years and then into adulthood. That is a lost art. I do worry a little bit about what it is going to be like in another decade in terms of that reliance on our devices. That has probably slipped through the cracks a little bit; it was just part of the norm to have a digital device on your person as you walked around.

We need to make sure that we are engaging with the students at school. I think it is only fair and reasonable that these devices are stored somewhere safely at school, so that when the children are there, they are actually there to learn; they are not distracted. There is so much outside noise these days that can actually distract people from learning. I have never been a teacher, but I can sense the frustration of those in the chamber that have been who have actually talked about that outside noise and looking out at their class and knowing that people were not taking your information in because they were distracted. It used to be back in my day that we were distracted looking out the window, wanting to get out and play sport. But these days it is a little handheld device. So having rules and regulations that can be implemented and put in place I think is a great reform that we can actually do.

The Albert Street Primary School is an interesting one in Moe – a very proactive school. It is only a small school. They have a student with type 1 diabetes at the school. They have done a lot of work across the journey and I have asked questions of the minister, because with a student with type 1 diabetes in a school, the school actually gets no additional funding to be able to help that student out. We need to go beyond what we are talking about here. We want those students to come to school, we want them to engage and we want them to have the same prospects as any other child that goes through school.

The Albert Street Primary School have, to their credit, off their own bat educated teachers about type 1 diabetes. This student actually wears a monitor, which alerts the staff and also his mother when he is having a high or a low. Without that, the student would not be able to go to school, run around and be part of that school environment. So we need to make sure of and look further into the prospect of actually getting some decent funding for type 1 diabetes for students that are in schools, because it is becoming more and more relevant for these students that have the condition of diabetes, and especially type 1 diabetes. We need to make sure that we are adequately giving the school the funding to be able to help out those students.

I also had a mother with a couple of stories about our bus services and how trying to get kids to school around regional Victoria is not as easy as jumping on a train or jumping on a bus here in metropolitan Melbourne. I had a mum from Glengarry and she was advocating on behalf of 24 children that are out and around that area of Glengarry in the Latrobe Valley. The children had no bus transport to get to school, so there was reliance on parents and neighbours to get these kids to school. I think talking with the relevant ministers about trying to change a bus route to pick up these students – and it was not one particular child, it was up to 24 children. I think we need to be looking in those areas to make sure that we are making policies to make our students safer and make it easier for them to learn in school. But we have actually got to get them to school, and these are bits and pieces that do matter to mums and dads that are in regional Victoria. If you have not got a bus and Mum and Dad are at work, it is very hard to get your child to school.

Then we had the insane case of a mum that came to our office. Her son who was seven and her daughter who was five were on a school bus going to school, and that was fine for term 1 and term 2, but the school bus was full, and unbelievably her son was removed – he lost his seat on the bus. His mother was obviously up in arms about her child losing his position on the bus. But the kicker is that his five-year-old sister was still able to get on the bus to go to school, and she had to go to school by herself. This is not just a one-off case, localised in my area; the member for Gippsland East was saying he has also had a couple of these cases. We are bringing in these bits and pieces to make our education system stronger and better, but we need to make sure that fundamentally getting our kids to school safely is also taken on board as well, because it is tough and it is hard for parents in regional Victoria.

As I said at the start, we support the bill. We do not oppose it, because we need to make sure that our kids in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria are getting the best education.

 Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (15:34): It is a pleasure to rise on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I think that education is one of the greatest investments that we can make in this state and for our future. It is not only an important investment, obviously, into our young generation and our children, but it really is about building our future and building our communities and our future communities. As a former teacher, I do know that learning happens a lot more than just in the classroom – it happens outside in the big, wide world – but it is about creating environments where children feel safe, they feel belonging, they feel valued and they feel respected. Those are places where they can then thrive.

This bill does deliver a series of practical reforms. It certainly is about strengthening our education and training system from very early childhood through to secondary and beyond. Some of the measures I will go to in a moment are in the bill, and they are really united in a common purpose, and that is around making sure our education system continues to be modern, continues to meet all of our needs and obviously reflects our values of inclusion, safety and excellence.

