Wednesday, 26 August 2026

 Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Education, Minister for Skills and Training, Minister for First Peoples, Minister for Women and Gender Equality) (14:07): On this side of the house we are investing in the future of our state. In schools across Victoria it is our hardworking teachers, as we all know, as well as principals and our education support staff, who are instilling in young people the knowledge and skills they need to set them up for life. With Victorian students having the best NAPLAN results in the nation for the second year running, we know that their hard work is driving strong outcomes. Victoria is indeed the Education State, and Victorian teachers, principals and education support staff deserve pay and conditions that reflect the value of the work they do. Last week union members resoundingly endorsed the government’s pay offer – some 79 per cent – which will make Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia and with the best conditions. It will now go out to a vote of all staff. Importantly, this offer gives our educators back what matters just as much as pay, and that is time – time to plan lessons properly, time to support students who need it most and time to do the job that they entered this sector to do. And for our students this means that we can also focus our efforts on recruiting and retaining the best teachers in the nation, who have served us so well.

When we back our educators, we back every student in every school across Victoria, but we can only become a more prosperous state if we continue to invest in education. That should be obvious to anybody in this place. The last time they had the chance, the Liberals sacked thousands of teachers. They shut hundreds of schools, and with a promise of $40 billion of cuts they are planning to do it all over again.

James Newbury: Speaker, I renew my point of order of yesterday across all five ministers statements and note that in the first ministers statement today –

The SPEAKER: Member for Brighton, state your point of order succinctly.

James Newbury: The Acting Premier is already misusing the ministers statement to attack the opposition.

The SPEAKER: There are correct ways to raise points of order. It is not an opportunity to make a statement to the house. I remind ministers when they are making ministers statements not to attack the opposition. I do not necessarily encourage you to do comparisons and contrasts, but if that is what you need to do then so be it.