Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Committees

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Reference

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (15:48): I rise to move this motion in my name to address the concerning reports that have come out this month regarding a delay in funding for Victorian public schools over the next several years. I move:

That this house requires the Legal and Social Issues Committee to inquire into, consider and report, by 30 April 2026, on the impact of the Allan Labor government’s decision to delay raising Victoria’s school funding to 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard until 2031, effectively cutting $2.4 billion from what was previously committed to Victorian government schools, including but not limited to:

(1) the state and Commonwealth funding per student in Victorian government schools relative to funding in other states and territories;

(2) the impact of this delay on Commonwealth funding;

(3) the impact of this delay and funding cut on the education of students enrolled at Victorian schools today and those starting prior to 2031;

(4) the consequences of this funding cut on Victoria’s teaching and school workforce; and

(5) the effect the funding cut will have on the ability of Victorian government schools to purchase educational resources, teaching materials and capital equipment, as well as fund much-needed building and school grounds maintenance.

In January 2025 the Victorian and Commonwealth governments announced that they had come to:

… an historic agreement that will put all public schools in Victoria on a path to full and fair funding.

This announcement was cautiously welcomed by public education advocates, who have been pushing for full funding since the Gonski review calling for fair school funding was delivered in 2012. Prominent education advocate Trevor Cobbold wrote last month in his Save Our Schools blog that while the funding agreements between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments were promising, following over a decade of failure to reach the Gonski standard they left a number of questions unanswered. Mr Cobbold pointed out that:

Much uncertainty remains because there is plenty of opportunity for the promise to be undone and there is little detail about the path to full funding.

Mr Cobbold’s warning seems especially prescient now in light of this month’s revelation in the Age that the Victorian Labor government has quietly stripped $2.4 billion from our public schools by delaying its funding commitments by three years. The bilateral agreement signed in 2023 between Victoria and the Commonwealth clearly stated that the Victorian final share for government schools would be 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard, or SRS, by 2028, but according to the Age, cabinet-in-confidence documents show that this state Labor government has made a secret decision to abandon this commitment, delaying the funds for three years to 2031. This decision, made behind closed doors away from parliamentary or public scrutiny, is an absolute betrayal of public school students, staff, parents and families, who rightfully expect that this government do way better. As the Australian Education Union puts it, funding delayed is funding denied.

Far from living up to the standard we set ourselves as the so-called Education State, this decision effectively cuts $2.4 billion from public schools over the next six years. What that means is that a child who started prep this year will not receive proper ongoing school funding until their final year of primary school, while a child starting year 8 will miss out completely. Shamefully, according to the Age, the Commonwealth has responded by reducing funding it was previously planning to give to Victoria under this bilateral agreement. Effectively, our kids are missing out twice, and it is actually even worse than that. The AEU notes that Victoria rolled over its 12-month bilateral agreements in 2024 and 2025 with no growth in its share of SRS funding, despite what was agreed back in 2019. The AEU calculates that this has further short-changed Victorian public schools by around $550 million in each of those years.

When asked about the three-year delay in Gonski funding, the Victorian Labor government has denied and deflected, citing capital works funding rather than the ongoing SRS funding we are asking about. Anyone who has visited one of the neglected, crumbling schools in my electorate of Northern Metro knows that this Labor government’s inadequate capital works funding is really nothing to brag or gloat about. But that is not what we are talking about today. It is a distraction from what we are really asking about in this inquiry. We need answers. The government need to come clean about why they are stripping billions in funding from Victoria’s public schools. They need to look families in the eye and tell them why this government thinks prisons and corporate luxury boxes at the grand prix are worth millions but their children – the future, the next generation – are not. They need to admit to public school teachers that they know they are constantly underpaid and overworked but they are just not ready to do anything about it. Prisons and race cars can have their millions now, but you – the parents, the teachers, the students, the community – are just going to have to wait.

We know that Victoria is in the midst of a teacher shortage. Labor wants to frame this purely as a recruitment issue, but essentially it is a retention issue, with Victoria’s teachers the lowest paid in Australia and midcareer and experienced teachers exiting the profession in record numbers. The real shortage is of people who are willing to work in the conditions that Victoria is offering. With secretive decisions like this one stripping billions out of the funding that is used to pay for teachers and school staff, the Victorian Labor government is funding our schools to fail, not to succeed. We need this inquiry to answer the questions that this government will not. While Queensland commits to fully fund their schools by 2028 and New South Wales brings forward more funding to reach their benchmark this year, Victorian Labor makes closed-door decisions to slash funding from our public schools. In the so-called Education State, why is Victoria stepping back while every other state steps up?