So what does this bill do? Well, there are a few things that this bill strengthens. It strengthens Aboriginal recognition and self-determination within our education and training system. It introduces some consistent minimum standards, requiring all schools to have policies around the restrictions on and the use of personal devices, and I will go and talk more in depth to that in just a moment. It does, obviously, modernise the teaching registration framework administered by, as I know it and as I say, the VIT, as I was a teacher that was registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching. And finally, it enables improvements for the Victorian student register so students can be assigned a unique student identifier to create a smoother pathway as they go through their training and their courses and into employment. My son, who has just turned 16, just applied for the unique student identifier, and it was a really easy process. It is a great way for him to now be set up as he goes through the more senior years at school. These are some varied things within this bill. I just want to touch on a couple of those. As I have said, we really want to make sure that our education system is inclusive and safe, and for someone who has worked in the school system before, I know it has changed over the time since I was in the classroom. A lot of things have changed – the technology has changed, our curriculum has changed and our expectations in our community have changed.

It is interesting that just recently I had the Minister for Education visit my state high school, Bellarine Secondary College. What we did was a round table with young students and young leaders of the school across all various year levels. They really spoke with honesty and they were really forthcoming in all the things that they see as challenges but also as opportunities as they go through high school. I remember a student – and I have actually run into her several times after meeting her at the school. She is a First Nations student, and she spoke so honestly and really beautifully about her experiences through school, but she was honest and she said that she still experiences racism both at school and in the wider community. She really wanted to see a greater understanding of First Nations history. She wanted to have an improvement in our truth-telling through schools, really just so we can learn and grow from that shared history. What struck me most about her, though, was as she was speaking it was not just for her; she was speaking about her peers and her future as a First Nations young woman. She wanted to find employment or opportunity or further training, and she wanted to know that those places would be culturally safe for her. She is a very proud First Nations woman, and she certainly struck me as someone who was really confident in speaking up. I was really pleased to hear the things that she was talking about. That conversation has certainly stayed with me. After the work of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, we have heard stories about that impact of racism and the impact of colonisation, and clearly education has a role to play here and certainly has a role to play in the truth-telling.

This bill, just to go into a little bit more depth, will introduce a statement of recognition that acknowledges the unique status of First Nations people in Victoria, outlines historic and ongoing facts that impact First Nations learning and wellbeing outcomes and also confirms Aboriginal histories, cultures and perspectives as forming part of the learning areas that are subject to that free instruction in schools. It certainly acknowledges that we need to improve the outcomes for First Nations learners. It does require Aboriginal and First Nations voices to help shape the education system itself, and we certainly want to have, as I have talked about, that culturally safe environment to support all our students to thrive. Something that we are very proud to have here in Victoria is our treaty. Certainly it is something that we should not only lean into but actually be very proud of. In our schools we should be teaching our First Nations history in an honest way so our students can all learn from the past but also come together and unite in a way to celebrate our First Nations culture.

When I was teaching in primary school I had grade 6. Australian studies was on the curriculum, and students would research where they had come from and their backgrounds. We also learned about our First Nations students and our First Nations culture, but I must say that that was very limited in what was discussed. It was probably not a fulsome conversation that we were having at the time, and that was many years ago. I think that if I was teaching now in a grade 6 classroom, it would be a very different lesson. This is the start of making sure that our system is going to be addressing those honest conversations that need to be had.

In the few minutes left I just want to talk a little bit about the role of technology and how technology is changing in the classroom. Last time I was teaching, the iPads and the electronic whiteboards were just coming in, students were really excited to be learning on the iPads, and the screen time was not excessive. We were still doing lots of handwriting and writing in books. But over time there is no doubt that technology infiltrated our classrooms. It has opportunities but it has absolute challenges. We need to understand that the devices are competing for the students’ attention. It is a challenge for students, but it is also a challenge for teachers, and I have heard lots of people reference that today in this debate. It is a challenge for teachers to monitor, and it is a challenge for teachers to ask students to put them away.

My daughter is not too happy about me having to put her phone in a box at the start of the day at the office for her collect at the end of the day. She does not like that. She is attached to that phone. It is like losing a kidney sometimes if I ask her to put it down. But it is really important that they understand – she knows; I tell her often – that it is hard for parents as well, dealing with it. I completely understand how a classroom can really be disrupted by the devices that we have now. We want to make sure that this bill has policies that will give, I suppose, power and some strength to the schools to have restrictions and to ensure that personal devices are not going to be disruptive in school hours.

