Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Motions

Inclusive education

Debate resumed on motion of Matthew Bach:

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.

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (16:39): I rise to speak to Dr Bach’s motion 156 regarding the visiting teacher program and the cruel, cruel cuts by this government to this important program. In commencing my contribution I thought I would just inform the chamber of the role of the teachers from the visiting teacher service, as taken from the Andrews government’s very own schools.vic.gov.au website, in the government’s own words:

Visiting teachers are specialist teachers with expertise and experience in specific disabilities and impairments. They give schools and teachers guidance in supporting engagement and participation of students with disabilities and additional needs.

What a farcical piece of spin from a government and a minister who with a stroke of a pen recently sacked 85 of these same vital teachers from the visiting teacher service – no mention of that. But Victorians should be familiar with the form of the Andrews Labor government when they say one thing and do the complete opposite.

These teachers are highly trained professionals. They are teachers of the deaf – and teachers of the deaf actually require a masters degree – they are teachers of the blind, they are teachers of students with disability. They work with around 3500 Victorian students who are blind or have low vision, are deaf or are hard of hearing, are both deaf and blind or have a disability. The visiting teachers provide essential support to the regular teacher who has a child with a disability in their classroom. They are instrumental in helping students with disabilities to engage in learning and develop skills that prepare them for their future careers. The decision to cut 85 teachers from the service will result in just 32 teachers left to service the educational needs of over 3500 students statewide – 3500 students with disabilities and special needs. This is unacceptable and of course it is unsustainable.

Recently I have been meeting with visiting teachers and also with families of students who access these services, and parents have spoken to me of the difficulties that they already face in actually getting their child enrolled into a mainstream school. They fear that without the visiting teachers there to support the schools, to support the classroom teachers and to support their own children, these schools will be even more reluctant to take their children into mainstream education. Parents fear for their child’s ability to gain an education in the future if this service is scrapped by the Andrews Labor government.

Parents have spoken of the additional barriers that their kids already face in actually gaining an education. As I said, they face a barrier to getting into a school in the first place. But before these children can even learn, they have to do additional learning. For a child who is deaf to actually be able to learn the curriculum, they first have to learn Auslan. Their teachers also have to learn Auslan to be able to teach them. For a child who is blind, they need to learn braille before they can actually learn the curriculum, and their teachers also have to learn braille so that they are able to teach them. This means the teachers have an additional workload. It means extra preparation for those teachers to conduct their inclusive classes, and parents are really fearful that this will make it just too hard and schools will end up rejecting their children from participating in mainstream education.

Parents of some blind children spoke to me the other day about their hopes and aspirations for their children. They told me that currently around 70 per cent of people who are blind are unemployed. However, they spoke about how they had been so hopeful – so hopeful – that this was the first generation of blind children who would go on and have a true future: prospects for employment and independent living. In fact they said that they felt there was no better time for a child to be blind than the current time. They truly believed this. They truly believed that through mainstream education their children were being treated as equals, that they were being included in society and that they would have really good outcomes in life. Now they fear that their children are going to be rejected again.

Governments have to deinstitutionalise. It is the right thing to do. But we need support programs to continue to support these children so that they can get the education that they need to go on and gain long-term employment and independent living. Without this program, that is taken away from them. There is nowhere for these children to go. There is no blind school anymore; they cannot go back there. And parents are fearful. Where will their children end up if mainstream schools reject them? Does this mean homeschooling will be the only option for them? They do not want that, because they want their children to be included in society. Teachers also fear that the only support that these children are receiving will be cut off. Particularly in regional areas teachers are fearful that the support that will now be given by the education department will just be a phone call to the principal: ‘How are you going with that child?’ ‘Oh, that’s all right, that’s good; we’ve consulted’ – no further assistance given to that child, to that teacher or to that school. This will not provide the direct student contact that is necessary for disabled children to survive.

The government has said that visiting teachers will be replaced by a new program but that it will not provide direct support to students and that it will be replaced by 2025. What we heard the other day is that teachers are already being offered packages to exit this year, 2023. What is going to happen between now and when this new program – that will be inadequate, we know – starts in 2025? We still do not know what that post-2025 program will look like, and now we know because of these exit packages that there is a risk in 2024 of students actually getting inadequate support next year as well.

I am informed that the visiting teachers program perform most of their work in rural and regional areas, and this is another concern because students and families in rural and regional areas have less services than those in metropolitan Melbourne now. If this service is to be lost to them, it is going to be absolutely devastating for families in rural and regional Victoria.