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (15:55): Well, the Greens grandstanding knows no bounds. Here they are again. The big toothbrush has been packed away, and education is the flavour of the day. I did not even work out that rhyme, but here we are. It is Labor that have always stood and invested, have spoken out, have campaigned on and have delivered in government on education. Julia Gillard and David Gonski did the hard yards on education. We may recall that the Liberal-Nationals – yes, they are a coalition – coalition were in government federally for nine years. It is Labor that have gone back and done the hard yards to enable this reform and investment in education, and in Victoria I am incredibly proud of the investment we have made in education.

I talk a little bit about that side sometimes – I will give them a break for a minute – but on this side as well it is the extremes of politics wanting to use an Americanisation of politics to divide people. Language has just been used about ‘crumbling schools’. I have got a very big list of schools here in Eastern Victoria and the investment that we have made through this government over recent years, and I am going to go through this as quickly as I can so I can get to them all. But I just really want to call out the Greens political party in the other chamber. They have had 2½ years for their members to raise questions with the Minister for Education, who is in there, and have they done that? No. And you would have thought the federal election would have taught the Greens a lesson or two about jumping in at the 11th hour on an issue, doing none of the sustained work and then trying to grandstand and trying to whip up fear and division in the community.

It was only yesterday that I was having a meeting with the education minister to talk about the great funding announcements that came out of the budget: Lakes Entrance Primary School, $6.6 million, half a million dollars for Lakes Entrance Secondary, $11.7 million for Leongatha Secondary and $11.7 million for Mount Eliza North Primary. And in that conversation I talked about how I should have known better when I entered this place about three years ago, with my mother being a teacher and my aunty being a teacher. But I did not put the value on education that I have now, because in this role I have been fortunate enough to work with our early educators, to go and see the investment that we have made in early education facilities, to see the investment we are making in our primary schools, to see the investment we are making in our secondary schools and, for me, to have a much clearer picture and understanding of the pathway we are creating for young Victorians, as we say with Best Start, Best Life, to get that early education, that three- and four-year-old kinder that we are investing in. This sits slightly outside of this conversation, but Victoria has made incredible investments in early education that then flow into primary school and secondary college and into the workforce, and of course we talk about the investment we have made for years and years in TAFE being at the later stage of that pipeline. I think the emotional intelligence and wellbeing we are setting an entire generation up for, and also the economic productivity of an entire generation, are so incredibly important to Victoria. That is why I am absolutely proud of and committed to the investment that the Victorian state Labor government has made in education and also the work that Minister Carroll has done in the federal space with other Labor – that is Labor – state ministers to get the outcome around the funding. The commitment to and the priority of a world-class education are absolutely resolute, and we are working to have the full and fair funding, the 25 per cent of schooling resource standard from the feds and the 75 per cent from Victoria.

I again want to acknowledge the effort and the work that education minister and Deputy Premier Carroll has put into that. In fact our recent budget grew $2.9 billion on education and $1.5 billion for school infrastructure. We are still negotiating the terms of the bilateral agreement with the Commonwealth. For this referral motion to come forward for a committee when the Council’s Legal and Social Issues Committee has just had a comprehensive inquiry into the state education system – I am sure my colleague Mr Batchelor was on that and will probably speak to that – and dealt with the question of funding, would be a doubling up of the committee’s work.

I want to get to the funding that we are doing and not talk about those opposite. But again, the Greens political party could look at the bigger picture and remember what the Kennett Liberal Party did – close 350 schools. The Baillieu–Napthine governments did very little; it was Dolittle and Nap Time. If you talk to the business committee, not much happened in Victoria, but they ripped a billion dollars out of the education budget, and how miserable that they abolished Free Fruit Fridays in schools – that is not the pips but the pits. If you look at the work that went into getting this agreement with the feds, it was sustained work with parties of government working to achieve things, ministers going to Canberra, going to protest, going to take up the challenge federally, it is incredibly, highly commendable. As I said before, I see the impacts of this in my electorate day in, day out.