We have already done this through our government schools. When I visit schools, even primary schools, teachers will say that just keeping devices out of the room makes a huge difference, that there is more engagement and there is more meaningful interaction. There are some students who really do well at monitoring their screen time. I have talked especially to VCE students who really need to put the distraction away. They put it under their bed or they take it to the kitchen and then they go study somewhere else so they are not distracted by the phone. Some can handle that really well and manage their time really well, some cannot. I think I might be a parent that will have to teach my daughter how to manage her time. This bill is really important. It is strengthening our education system. I commend the bill to the house.

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (15:44): It is a pleasure to stand and make a contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I want to make a few comments on a couple of elements of this bill. The first one is the push to get increased recognition of and learnings about our Indigenous community into the Victorian curriculum. This is something that I have mentioned on a few occasions in different forums, that we need to do more on our Australian history, both our Indigenous history but also our wartime history and those men and women who served our country and gave their lives.

As I said, I have spoken about this in a number of forums. When I was at school, which was a fair while ago, I do concede, in much of our history classes we would learn about things like the Great Wall of China, we would learn about the pyramids, we would learn about Roman history, but we did so very, very little on both our Australian Indigenous history and our local Indigenous history. I represent an electorate that is very significant and is steeped in Indigenous history.

But also since colonisation unfortunately much of our Australian history has been enveloped by war. There was the First World War and the Second World War. We had the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Boer War was the first one, and then there have been subsequent missions overseas of more recent times. The level of contribution from some of these smaller Victorian communities was just incredible. You only have to walk around some of our cenotaphs in our regional towns and look at the honour boards in some of our town halls and RSL sub-branches to see that very, very significant contribution that was made by those communities. Yet when I was going through school and going through the curriculum, we learned so very little about that. It was almost like something we did not want to talk about. We do have some elements of our community talk about the fact that we cannot glorify war, and I certainly accept and acknowledge that, but I think we all have an obligation, every single one of us, to remember and respect and honour.

Some schools do it very differently to others. Nagle College in my electorate and also the Bairnsdale Secondary College of recent times have had far more focus on that level of history, both our Indigenous history and recognising the sacrifices that were made during wartime. In about 11 days I will be taking 35 year 11 students across the Kokoda Trail. That is like herding cats, I can tell you. Getting 35 passports organised, getting visas done and getting all that sort of stuff organised is difficult, but it is a very, very worthwhile exercise. I will be accompanied by the member for Murray Plains, and I will also be accompanied by the member for Narracan, who will be assisting me. They will have students from their areas. While I am talking about the member for Narracan, there are a number of members on both sides of this chamber that have trekked Kokoda, and the only MP who has not made it and had an airlift out is the member for Narracan. He got a lovely chopper ride last time, but he is coming back this year and will hopefully make it the whole way. We will try and nurse him across the trail and see if we can get him to the other side. But well done to him for accompanying those students in his area to do that. I am certainly supportive of that element of the bill that looks at our Australian Indigenous history, but I also think we have got some room to move in recognising the people who made the ultimate sacrifice – let us be honest – so we can enjoy the freedoms and the life that we enjoy today. I think we could have a lot more of that in our Indigenous history. Incidentally, I have got the member for Narracan just calling me. He must be sitting in his office listening to this sledge. All the best, Mr Farnham, wherever you are watching from.

I also want to talk for a little while about the move to get phones out of classrooms. Other members on both sides of the chamber have spoken about this. I have not heard a dissenting voice from either side of the chamber, and I am certainly not going to be a dissenting voice. It is interesting because I had a little thing pop up on my phone a few nights ago to tell me that I had spent 6 hours that day on my phone. I was sort of semi-horrified by how much time that I had spent, not even really thinking about it. If someone had asked me, I would not have anticipated it was that long. So it does become addictive and it does become a habit, and there is no place for it in the education system.