The minister’s actions have actually been slammed by disability advocates and impacted teachers as well as parents of children with special needs, who now feel they will be unable to cope without this vital education support. This is a very, very bad decision that the minister has made. Cutting staff from the visiting teachers service will directly impact some of our most vulnerable students, and I urge the minister to immediately reverse this senseless and cruel decision and reinstate these vital teachers.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:47): I also rise to speak on the motion introduced by Dr Bach regarding the visiting teachers service. I do want to start out by saying that the Victorian government is committed to inclusive education. We have not only talked about it but we have invested resources, time and effort to make it a reality for every child in the state. There have been considerable and transformative reforms and support in the education sector since 2014, including financial investments, reforms and other mechanisms to ensure that no child has been left behind. Our success is measured in the life-changing experiences of thousands of students who feel seen, heard and valued.

The Andrews Labor government has not just made verbal commitments; we have taken the considerable and important action to support and achieve greater disability inclusion in our educational framework. Our pledge has been quantified, with a groundbreaking $1.6 billion investment in disability inclusion. This investment by the government is a clear indicator of our dedication to reshape the educational landscape, ensuring that every student gets the rightful attention, resources and environment to thrive that they deserve.

The transformative commitment and the policy focus on disability inclusion is about yielding real and substantial inclusivity and educational outcomes. The government has projected that 1730 jobs will be created in the area of inclusive education thanks to this investment. These roles are tailored to meet the specific needs of our disabled student population, ensuring they get personalised attention, better resources and a conducive learning environment. The government is committed to inclusive education in all schools, ensuring that all students get the support they need to thrive. Disability inclusion is being progressively rolled out across the state over a five-year period, reaching all Victorian government schools by 2025. These reforms will increase the number of students supported by additional, targeted funding to more than 130,000, or around 21 per cent of students.

This investment in disability inclusion includes funding for 82 new inclusion outreach coaches, who will work in tandem with the educators to support students with a disability, which has been an important component of visiting teachers’ work in schools. The Andrews Labor government has undertaken first-in-the-nation investment to support disability inclusion for Victorian students. The $1.6 billion is a truly transformational investment, unmatched in its scope and ambition. Furthermore, in aid of our goal of ensuring institutions are well equipped and our educators well supported, the government is injecting $203 million over four years into specialised programs. This financial boost will help to ensure continuity of progress, futureproofing our dedication to disability inclusion.

The government have successfully overseen the transition of 850 schools to the reformed, inclusion-focused infrastructure. These schools now stand as luminous examples of what a genuine commitment to inclusive education looks like, impacting thousands of students and setting standards for others to follow. To bolster this workforce and ensure regional disparities are minimised, we have introduced 25 additional regional disability support roles. These individuals are champions of our mission, bridging the knowledge and practice gap and making inclusion not just a word but an everyday reality in Victorian schools.

The former federal coalition government gives us an insight into what the Liberal Party’s form is really like in this space. It is impossible to overlook the evident mismanagement of the NDIS rollout under the Liberals. Unfortunately the cost of that failure, which members in this chamber are all too aware of, is felt in the lives of people living with a disability across Australia. The scheme was fraught with delays and budget overruns and consigned too many kids with a disability to be numbers lost in a system that left their families exhausted. The opposition here was silent on the failure of their federal colleagues in supporting people with a disability. In stark contrast, this state government’s approach to supporting people is carefully planned and executed and is designed to ensure that promises translate into tangible and timely results. On this side of the chamber we are prioritising fairness and inclusion in our decisions, especially when it comes to the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities.

At the heart of this approach is the unwavering commitment to student-centric support, recognising the unique learning curves and needs of every child. Through the policy framework established to implement disability inclusion, the Andrews Labor government is tailoring to each child irrespective of their challenges, recognising they deserve the right to flourish in an environment that is both nurturing and adaptive of their needs. Understanding the multidimensional aspects of learning, the Diverse Learners Hub has been instated with a clear aim: to holistically address the myriad learning styles and to support requisites of our students. It is more than just an institution.

Deafness should not translate to dearth in educational opportunities. Our services for deaf students are manifold, from specialised training for educators and adaptive classroom strategies to cutting-edge technological assistance. Our facilities ensure that the deaf student’s learning journey is unimpeded and empowering. Vision challenges can indeed also be a barrier. But with our blind and low vision education supports, it is a hurdle that we are still determined to overcome. From braille textbooks, tactile learning tools, specialised training sessions all the way through to environmental adaptations, we have left no stone unturned to ensure the world of learning remains vibrant and accessible.