To those comments over there about crumbling infrastructure, I will give you examples from just four seats in my electorate of Eastern Victoria. As I said earlier, an $11.7 million upgrade to Mount Eliza North Primary School; $6.7 million to upgrade and modernise Mornington Special Developmental School, and we are upgrading all the special developmental schools around Victoria; $5.7 million for Mornington Primary School; $2.9 million for Mount Eliza Primary School; half a million dollars for Mount Eliza Secondary College; half a million for Mornington Park Primary School; $393,000 at Osborne Primary School; $9.5 million for Eastbourne Primary School, a school that I am incredibly proud to go and stand with their teachers, their school committee and their families and see the investment we are making into that community that is so incredibly important. There is $13.77 million for upgrading and modernising Rosebud Primary School; $10 million for upgrades and modernisation of Rosebud Secondary School – Lisa Holt is a Victorian Principal of the Year and the work she is doing at Rosebud Secondary is incredible, along with another Teacher of the Year out of Rosebud last year. There is $9.7 million for Dromana Primary School; $9.47 million for Peninsula Specialist College; $2.3 million for Dromana Secondary College; $2.8 million for Advance College of Education; half a million for Boneo Primary School; and $330,000 at Rye Primary School, with Principal Featherston.

In Gippy South, $12.8 million for Korumburra Secondary College – incredible facilities in Korumburra; $11.7 million for Leongatha, as I said before; $4 million to rebuild Yarram Primary School; $3.6 million for South Gippsland Specialist School; $750,000 for Fish Creek and District; half a million at Araluen Primary School; $489,000 at Yarram Secondary College. In Gippsland East, $4.4 million in Paynesville, and those works are happening as we speak; $6.6 million for Lakes Entrance Primary School; $6.7 million for East Gippsland Specialist School – incredible commitments we took to the last election to invest in our specialist schools; $8 million at Bairnsdale Secondary College; $8.4 million combined for Orbost Community College – Peter Seal and the team out there are doing incredible work; and the list – I am not even going to get through it all because I am running out of time. This government is committed to investing in education, and I am absolutely proud of the work we do.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:05): I rise to speak to Ms Gray-Barberio’s motion, and it is an important motion. I have been sitting listening to Mr McIntosh over there trying to talk up the government’s achievements, and he keeps going back to the Kennett years, and it is such a broken record –

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: He interrupts. Let us just not forget what was happening in those years, Mr McIntosh. The Cain–Kirner years were quite historic in Victoria. The state was going broke. It is not dissimilar to what we are facing now. The debt is so huge –

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: No, you are cutting. You are cutting $2.4 billion from public schools and delaying funding as promised, and I will come to that. So the Cain–Kirner years –

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: I do not know how old you are, but there are people in this chamber that do remember those years and do remember the 1990s, when Jeff Kennett turned this state around after the disgraceful management by Labor. And it is disgraceful management by Labor again.

Ryan Batchelor interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Well, Mr Batchelor, your family knows what the Cain–Kirner years did, and I can tell you –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Jeff Bourman): Order! Ms Crozier to be heard in silence. It is getting a little noisy. Mr McIntosh, in silence, please.

Georgie CROZIER: The point I am making is under the Cain–Kirner government the state was broke. It was a rust bucket. It was viewed by the rest of the country as being in real trouble. And here we are again. This motion is looking at a very serious cut to public education with delays in the funding. Around $2.4 billion was previously committed – it was secretly stashed away in the budget papers.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Mr McIntosh, I know you are chirping on over there, but I just want to read a little bit about your Deputy Premier. He was warning the current Premier and then Treasurer Tim Pallas that taking this money out of the budget through the budget program would damage the state’s reputation, embed Victoria’s status as Australia’s lowest funder of public schools and prolong disadvantage and inequities across the school system. That is the point of this motion. It is looking into what actually happened to that money and why it was taken out. It is not an insignificant amount. You did reference the Gonski review with Prime Minister Gillard, and that was 10 years ago. This is where this all started. This is actually the point about this motion and about this money that was meant to be put in place, but no, it has been pushed way out to 2031. Originally Victoria pledged to fully fund schools by meeting the schooling resource standard by 2028.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: I know that Mr McIntosh is very exercised over there, because these are the facts. I will say it again, because he was carrying on a bit. Originally Victoria had pledged to fully fund schools by meeting the schooling resource standard – the SRS – by 2028. This target has now been pushed back under a revised timeline, meaning that between now and 2031 – that is six years away – Victorian schools will receive $2.4 billion less in state government funding than they otherwise would have. That is the point of this motion. That is the point about where this money from these funding cuts to public education has gone.