Being the father of some kids who have been through the teenage years, I had one particular son – apart from being my son, my great mate – who was just addicted to his phone. When he was 16 I made the tough call and took it off him for six months, after a couple of warnings. Of course I was the worst person on earth. You know, I had stopped him from having interactions with his friends and I had basically cruelled his social life if you listened to him. But he has come back to me in subsequent years and acknowledged that he needed that action because it was pretty much out of control. He would be on it, by his own admission, at 1 and 2 in the morning, messaging friends. It was just this addictiveness to the screen time and the interaction.

Having been through that personally and seeing the removal of that, even if it was only for that six-month period, and getting him to look at where he was heading through a different set of eyes and to reflect on his behaviour and then him subsequently acknowledging that later – although he reckoned it was the worst thing of all time to ever happen to him – by saying that the right thing was done, I would hope that today’s generation can reflect on this decision that we are making as a Parliament and say, ‘The right decision was made.’ Not only do we have to control it at home, as the previous speaker referred to, but there is just no place for this to occur at school, so I am very, very supportive of that.

When I was going through my schooling years – and I dare say you, Speaker, with no disrespect – we did not have to worry about being addicted to mobile phones, because they did not exist. Having gone in as a local member of Parliament of relatively recent years, as I am sure we have all done in our schools, members on both sides of the chamber, we visit our schools on a very regular basis, and there is nothing more frustrating than when you are talking in a school environment and you can see kids on their mobile phones. They are just not listening, and they are away with the fairies. Whilst we are probably all a little bit boring at times as politicians addressing students, it is very difficult for teachers or anyone in that environment to get their message through when there is a level of distraction from the students, so I am fully supportive of that.

I also want to briefly just touch on the fact that, as other speakers have mentioned, this bill aligns with some national reforms that are coming into place across the various jurisdictions around the rollout of the unique student identifier. This will expand the type of data collected on our students, including the country of birth and various other pieces of information. You can only hope that that will be used for the benefit of improved educational outcomes across our education system here in Victoria. We need to make these changes. That is why we are not opposing this bill.

I will wind up by saying we certainly support the action on the mobile phones. We certainly support the action to introduce more understanding and more recognition of our Indigenous community within our school curriculum. I would also just finish off by reiterating that we can go a bit further. We have this huge focus on our returned service men and women as well as those who made the ultimate sacrifice on two different days of the year, predominantly Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, but there is much more room for that. I was recently in France, and when you walk into the school at Villers-Bretonneux – I know the member from Mildura has experienced this – the students at that school stand up and sing the Australian national anthem to you in English, such is their level of understanding and the huge part of the curriculum that wartime service is. Maybe we do not need to go that far, but we can certainly improve that element of our curriculum here in this state.

 Matt FREGON (Ashwood) (15:54): I also rise with delight once again to talk about education. Before us is a bill that I am very happy to hear has got support from across all sides. I was listening intently to the member for Gippsland East, who was talking about his 16-year-old. I have a 16-year-old of my own – I will come back to that – but there are some similarities, member for Gippsland East. The strengthening of Aboriginal recognition and self-determination is a very crucial part of this bill, and it adds to the work that this government has done certainly during my time and before my time in this wonderful place. It is funny that at a time when we are battling ignorance in areas of our community, education is always the answer to the problem of ignorance. Other members have referred to the changes in education curriculums and such. I think we did a little bit of Australian history probably in year 8 at Fairhills High School back in the day – it would have been 1981 or something.

I do not remember doing much about Indigenous Australians. There were probably a few pictures of people with spears or something about kangaroos. That was about it. We probably spent a lot more time talking about Elizabeth I, and for me and my cohorts of that age that was to our detriment. The kids these days that we see at schools will never have that problem. That does not mean that we stop where we are. Obviously there is always more that we can do to enlighten with the wisdom of the oldest continuous living civilisation on this planet. Again, it stops me every time I say that, because there is only one of those on our planet. We have the luxury of living in the same country as that civilisation, and it is up to all of us, whether Indigenous or not, to enable the continuation of that, every day. Obviously we stand proudly with Indigenous Victorians now that we have a treaty and Gellung Warl. A shout-out to – I would not say one of my favourite constituents; all my constituents are my favourite constituents – Rueben Berg, a former co-chair of the First People’s Assembly of Victoria. He is a constituent of mine, and very proudly do I represent all of my constituents, including him.

