Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Motions

Inclusive education

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:38): It is good to commence debate on this motion. I move:

That this house notes that:

(1) the Andrews Labor government is set to cut over 80 teachers who support children with disabilities;

(2) approximately 4000 children with disabilities will lose services;

(3) this is despite previous assurances from the Andrews Labor government that no frontline educational services would be cut;

and condemns the Andrews Labor government for these callous cuts.

We all know that under Labor Victoria is broke, so the government, because of its ongoing financial mismanagement, is desperate to try to find savings, but please, children with disabilities and children with illnesses that are often life-threatening must not be the ones to pay the price for the economic incompetence of the Andrews Labor government.

So many people could not believe it when the government recently announced that it was going to cut the so-called visiting teachers program – 117 teachers in all are going to be cut. These are specialist teachers that do a huge amount of work one on one with children with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses. They have got a particular focus in our regions, and something that I think all members in this place are aware of is the massive inequality in Victoria, educational inequality, between metro Melbourne and our regions. It is huge on any metric you look at, whether it is educational attainment or whether it is student wellbeing, so this is particularly cruel. The minister has said she has an alternative program that she says will be rolled out by 2025 to send coaches to some schools. Her alternative will not provide one single teacher. She is talking about coaches to go to schools to work with principals and other teachers, apparently.

On this side of the house, numerous members have been teachers. Mrs Hermans was a teacher before coming into this place, as was I, as was Ms Bath and as was –

Members interjecting.

Matthew BACH: Yes, of course, Mr McCracken. On this side of the house, many of us have been teachers –

Members interjecting.

Matthew BACH: And, well, there are some members of the Labor Party, one or two, that have previously been teachers. As teachers we all worked really hard. We all worked really hard to engage in professional development to seek to support every single child in our classrooms. But I do not mind saying, on a personal level, as a teacher I had no idea how to support children who were blind, how to support children who were completely deaf. It is not possible to expect our fabulous teachers to do that work. That is the minister’s alternate model.

I think in these discussions the most important thing is to listen to children with disabilities and to listen to the parents of children with disabilities. Over the last few days that is what I have been doing. That is what Ms Lovell, Mrs Hermans and a whole range of people on this side of the house have been doing. Many groups have reached out to the minister; however, she has not spoken to any of them – surprise, surprise. She admitted when it came to the schools tax that she had not consulted with one single school. You will remember the amazing moment at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings when Mrs McArthur asked her which schools she had consulted with. There was a pause of 15 seconds. But when you talk to parents –

Bev McArthur interjected.

Matthew BACH: She went to a dinner, says Mrs McArthur. I was at that dinner too. It is true she did not talk to one single school. And the minister’s proposition that we can scrap visiting teachers and scrap these specialists for kids with disabilities, because the program was instituted a long time ago, is so demonstrably silly. Of all the parents of children with disabilities who have spoken to me over the last few days, every single one of them has sung the praises of this program and sung the praises of the visiting teachers who have done so much for their children. Many of these parents have gone on the record. Many will continue to go on the record over the coming days, much to the minister’s chagrin, I am sure.

Some already have – for example, Rachel Schmidt from Yarra Junction. She has a daughter called Makayla, and she had a visiting teacher during a time when young Makayla suffered from a brain tumour. Her mum said this:

Makayla had missed so much school because of radiation and chemotherapy and because of this it was really important that we had the visiting teacher …

The visiting teacher would come out every week and her assistance was extremely valuable for Makayla’s education.

She said these cuts will affect the core learning of the most vulnerable students, and that it is ‘disastrous’.

I do not need to read into Hansard the thoughts of every single parent who has gone on the record or who has contacted me, other members on this side or many members opposite as well, but the story of young Makayla is a common theme.

I met with a large group of parents earlier this week whose children are blind, and they spoke to me about the massive impact of visiting teachers. I have met with parents from various different groups, many of whom have children who are deaf. And we know of course that no mainstream teacher – I say this as a former mainstream teacher myself – no matter how well prepared, how well trained, can adequately support children in their classrooms who are deaf.

We must have these ongoing supports, and so I plead with the government: cutting 117 jobs, cutting 117 frontline teachers, will not even make a dent when it comes to the budget bottom line. I have lost track of how much debt Victoria is in. I know we have more debt than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined.

In talking to the mother of one child who has a disability just yesterday, who has benefited greatly from a visiting teacher, she told me that she had been onto the minister’s office, and the message that came directly from the minister’s office, I am told – and we will read more about this over the coming days – was that the cuts need to come from somewhere.

The minister has shown a propensity to back down over recent weeks. The government has had so many different positions on the schools tax, for example, so I would say to the minister: please do not be too proud to listen to these parents. Please do not be too proud to ultimately do the right thing. On this side of the house we will only commend you for doing so. If we together listen to the many voices, especially from parents of children who have very significant disabilities, I would welcome an opportunity to discuss with the minister and her office other potential savings measures even across this portfolio that on this side of the house we could support to suck the politics out of these discussions, because we know from parents of children with a disability that these cuts are going to lead to really significant negative impacts for them. That is what so many parents say. That is what the head of the Victorian branch of the AEU says.

I am very concerned about the teachers of course, the jobs of the 117 teachers that will go, and they have been advised, ‘Oh, well, they can just apply for different positions.’ I understand why that is the government’s position. Yesterday there were 2144 teaching vacancies across Victoria. The teacher shortage has doubled since the start of this year, so the minister is failing there as well. But the way to try to get more teachers into classrooms cannot be to cut specialist support for children with significant disabilities.

Really, in the short time I have today I just want to plead with the minister and to plead with members of this government. We can work with you. We can support sensible savings measures in the education portfolio, not to frontline teachers. When cuts in the Department of Education were announced some weeks ago the government assured us there would be no cuts to frontline staff, but every single one of these teachers is a frontline specialist teacher providing essential one-on-one support to vulnerable children. But we can work together. We can find savings in the education department, I am sure, that total more in monetary terms than these cuts that everybody can support, that protect teachers’ jobs and that first and foremost protect services to vulnerable Victorians. My door is very much open, as is the door of others on this side of the house, to work with the government. There is still time to reverse this decision. On that note I would urge members of the house to support this important motion.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:47): I move:

That debate on this motion be adjourned until later this day.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until later this day.