The delay also means that Victoria will receive less federal funding, as the Commonwealth’s increased contribution is contingent upon states meeting their funding commitments. Victoria has the lowest funding for government schools per student in Australia. Government documents reveal that, as I said, the Deputy Premier – the wannabe Premier – and Minister for Education was rolled by the Premier and then Treasurer Pallas in the budget and finance committee last year when he argued against the decision. He argued against this very decision that was proposed and proposed an alternative position where Victoria would have reached the required benchmark of funding under the Gonski model by 2029 – not pushing it out to 2031. He was arguing not to push it out to 2031: ‘If we can’t meet 2028, make it 2029.’ He was rolled, and there you have it. Talking of rolled, the delayed rollout of the Gonski reform agreement puts us six years behind New South Wales. New South Wales are rolling it out this year. They are doing it now. We are six years behind New South Wales. That is how hopeless this government is. This goes to the very point about the appalling economic situation we are in, because in everything – whether it is education, whether it is health, whether it is roads or whether it is anything – everything is pushed out. Delays in hospital infrastructure are pushed out, and I will be saying more on that in the –

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: Well, when you have got a $194 billion debt and are paying $29 million a day in interest, Mr McIntosh, that is on you. That is your government.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: You are already cutting. The AEU called the delay in this and these cuts – this $2.4 billion cut and the huge blowing out to the never-never – a disaster for public school staff and students. You are responsible. You are in government. You are sitting on the government benches.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Mr McIntosh, we will not lie to the people. We will not con people. We will not con the Victorian public. I will tell you what else we will do: we will manage the budget a bit better than what your hopeless Treasurer is doing. She asks people in property, ‘What’s your favourite tax?’ For goodness sake – ‘What’s your favourite tax?’ I mean, they think you are a joke. But worse than that, you are sending the state broke, with $194 billion in debt. $2.4 billion –

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Well, we are talking about the state, Mr McIntosh, not federal – you fool.

Melina Bath: On a point of order, Acting President, members deserve to be heard in silence.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Jeff Bourman): Yes, it would be good if we can be silent. But it would be awesome if we could just show a bit of respect.

Ryan Batchelor: On a further point of order, Acting President, I think Ms Crozier may have used an unparliamentary expression to describe Mr McIntosh, and I ask that she withdraw.

Georgie CROZIER: Yes, that is okay; I am happy to withdraw.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Jeff Bourman): I did hear that, which is why I knew what Mr Batchelor was on about.

Georgie CROZIER: He is a bit confused. We are talking about the state government, not federal, so he really is quite off the beam, and that is why I did refer to him with an unparliamentary remark. My apologies, Mr McIntosh, if you are a little tetchy about it.

But getting back to this important motion, this is $2.4 billion being cut out of public education, and many students who are in school today will completely miss out on receiving their full funding amount because they will have finished school by the time Victoria meets the full SRS funding amount. There are kids in primary schools now that are going to miss out on this funding. They are going to be through the public primary school system when this funding finally gets there. This is teachers and other people that are providing the programs into the schools that are saying this. They are devastated. They can see through the government. They can see the government is failing them and failing Victorians right across the board.

Without this funding, schools cannot provide the essential resources needed to support their students, and Victorian students, parents and teachers are paying the price for Labor’s incompetence in managing taxpayers money. As a result – it does not matter what they touch; it is every portfolio they touch – there are blowouts, there are waste and mismanagement and there are rorting and corruption in some areas. God knows how many areas –

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Mr McIntosh, I mean, you are a big unionist, but look at the CFMEU, look at the Big Build, look at the corruption and rorting that have been found out by a whole lot of agencies, including IBAC, including the Ombudsman and including the Auditor-General. There is a whole lot of rorting going on, and that is what I am talking about – the waste and mismanagement – because Labor cannot do their job. They cannot manage money, and it is Victorians who are paying the price.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (16:15): What a debate to be a part of. I always enjoy debating education policy and education funding, because it is one of the most important functions that a state has, and that is providing a world-class education for our children. Labor has consistently delivered the school resources, the school infrastructure and the policy settings that this state needs to deliver a world-class education to our children. Ms Gray-Barberio in her motion is looking to refer a matter of schools funding to the Legal and Social Issues Committee. As a member of the Legal and Social Issues Committee, we had a chance in this Parliament to hold an inquiry into the state education system, and our report, which was tabled in October 2024, has an entire chapter dedicated to schools funding. The key recommendation in relation to schools funding from that inquiry that the Legal and Social Issues Committee already delivered to this Parliament was about advocating to the Commonwealth that the Commonwealth fund the remaining 5 per cent gap in the schooling resource standard (SRS) to bridge the gap with the fully funded non-government schools. That was recommendation 54 of the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s report on the state education system tabled in October 2024, not even a year ago. Nine months ago that was tabled in this Parliament.