In this year’s state budget, the 2023–24 Victorian budget, we confirmed $203 million over that four years, as I outlined, to provide even more support for students with disability attending Victorian government specialist schools. The initiatives being delivered by the Department of Education include: $121.7 million over four years to continue and expand high-intensity OSHC, outside school hours care, at Victorian government specialist schools; $21.2 million over four years for NDIS navigators based at these specialist schools to help families navigate the still complicated and challenging NDIS system; $6.3 million over four years to improve access to a broader range of extracurricular activities for students in specialist schools; a $25 million fund for specialist schools to apply to install hydrotherapy pools; $4.8 million in the 2023–24 financial year to facilitate organisations to train more therapy animals to enhance the learning, health and wellbeing of students with disability; $100,000 for specialist schools to access alternative or augmentative communication software, such as Proloquo2Go; $460,000 over two years for a review into the current eligibility processes for specialist schools. As you can clearly see, just in the budget and the measures announced in this year’s state budget alone, there is an incredible amount being invested into this space, as it rightly should be. The Victorian government values the role of specialist schools in our education system and will continue to ensure that they get the support they need in the classrooms and the facilities that they deserve.

The visiting teacher service has undergone substantial reforms. These reforms are about recalibrating the service’s operation in a way that truly resonates with the needs of our students in our current educational system. These reforms underscore our commitment to progress and innovation in education. Visiting teachers are more than just educators. They are specialists with a unique skill set and are adept at managing diverse classroom challenges and ensuring that every student’s individual needs are met. Their roles are pivotal in driving forward the mission of inclusive education.

Reaffirming our dedication to this essential service, I note that the minister has clearly iterated that the visiting teacher service will continue to run in each of the four Department of Education regions. This is not just a token commitment but a tangible promise to keep our educational landscape diverse, inclusive and adaptable.

The Andrews Labor government has been a tireless champion for disability inclusion. Our $1.6 billion investment is more than just financial backing. It represents our unwavering commitment to creating an environment where every student, no matter their challenges, can thrive. While numbers can be powerful, it is the stories behind them that truly matter. The faces, the names and the transformative journeys are the embodiment of the real change that we have initiated. Every policy, every initiative and every fund is evidence of our pledge to make Victoria a model for inclusive education. On this side of the chamber we believe that students need understanding, compassion and the right resources. True leadership is about making the right choices, not necessarily the easiest ones.

The opposition struggle with programs like the NDIS, that was botched by their federal colleagues, who even refuse to acknowledge it, whilst we remain steadfast in our commitment to serve the best interests of all our students. This government’s dedication to an inclusive, empowering and supportive educational landscape remains unyielding. Our journey is fuelled by integrity, purpose and the hope of creating a brighter future for every student. For those reasons I will not be supporting the motion introduced by the good Dr Bach.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:57): I rise today in full and passionate support for the motion put forward by Dr Bach, 156 on the notice paper, that the Andrews government should be condemned for callous cuts to over 80 frontline teachers who work with disability students in classrooms, supporting the students, the teachers, the schools and ultimately also the parents. Approximately 4000 of these fantastic children with disabilities across Victoria and heavily noted in regional Victoria will miss out.

I have had some significant emails from and discussions with parents about this loss – and it is a cut, it is a loss. We heard just before the platitudes of a member reading what he was informed to read about what the Andrews Labor government is doing. I will share with you my experiences from one of my constituents from Eastern Victoria Region, in fact from Eagle Point. She was blindsided by the fact that her school informed her that the visiting teacher that she had for her deaf child, who is now in year 8, would be cut. That visiting teacher had provided nuanced and special services to that child for over six years, since early primary school. She spoke to me and related the importance of that teacher in terms of advice, information and making the journey of education with a hard of hearing or deaf child so very much the focus.

What we have heard from the government here is, ‘Don’t worry. It’s all right.’ Well, many, many parents feel that it is not all right. Many elements, whether it be the blind or the deaf or the hard of hearing in our society, are very concerned about this. They are concerned that the government’s definition of ‘consultation’ is actually just notification. They are concerned that the consultation is lip-service. They are concerned that whilst they reach out and request advocacy from the Andrews Labor government, they get turned away or at the very least get a platitude.

Matthew Bach: They didn’t talk to one parent of a kid with a disability.