The work that this government is doing to enhance the knowledge and wisdom of the next generation in regard to understanding the history of our great country can be imagined now, can be seen now, in the years that we have changed. A shout-out to the great Pinewood Primary School, who in the last couple of years have renamed their houses to Indigenous names. It is all part of them teaching the next generation about Indigenous knowledge. I think the longer that I am lucky enough to live in this wonderful world, the more we will see the benefit of the steps we take now. It is the kids that are going through our education system now that will never know any different. I personally think if they know a little bit less about Elizabeth I, they can always grab a podcast. But we should know where we all come from. For an important percentage of our community, that has been here for a very, very long time, and the rest of us are migrants. It is really important work that the minister is doing, and I congratulate him and his team on that work.

The other thing – and I did say I would come back to this – is regarding the use of devices. Similar to the member for Gippsland East – I presume his son is not 16 anymore, from his oratory, but one of mine is 16 – our eldest boy loves a device. He is going to hate me for this, by the way. He will not read it, but you never know in 20 years – sorry, Lindsay. We are going through a thing at the moment, similar to the story that I heard from the member for Gippsland East, where we are trying to balance the usage of the device that is a crutch with his peace of mind. The struggle we are facing right now is that when he leaves his room – as anyone who has had a 16-year-old in their house knows, they do not leave their room that much; they come out for food or money or school or something – his job is to unplug the AirPods. Anyway, this apparently is very difficult for Lindsay.

I will set the scene here. He is going to hate this, but anyway. Lindsay loves watching his computer. He has got his phone going as well, so he has got probably a game on the computer, he has got some anime thing or something and whatever music he is listening to going on his phone.

He has got the earbuds in, and he has got the big set of headphones on him with the game – he is fully switched in. He enjoys that; that is lovely. But the job now for him is that when he leaves his room, he has got to unplug. Now, you would think this is a relatively easy sort of thing: you leave the door, you unplug. But no, it is very difficult.

As parents, we struggle with these challenges with our wonderful kids. But to know that when they go to school and they need to switch on to the education that will prepare them for the rest of their life, to know that when they get there it has got to go in the box or the locker or wherever it goes and it is away for the whole day is very reassuring for me at least as a parent. I remember when it came in a few years ago that Linds had a bit of a struggle trying to understand it. He got into trouble once because he had the device – he was outside the gate, waiting for the bell, on his device. He got corrected on that, and they took it off him. Now, this caused a bit of a problem, I have got to tell you. He did not like having the phone taken off him. But we managed to convince him that he had to play by the rules because the next time they take it off him, they have got to call Bec or me in to actually have a meeting before we get it and that, as we are all very busy, that could take a number of days. Similar to I think when the member for Gippsland East’s son did not have his for six months – we have not done that to him – the threat of not having it has had some effect. So that has worked well from a schooling point of view. I can see that with all of our kids.

I have mentioned before that Bec is a teacher at an independent school, and they historically have not had this rule. I can tell you that when this was put forward by the minister and his office, this was very, very popular in my house with a certain teacher because –

A member interjected.

Matt FREGON: Well, you know, the kids will adjust; they are young. One of the problems – and I accept this with an independent school, especially where parents are paying fees and they have expectations and all these sorts of things – is that suddenly there will be some parents, not all, who think, ‘Well, hang on, I want to be able to contact my kid.’ That is one of the ones that comes up. You do not really need to if they are at school, because you will get a note if they are not. I think bringing this in gives those schools just the power behind them to say, ‘No, no, this is everyone now, we are all the same, and if we are going to teach our children in the state of Victoria, they are going to be unplugged while we do it.’

Now, in the last 40 seconds, I think we still have a question mark before us about the use of laptops in classrooms. I am not saying we should not use laptops in classrooms – they are very useful. But I did overhear a certain person, who I will not name – not my family – saying that he was playing a game in class. He had finished his work, so good on him, but I do wonder about the use of laptops too much. I am probably sounding like the senior I will be in three years, but are we losing some of the old skills like handwriting and things because we are relying on that digital technology in class too? I commend the bill to the house.