The government’s response, which was also tabled in this Parliament, in April, so not that long ago at all, said that the government supported that recommendation in full and that in fact Victoria in January had signed the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement – Full and Fair Funding 2025–2034 with the Commonwealth, which commits the Commonwealth to lift its funding from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the schooling resource standard for government schools, and that this will provide 100 per cent of full and fair funding to government schools in Victoria and to students by the end of the agreement. That is in no small part due to the advocacy of the state Labor government, the work of the Minister for Education and his tireless efforts to get the Commonwealth to lift its offer and put that last 5 per cent on the table. The agreement that was signed in January this year between the Commonwealth and the states in part 3 quite clearly outlines that all public schools across the nation and in Victoria in particular are on a path to 100 per cent of the SRS. The Commonwealth is lifting its commitment, and it is very clear that the states and in this case Victoria will deliver 75 per cent of that funding by the conclusion of the period. The bilateral agreements that lay out exactly how that is going to be funded are being negotiated as we speak. If Ms Gray-Barberio wants to get to the heart of the funding arrangements for Victorian schools, they are publicly available already.

The second thing in relation to schools funding – and there has been a lot of talk in the debate today, a lot of emotive language used by the Greens and by members of the opposition, about schools receiving less, about cuts being made – does not stack up with the facts in numbers that are published in the budget. Was it yesterday or today that the budget papers were tabled in this chamber? I cannot remember which, but if you go to budget paper 3, the service delivery budget paper, and you look, in chapter 2 under the Department of Education, at table 2.1, the output summary by area, have a look at the funding that the budget delivered last week: allocations to schools funding in Victoria. ‘School education – primary’ is rising from $5.2 billion in the 2024–25 budget to $5.44 billion in the 2025–26 budget, a 4.5 per cent increase. ‘School education – secondary’ is rising from $4.43 billion in 2024–‍25 to $4.7 billion in 2025–26, a 6.1 per cent increase. The wellbeing support for students budget was $375 million in the 2024–25 budget, rising to $426 million in 2025–26, a 13.4 per cent increase. And ‘Supports for schools and staff’ goes from $1.77 billion in the 2024–25 budget to $1.9 billion in the 2025–26 budget, a 7.8 per cent increase. Some people are clearly trying to make some political mileage out of schools funding for their own political purposes. I have read those numbers into Hansard to try and inject some facts into a debate that, and not for the first time, the participants in this chamber and in the public seem to lack. They ignore the facts when they go into debates like this.

We have had an inquiry that has looked at schools funding, by the Legal and Social Issues Committee in this term of Parliament, and its report is not yet a year old. One of the other things that Ms Gray-Barberio said is that she did not seem to care, count or acknowledge the investment that the state government has made in school infrastructure. She said that she did not think it was particularly important.

I want to just go back to the report of the Legal and Social Issues Committee, because I think it is a nice segue into some of the challenges that we see coming from the opposition. We know the attitude of the Liberal Party when it comes to the funding of school infrastructure and the funding of capital works in our public schools – we saw it under the last federal Liberal government. I will quote from page 265 of the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s report into the state education system in Victoria. It says:

Prior to 2017, the Australian Government provided funding to government schools for capital projects as part of its grants to state and territory governments. Between 2017 and 2023, the Australian Government stopped providing capital funding to government schools …

We had a six-year period while the Liberals were in power when the Commonwealth provided no capital funding to government schools.

As part of that period we saw significant enrolment growth here in Victoria and a significant investment in schools funding, in new schools being built and in schools being upgraded. What you see when you go and visit those schools, either the new schools or the upgraded schools, is the real impact and effect this investment in school capital that this Labor government has had on those schools. We know that half of all of the new government schools built in this country since 2018 have been built here in Victoria. It matters that the state government invests in the capital program of our schools, and I do not think we should agree with the sentiment from the Greens that that funding does not matter.

The last point I will make is that debates over school funding are important, but as I have said in this Parliament before, funding is a means, not an end. What matters most are the educational outcomes that we are getting for our students, the educational policy settings that we put in place, the way that we support teachers to teach and the way that we support students to learn. What we are seeing from this government and from this minister, through the initiatives outlined particularly in the last 12 months – the use of structured and synthetic phonics in our classrooms, the moves towards explicit instruction and the new announcements about focuses on maths and numeracy in the budget last week – is that this government is not only investing additional resources, not only building and upgrading our schools, but it is focused on improving the student learning outcomes of all of the students who go to government schools here in Victoria.