Melina BATH: Correct. They didn’t talk to one parent of a kid with a disability before cutting this service. I will reiterate those very wise words.

Part of our role in here is to learn, to connect and to understand and then to advocate. The other day it was very pleasing to have a very fulsome meeting with the deaf community from not only Victoria but interstate, from a deaf parent, from a child – a young man – and also from Indigenous deaf advocates and people doing fantastic work in the country. It was startling. Their passion and disappointment at the current status quo from the Andrews government was palpable. I wanted to drill down and understand. Had they been consulted? No, they had not. It was lip-service. I asked them, ‘What is on your wish list? What do you want to see?’ ‘We want deaf children to have deaf mentors. We want to have early intervention. We want to have deaf teachers not only in the city but also very much in the country, and we want those mentors to be across the school supporting teachers and parents.’

When we talked about specifically the visiting teacher program, they said it is not perfect, but they absolutely endorsed its continuation. It was an important part of them and their child negotiating the way through a mainstream school. We heard discussion over there about special development schools ‍– that is not what this topic is about. It is about providing the service to children with a disability in that classroom scenario, and this government is cutting it. It is cutting it, and the government is saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got the disability inclusion policy, and we’re rolling it out.’ Well, to my understanding so far, it has been rolled out in three pilot programs, and they are saying it is rolling out in other areas. I know in outer Gippsland, in far East Gippsland, it is not going to be rolled out until 2025, and I also know that it will not add one extra in-the-classroom teacher for that vital support.

Matthew Bach: No teachers.

Melina BATH: No teachers. Some of the things that I learned the other day I will be very keen to advocate for in the future. In terms of deaf children, we have got 2500 deaf students across Victoria, and those numbers are growing every year, naturally. But also they are in mainstream schools. They need real support, they need to be bilingual and they need for our schools to offer Auslan, and the importance of that came through very clearly in our discussions. Otherwise you are going to end up with language deprivation; otherwise you are not going to have that future goal of learning and creating.

They related a story to us where a young man – a fantastic young kid who was doing so well in the school – was unable to keep going because he did not have deaf teachers in his school, and there was no capacity for that where he was. He then took up a plumbing apprenticeship. Now, we need plumbers ‍– plumbers are fantastic – but we also need deaf students to go on to university and become those huge deaf advocates. The same goes for those in the blind category as well. It is very important.

With that, I think it is disingenuous of the government to say to people, ‘We have got you covered.’ Parents listening to the government side in this debate will not grow confident from those discussions around the measures that the Minister for Education is supposedly increasing and improving. You should not be withdrawing one service and replacing it with something that does not suit the mould. The jury is still out, to be honest. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report still says that one of those pilots was working well in the disability inclusion pilot program and one was adopting it early, but it is only as good as the people on the ground. The other two, while they had merit, were still not moving forward at a pace that I think the VAGO would see as reasonable.

Again I go back to the 4000 students and 85 specialist teachers, and they are being cut. This is unacceptable. Every student who goes to school, with or without a disability, deserves the very best education that any state government can offer. When you have got budget blowouts in the magnitude of black holes, what is this government looking to do? It is looking to find money from areas where children are most vulnerable. We know that on any given day, when parents get up they have a struggle. No matter how wonderful that student is, they have a struggle to make the rest of the world understand their student’s issues, their student’s difficulties and their student’s pathway to success. Cutting these visiting teachers will not support that. I certainly do appreciate – and I felt quite moved by them – the parents that came in and the deaf advocates that came in and shared their stories with us.

Again, removing these sorts of fantastic frontline teachers is only going to put more and more pressure on our already overstretched classroom teachers, particularly in regional Victoria. Victoria now has over 2000 vacant positions for classroom teachers. How much pressure is that putting on classroom education in the state of Victoria? How much pressure is that putting on principals who are absolutely under the pump? Not only are they having to do administrative work and all of the rest that goes with being a principal, they are also having to go into classes. Removing these vital services is contraindicative to the health and wellbeing of these amazing young people. We need to be supporting them, and I totally endorse this motion before the house today.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (17:08): Today I want to speak to motion 156, moved by Dr Bach. I got involved and decided to run for politics for a few reasons. I hope the chamber will indulge me today, as I believe this is relevant to the case. This motion has three parts, and I will not repeat them because I do not agree with them. It is safe to say that the Andrews Labor government does not cut frontline educational services, and it is safe to say that we do not cut support from students who need it the most. We all remember the Liberal’s track record on cuts. In the 1990s Kennett cut everything – and I know. It gets talked about a lot in this chamber because it is true. Our government, the Andrews Labor government, believes in education. I ran for politics for a few reasons. Everyone knows that I spent my life representing members of my trade union, the Transport Workers’ Union, in industry and beyond. I fought for workers rights, and I deeply care about the dignity of work and its ability to support a family, raise kids and build a life for your future and yourself. We also believe in doing the big things like the Big Housing Build. I was pleased to visit Bangs Street yesterday with the Prime Minister and Premier to speak about the transformational 445 new homes that we are building there. And of course there are our transport infrastructure projects, the Level Crossing Removal Project and the Metro Tunnel.