 Jackson TAYLOR (Bayswater) (16:04): It is a great pleasure to rise and speak in support of the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. Can I, from the very outset, thank the minister and his team for the work that they have put into this bill. As always, they are a great team. We have a very capable minister who should be very proud of this piece of legislation and of course all the reform that he has led in this period of government. Of course this is another piece of legislation that is helping to build the Education State, because Victoria is well and truly the Education State. I know it is very, very proudly emblazoned on millions of cars across this state, but it is not just a number plate, and it is not just a saying – it lives and breathes in the actions and deeds of this government and in the deeds of successive Labor governments in building what we have today.

I am very proud to be part of this government, and I am very proud of its record when it comes to education. It has been a great pleasure, Acting Speaker De Martino – good to see you in the chair. Obviously, as a former teacher yourself, it is good to see you there. It was great to hear your contribution. I know that you are extremely passionate about education, from your own personal experience and professional experience, not just for your kids but for every single kid across your electorate and across Victoria. That absolutely showed in your contribution in this house today. On a personal note as well I would just like to congratulate you on becoming the new secretary to the parliamentary Labor Party. It is fantastic. With the indulgence of the house: congratulations.

Mathew Hilakari: What an indulgence.

Jackson TAYLOR: Thank you very much. I appreciate it, member for Point Cook. But congratulations – very well deserved. It is no secret that I do have a great deal of affection for the member for Monbulk. She is, as we often say, my Labor neighbour.

Mathew Hilakari: An extension of time.

Jackson TAYLOR: How long do you have, member for Point Cook? She is about to call a point of order herself. But it is always wonderful to hear your musings and your contribution on education. It has been a great pleasure working with you these past nearly four years now, Acting Speaker.

The member for Bellarine gave a wonderful contribution and spoke about the importance of education in her electorate and the impact this piece of legislation will have. The member for Mordialloc has many gears. It is odd to not see the member for Mordialloc riffing during an MPI or a grievance debate, but it is always nice to hear him talking policy, because he does it with such eloquence. He is an absolute professional, and he is certainly someone in this government who is very proud of the Education State they have built in their own patch out in Mordialloc. I know he has done a great deal of work. The member for Ashwood I think went with no notes. That was quite impressive, I must say – no notes, member for Footscray. He gave a fantastic contribution, and it was nice to listen to someone with a few more years on this planet who has seen a few things that I have not in their time. The member for Ashwood always gives a sterling contribution.

Of course, as I said, this is something that we are very proud of here in Victoria, the Education State. This bill is another piece of reform which seeks to cement that and make sure we are continuously improving on what we have here in Victoria. This bill seeks to strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across the early childhood education, schooling, vocational education and training and adult community and further education systems. It also requires that schools have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices within school hours, which has been quite a feature of debate and I imagine will continue to be a feature given the impact it has had not just in Victoria but now Australia-wide, that policy being implemented. Across the globe I have seen a whole range of governors in the United States now talking about how this policy has been rolled out in places like Pennsylvania, and it is having an extremely beneficial impact. Of course we were one of the first places – certainly in Western democracies – to roll it out so successfully. I am not surprised that it is a big part of this debate. It is this government that has led the way and this government that has paved the way for the rest of the Australian jurisdictions. I am pleased to see further legislating and working with our school sector when it comes to this important reform. This bill is also about improving the teacher registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. It will expand the information collected and retained by the Victorian student register to include country of birth and other information prescribed by the regulations and make other minor technical amendments.

Ultimately this bill does quite a lot in terms of amendments, building on the work of the Andrews and Allan Labor governments. We know that education is absolutely the most important public investment we can make in our future, and the Allan Labor government has absolutely set a strong foundation for education here in Victoria. One thing I have always said in my role is that education is my absolute number one priority. Of course governments have lots of important things we do, and in state government we have some serious responsibilities around education, health, transport and the even greater need to respond to the cost-of-living pressures that we have seen the Labor government respond to, whether it be the 20 per cent off rego rebate or half-price public transport. But education has got to be front and centre. It is about building the future. I know it is one of those phrases that get used all the time, like when everyone started saying ‘21st-century facilities’. Luckily that one has been phased out.