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:25): I rise to make a brief contribution on motion 947 in Anasina Gray-Barberio’s name. This motion requires the Legal and Social Issues Committee to investigate the impact of the Victorian government’s decision to delay raising school funding to 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard until 2031. This decision rips $2.4 billion out of our public school system. This money was needed to pay for the long-awaited Gonski education reforms addressing social, economic and cultural disadvantages faced by students. Victorian public schools are the lowest funded in the country, and Victorian teachers are the lowest paid. Low funding means public schools are left with less or poorer quality resources, and the unavoidable result is a lower standard of education for our young people. As this is the Education State, this is something that you would expect the Victorian government to be deeply concerned about. But no, they buried this decision in the budget papers and looked the other way.

At the same time this government is investing over $700 million into our prison system, tightening bail laws and championing the number of young people who are incarcerated. Victorian kids are now the worst off in the country. They are not getting the education they deserve, but they are getting thrown in prison. Victoria is no longer the Education State, it is the prison state. Education can be the great equaliser, but only when we properly resource the public school system. When home life is difficult, school provides structure, learning and vital connections that some children may have never experienced. I saw this firsthand at the hearings for the inquiry into the state education system in Victoria. Kids who had a troubled start eventually found their stride when they found the right school and supportive teachers. You can see how life-changing a good school is for these kids. They gain confidence, and their relationship with learning completely changes.

A failure to resource public schools to deliver quality education encourages our most vulnerable young people to drop out earlier, with lifelong effects on their quality of life. Young people deserve a world of opportunities and schools that are resourced to give them the skills and knowledge to succeed. By doing this we help break cycles of family trauma and poverty. When we fail to adequately fund our public schools, we fail an entire generation of young people, embedding social inequities and leaving us all worse off. For these reasons we will be supporting this motion.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:28): I rise today to support Ms Gray-Barberio’s motion for a referral to the Legal and Social Issues Committee, motion 947 on the notice paper today. It was a couple of years ago that indeed the Nationals and the Liberals moved a motion for a referral to that same committee and, working with the Greens to adapt the terms of reference, actually got that up off the ground. Indeed we did conduct a fulsome inquiry into the state education system, and I want to refer to some elements of that report, which others have referred to. There was the overwhelming feeling that the government would listen to the recommendations, the evidence, the impetus from this report and do what they should do and increase that school funding and provide that context. But no, this Victorian government is funding a $2.4 billion shortfall by delaying, by putting off, that funding of 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard from 2028 to 2031. It is delaying. It is kicking the tin down the road. It is saying, ‘No, don’t need to do it.’ That then makes null and void the arguments from those opposite that said, ‘We don’t need another one.’ Actually we do. We do need to understand the implications for our student population and our public school sector of this delay, because we know there is a compelling case for that additional funding, and we have heard those testimonies, which I will be happy to share with the house very shortly.

From that inquiry we know – chapter 7 deals with this quite a lot – that our Victorian government schools receive only the figure of $15,970 per student compared to the national average of $16,739 and also compared to New South Wales, which is $16,887. It is really making an impact on our school community. Victorian government schools currently receive 90.4 per cent of the schooling resource standard. That was noted in 2023 in the report. The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that closing the last remaining 5 per cent of that SRS gap would cost $1.97 billion from the 2025–26 budget. But let us talk about what impact that is creating and how the education fraternity – those people in the know, principals and specialists – feel about this and what they think. The report finds, page 223:

The Committee received overwhelming evidence that Victoria’s state schools are chronically underfunded on the terms outlined by the Gonski model.

I certainly heard ‘Gonski report’ back when I was teaching in the public school sector.

They will remain so unless agreements between the Commonwealth and Victorian governments change.

That was one part. The other part of interest to the house is some professional comments about this:

The Better and Fairer Expert Panel stressed the importance of fully funding schools to 100% of the SRS …

It says on page 234:

Underfunding of schools, and government schools in particular, is undermining other reform efforts, with real implications for student educational and wellbeing outcomes, teacher attraction and retention –

didn’t we hear that as a major issue in that inquiry –

and ultimately confidence in the public education system. Governments should work together to address this issue as a priority and fund government schools to 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.

That is just one element. Then we had some teachers, and one of them from my patch in Bairnsdale, Matt Kell, was quite brave because he spoke very candidly about his concerns about teacher shortages – no doubt about that – but also meeting the needs of students with a range of learning abilities. He said:

The funding of public schools … is below what was recommended by one of the many reviews that has been done into education. If you do not think $2000 per kid makes a difference to what can be done at all levels … but especially at lower primary school, to bring up illiterate and innumerate kids, then you are kidding yourself.

Stephanie Feldt, a teacher from Albert Street Primary School – again, a great school – said:

Additional funding would indeed allow us to have the supports that we need in different classrooms. I am speaking of six classrooms, and I know that two of our classrooms need even more additional support to allow the teacher to teach, to do their job.