I also got involved in politics because I believe in the power of education. I care deeply about what school my children attended. Remember, I have six kids, so I have seen my fair share of it. That is why I have made it a priority to visit as many schools as possible since being elected. I have not just visited schools that are large, fancy, big and well known and I have not just picked and chosen schools based on some political equation. No, I have picked the schools that have often been overlooked, the schools that need a voice and the schools that need a champion. Camberwell Primary School, with their incredible principal Janet Gale, is one of the few schools in our state that is truly bilingual – in this case, French. And the Belmore School is more modernised as part of the Andrews Labor government’s $9.6 million capital works project. When I visited in May I was taken aback by the incredible staff – led by principal White and the amazing school captain Livian – who literally teach student by student.

I visited Andale School in March, long before they were in the news, and there I spoke to the principal Justin Walsh and the teachers about their work. For over 40 years they have nurtured an inclusive and collaborative environment. We know that sometimes your child cannot attend mainstream school, and schools like Andale back students like them in. So I am incredibly proud that our government has a history of record spending on education, and I am committed to ensuring all students get the support they need. No state government in the history of our state – yes, the history of our state – has committed to and generally done the hard policy work to deliver wholesale and transformational change to improve the lives of Victorian children with a disability, so we are opposing this motion because it ignores the hard work we are doing each and every day and it is insulting to the many hardworking people who are getting this done.

The Andrews Labor government is delivering a record $1.6 billion investment into disability inclusion. This includes delivering better support to students with disabilities in every Victorian government school. When that is fully rolled out, these reforms will create 1730 new jobs. Despite what those opposite say, we are not cutting jobs. We are creating additional teacher support staff and professionals with formal training – no less inclusive training. Disability inclusion is being progressively rolled out across the state over a five-year period to reach all Victorian government schools by 2025. These reforms will increase the number of students supported by additional targeted funding to more than 130,000, or 21 per cent of the students. This is a massive, transformational increase when compared to the current program for students with a disability, which currently supports around 29,000 students. That is an almost five times increase, and that is a big deal.

The investment in disability inclusion includes the funding of 82 new inclusion outreach coaches. These coaches will develop the capacity of the school. They will work with and support students with a disability, which has been an important component of visiting teachers work in schools. Under these reforms all you will need to do is complete a new disability inclusion profile and you can determine your eligibility for individual support. This will involve a student, their family, specially trained school staff and other experts meeting to discuss the student’s capabilities and what they need to do to make the most of their school time. Following the profile, schools can receive student-level funding for staff and resources to deliver the support they need. I reckon this is a great innovation that is going to change lives.

Despite the noise and despite what some may say, as part of this process we are upskilling hundreds of teachers. Part of disability inclusion is a master of inclusive education, and graduate certificate initiatives are there. It provides hundreds of teachers with the chance to upskill at mainstream, specialist and supported inclusion schools. This will ensure deeper levels of support, knowledge and understanding and the capacity to include, motivate and challenge students with disabilities and additional learning needs by focusing on their strengths.

As I have limited time today I want to take the opportunity to list some of the figures and statistics that demonstrate what we have been doing for students with a disability and how we are supporting teachers that support these children. First, we have invested $1.6 billion in disability inclusion reforms to massively increase the levels of funding and support for all students with a disability as well as for those who have additional needs in Victorian government schools, and we have invested $203 million over four years to deliver Fighting for Students with a Disability and their Families. This package will support students with disabilities at Victorian specialist schools. Our inclusion reforms include the recruitment of 82 inclusion outreach coaches, who are specialist schoolteachers that build the capabilities of mainstream schools, and of course the recruitment of 25 additional regional disability support roles and dedicated regional implementation teams. In this year’s 2023–24 Victorian budget ‍–

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.