We now use words like ‘modern’ and ‘bright’, which will have their day as well soon. But genuinely, it is the most important thing; it is the greatest leveller in society. And you can tell a lot about a government and you can tell a lot about a society, about what their values are, in how they value education and the money that they spend. And what this Labor government has done is completely revolutionise the way that education is funded in this state and of course the way that we reform through pieces of legislation in this place today, which I wish a very speedy passage to.

When you look at the reforms we have made in kindergarten, there is that universal access to three- and four-year-old kindergarten and free kinder, making sure the cost – your credit card – is no barrier. But simply having a child being able to participate in that system, not being locked out because of cost prohibition, has been huge. In lifting the amount of hours we have seen the results in how they have stacked up across the globe and the amount of work that a child’s brain does in the first four years of life to grow and to mature. So the research is there, the work is there, and Victoria led the way, and again, the rest of Australia adopted it.

We led the way when it came to free TAFE courses. We have now got well and truly over 80 free TAFE courses. People are getting out there, getting the necessary qualifications for the jobs of tomorrow and making a living in many different priority industries. And that has again been taken up by other states, which is now a wonderful partnership with the Albanese federal government. But that is purely as a result of the determination and grit of this Labor government to back in education reforms and to not take the easy way out but to take the hard decisions and to provide the investment.

Again, make no mistake, my number one priority in my electorate is around education, and I have been really proud, member for Narre Warren North – excellent; I nailed it – to lead only the eighth education plan in my electorate. The Bayswater education plan was only the eighth. We worked with the four Bayswater primary schools and Bayswater Secondary College, and it was about school improvement. It was about bringing together the wonderful educators in our local system throughout the Bayswater suburb. It was about making sure that we were talking not just about capital improvements – I know as local members it is really important that our communities turn to us about making sure we secure the facilities that our students and staff and communities deserve – but about school improvement. It was about improving curriculum. It was about getting the schools working together for student and staff excellence. And it was about building on the foundation that they already had at those schools, and it has had a fantastic outcome.

Primarily the focus of it, to be fair, was Bayswater Secondary College, and they have gone from strength to strength. A few years ago they had 170, 180 students. It was a very different vibe. And now when you look at the school that is there today, Liz Swan, the principal, is doing incredible work. When we opened those new buildings – I said it is not about capital, but yes, we also did deliver some capital upgrades, some $13 million in new senior and middle school learning buildings, which is critically important to make sure that kids are learning in those contemporary environments – when we walked into the place it was different. I could not even remember it. It was a great school made even better through leadership, through planning, through collaborative investment and through place-based work, and the education plan made a huge difference.

I am very proud that in my electorate of Bayswater we have delivered close to $100 million in capital upgrades. I know that lots of members – not just members of the government but everyone – have a story to tell here. We have delivered half of the new schools across Australia right here in Victoria, and we have all got a story to tell. Education, by and large, is a very bipartisan issue, and I am very pleased by that. And I hope that we continue to see successive Labor governments continuing to build the Education State, and in my last 3 seconds I will commend the bill to the house.

 Josh BULL (Sunbury) (16:14): It is not really possible to be able to top the fantastic member for Bayswater and the way that he just made what was an outstanding contribution to a very important and significant piece of legislation that goes to exactly what the member for Bayswater and others on this side of the house know and understand, and that is that consistent, reliable, solid investment in education, making opportunities for our youngest Victorians to have a chance to get their very best start, is indeed something that this government is focused on today and will be focused on tomorrow. Proudly, over the journey of the past 12 years that we have had the opportunity to be on this side of the house, member for Bayswater, this government has made some nearly $40 billion of investment into education in this state.

Acting Speaker De Martino, it is quite fortunate that you are in the chair at this point in time, because I think knowing and understanding your background, just the opportunity to be able to work with our young people and understand how important teaching is is indeed something that this government knows and understands. In just the last budget, having the opportunity to give Sam Carlton, who is the principal at Kismet Park Primary School in my electorate, a phone call and be able to announce more than $11 million to modernise and upgrade Kismet Park Primary in my electorate, a terrific local primary school, was indeed great. What that does is enable the terrific teaching workforce and the support staff to be able to deliver high-quality education, and that builds upon more than $100 million invested in local schools within my electorate. It builds upon investments at Diggers Rest Primary School, Sunbury College, Sunbury Downs College, Salesian College, Gladstone Park Secondary, Gladstone Park Primary, Gladstone Views Primary, Sunbury Primary, Sunbury West Primary and many more. The member for Bayswater is right when he says that capital investment is certainly not the only thing that matters for schools. Having the ability to make those better new facilities and new classrooms and a new opportunity for an environment that is fit for purpose and caters for growth is something that is really, really important.