We have students with various needs and education supports. We know that that is really important for those children. For some of the children with learning difficulties, complex needs and complex behaviours, that additional support per student would make the world of difference.

My colleague Mr McIntosh over there was spruiking on a number of occasions the budget and what is going to be funded in that budget this year, and he took up quite a considerable amount of time. I also have a motion on the notice paper that outlines the budget items in 2025–26 budget paper 4, and it lists about 18 to 20 different schools that are going to be funded in the budget; it is in the budget papers. However, the fine print is that they are going to be funded and finished, but they are going to be delayed until July 2027. They were actually committed to as an election commitment in 2022. So the budget papers say, ‘Look at us. Aren’t we fantastic? We’re funding these schools,’ some of them in my patch. They were an election commitment for 2022. There are various schools that have leaking roofs, that have shoddy classrooms, that have asbestos in them, that are underwhelming in the extreme and that are creating environments where it is more difficult for teachers to teach and for students to learn. This is occurring after the government made that commitment in 2022, and if we are lucky they will be completed – and we know how budget papers can get strung out, pushed, like we have seen in this particular argument today when this government said, ‘2028, sure. We’re going to kick the tin down the road until that funding in 2031.’

With those few comments I just want to finish off as one of the possibly few members of this house who has had the privilege of teaching students in a state classroom. We recognise the value of our state education. We recognise the incredible resource of our teachers and of our principals. We recognise the stress and strain that they are undergoing with the teacher vacancy rates that are there. Principals are struggling to get subject-specific teachers in front of the classroom. There is much need in terms of the learning support. There is much need in terms of integration and this particular funding, which will be now delayed again. It is a saviour for the government of $2.4 billion but a loss to our students in Victoria, and that is a shame. We are happy to support this referral to the Legal and Social Issues Committee.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:38): I rise to contribute on the motion, which concerns the funding of the Allan Labor government’s investing in our public schools in Victoria. The Allan Labor government reached a historic agreement with the Albanese Labor government to fully fund public schools across Victoria. This will see public schools meeting the schooling resource standard as set out in the Gonski report back in 2011. Australians endured a decade of coalition rule when schools were chronically underfunded. Public services felt the cuts, and schools saw more students enrolling, teachers burning out and school infrastructure and facilities neglected. Now for the first time there is a strategy to ensure all public schools are receiving the full funding required under the framework set out by the Gonski review. It will see the federal government lift its share of public school funding from 20 per cent to 25 per cent. Meanwhile the Allan Labor government will move to fund 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard, or SRS, for its public schools. With the state contributing three-quarters and the federal government investing the remainder, we can see public schools given their full entitlement share and finally getting the funding they deserve.

The SRS is a benchmark set out by the Gonski report that determines the minimum funding required for schools to meet students’ educational needs. It provides a national framework for the apportionment of funding for schools based on their needs and forthcoming requirements, rather than arbitrary or disconnected formulas varying by state. This was and still is a great outcome for schools, students, teachers and their families. SRS funding matters because it offers per-student funding, which can be guaranteed to all students’ needs based on the sector.

Importantly, by giving each student a guarantee they will receive the funding that they deserve in the public system, public schools will do better and be able to compete with the independent sector in attracting and retaining high-achieving students. This is important because segregated education systems leave people behind. One of the most important indicators for how a student will perform in school is how their peers are, and if high achievers continue to be incentivised to leave the public sector, then all the other students in the public sector will suffer as well. The promise of Gonski is, as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, that demography is not destiny. It should not matter what part of Victoria you come from, what school you attend or how wealthy your parents are, all students in the state deserve to get a quality education and the opportunity to make something of themselves. It is an important principle and one that we on this side of the chamber would hope that everyone else in this place would join us in upholding and defending.

That is why the government worked so hard to negotiate a better deal with the Commonwealth, which was announced earlier this year. This agreement is a testament to the hard work of the Allan Labor government. My good friend the Minister for Education in the other place, Minister Carroll, has fought hard for Victorian schools, and the work he has put behind securing such an agreement with the Commonwealth government should be applauded by all sides of this chamber. This agreement secures over $2.5 billion for public schools as we move towards fully funding them.

In 2014, when we first entered office, public schools were in dire need of investment. Victorian families had had to face three years of the state government cutting their education services. Their last budget delivered before this allocated $11.6 billion in total towards education. To them, that was seen as a groundbreaking figure. To put it in context, in the 2025–26 budget, the Allan Labor government is investing an additional $4.9 billion in a series of measures to help public schools further, and the budget also provides $17.1 billion this year for the general continual operation of our public schools, kindergartens and more. Put together, that is around $22 billion in this year’s budget alone, to keep our schools running and to fund the continued expansion of our education system. That is nearly double what those opposite were proudly declaring they were spending on Victorian schools – doubled in just 10 years.