What we have remained focused on, and what this bill will continue to do through the significant and important reforms that it contains, is build upon that notion around the Education State. We speak a lot in this chamber – all of the research suggests the importance of the first 1000 days in a child’s life – about the investment in early ed. We then go to investment and support around primary school. I think in listening to the contributions that have been made so far, there is the recognition and the understanding of programs like the breakfast club; the free glasses program; the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund; and the Smile Squad. All of those wraparound support services that we are able to provide in a school setting make for opportunity. When those opportunities are missed, when those opportunities are not funded and when we see, like we did in the period from 2010 to 2014, the education maintenance allowance cut and significant cuts from the other side of the house when it comes to education in this state, it does significant damage to our youngest Victorians, and that is simply not fair.

What we set out to do is to level the playing field for those who may not have that support and those opportunities at home. We remain committed to focusing on student wellbeing and on supporting young people to get the opportunities to be their best. In so many ways that is a really simple premise, but there is the complexity and the dynamic nature that exists in a school setting, and of course we grapple with so many challenges that young people do experience and certainly those challenges that arise through the use of technology. I think what I have said in the house before and what many other members have pointed out as well is indeed that technology can play a significant, important role in so many ways, but having proper safeguards and important regulation and control around the use of tech is really important. This bill goes to some of those measures. But what is important is to provide for the best workforce, the best support and that additional and sustained capital growth that we know is really important in our schools within this state. We have got an opportunity, through this piece of legislation, to make for an even better system, and the government is always looking for those opportunities.

We will consistently work with those that provide important research to the department. We will consistently work with our teachers and of course the union representatives and those that work within schools. Of course all of the conversations that you have as a parent, as a guardian or as a friend of a school are really important to be able to have, because what it means is of course that we are listening and responding to the needs of students.

The other area that I did want to go to in the 3½ minutes that I have got remaining is of course the investment in special ed, and we know just how important that is. I want to give a shout-out to the amazing team at Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School, both the Sunbury campus and the Bullengarook campus in the member for Macedon’s electorate. The investment that has been made to upgrade every single special school in the state is indeed another significant and important value proposition from this government, because that, I think, is exactly what it is. It speaks to where we value investment, it speaks to where we want to support, and it goes to those matters that I mentioned earlier in the contribution, which of course are about making sure that everyone in this state has an opportunity. Everyone in this state has a right to learn and an opportunity to be their best. What these investments and the work of the minister, the department and the entire team remain focused on is making sure that that investment continues through the budgetary process and all of those programs and initiatives that I mentioned earlier. They are extremely important, they are really valued by the workforce and they are really valued by, I think, Victorians.

There is of course an alternative approach. There is an approach which we saw from 2010 to 2014: those savage and damaging cuts that those opposite inflicted on Victorian schools. We of course then had to play catch-up from that period of November 2014 onwards. I sat in meetings in 2015 and pulled out the books with the then terrific education minister at the time, who you know very well, Acting Speaker, and there were no new plans for new schools – there was just a blank book with nothing in it – and there was significant and sustained population growth in this state. You simply wonder what was going on in those four years. Where were the priorities? Where was the work? Where was the planning? Well, no – there was just nothing there. I distinctly remember sitting in those meetings and listening to the minister at the time talk about catch-up and the investment that we had to make. Fast-forward and go back to those numbers that I rattled off before. This government will always prioritise education in this state. We have got a strong and proud record of delivering in schools and of course in the entire education system, because we realise the importance of the society that you can create when you invest in education and the economic benefits that flow from that.

The provisions that are contained within this bill go to providing for a better and stronger and fairer system. For those reasons I certainly support the bill, and I want to acknowledge the work that has been done in getting us to this point and making sure that the opportunity to continue to invest is always there, because we maintain our focus on that. With those remarks, I commend the bill to the house.

 Belinda WILSON (Narre Warren North) (16:24): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.