For the Allan Labor government, schools are an investment in our future and an investment in our kids and in our state, and it is to the benefit of everyone. But for those opposite, it is just another budget item, another thing on their checklist to shave down. Across the road from my electorate office in Southern Metro is Prahran High School, a wonderful school that was closed down by Jeff Kennett when he was Premier. It was the then Andrews Labor government that reopened it, because we believe in building schools, not cutting them. Building up our schools and our education system has been the core mission of this Labor government, and we are proud to have a partner in Canberra that supports Victorian schools, rather than trimming them down to the bottom line and selling Victorian students short.

We promised to build 100 new schools across Victoria by 2026, and we are delivering. We have already opened 81 new schools, including six that opened for students at the start of this year. Nineteen more are on track to open in time for term 1 next year. Fifty per cent of the new schools being opened across Australia as of late can be found right here in Victoria, because we are a government that is committed to investing in education, building new schools and ensuring all students have the best education no matter what. Building more schools is necessary to having a properly functioning education system.

These schools will be covered by full funding of the SRS when the Commonwealth and state reach the agreed deadlines. That means every Victorian family is going to have the assurance that both the Victorian state government and the federal government are pushing towards funding our schools in their entirety. It means more resources and funding where they are critically needed. The needs-based model of Gonski outlines a progressive future for our public schools, where our regions are not left behind and where all schools are getting the funding they need. That is the funding for school resources, facilities and crucial things that students need for a good education. That is textbooks, computers, software and more. It means a better education for all Victorians. This motion being moved by the Greens is nothing short of an attempt to grab the media’s attention. It has no basis in the on-the-ground reality of the service we are delivering in education and overlooks the core facts. Most schools being built are Victorian. The amount that we are investing in education is growing each year, more than any other government, and we are partnered with the Commonwealth, which is helping us fully fund public schools in Victoria instead of tearing them down. We are doing our part to ensure that not only will every school have the resources they need to teach these students, there will be enough teachers to fill the classrooms.

The budget handed down by the Treasurer includes $159 million to help attract, retain and support teachers in our schools. It also grants $320 million to complete the statewide rollout of the disability inclusion reforms for schools, reiterating the Allan Labor government’s commitment to seeing that every student gets the best start in life, no matter their circumstances, and $130 million to drive excellence in reading, writing and maths at every level of their education. Our record on education speaks for itself. While the opposition cuts schools and cuts funding, the Allan Labor government builds and invests in our youngest Victorians. Every Victorian and every parent should be proud of this agreement with the Commonwealth securing a better future for our children.

The motion makes suggestions of a potential adverse consequence for Victoria’s teaching workforce. This completely overlooks the fact that the budget invests $68 million across a range of school work initiatives. That includes providing 200 scholarships to study secondary teaching in specialist subjects. It would also help pre-service teachers to be paid on placement, with funding for 70,000 placement days. It will continue Teach Today and Teach Tomorrow programs, which are supporting up to 1200 places in learn-on-the-job programs, which make it easy to study teaching while working on the job. The measures in the budget also provide for payments and support to encourage up to 280 teachers to relocate where they are needed most in Victoria. These are crucial programs which help support Victorian teachers and help attract teachers into our education system.

Despite the Allan Labor government’s investment in education in the workforce, this motion overlooks the budget provisions entirely. The Allan Labor government has a proud record when it comes to education, whether it be the record funding for schools and teachers or the record cost-of-living relief helping more parents send their kids to school and participate in extracurriculars. The government is delivering for working Victorians, and it is delivering for our public schools with an agreement with the Commonwealth to ensure long-term investment and fully publicly funded schools under the framework of the schooling resource standard from the Gonski report. It is something every Victorian should be proud of across this and all sides of the chamber. This motion is a thinly veiled attempt to stall the Labor government and to catch some quick media headlines, not to provide anything constructive, and for that reason I will not be supporting the motion.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (16:47): I would like to just remind Mr Berger that he was talking about Prahran and school closures by the Kennett government, but it was actually Joan Kirner’s government that closed Prahran Primary School in 1990. That was a Labor government. It was one of the proud achievements in education under a Labor government. I just thought I would take the member for a trip down memory lane. Also in his electorate was Brighton Technical School, which was closed by the Kirner Labor government in 1991. I am not sure if this is in the member’s electorate as well, but Keysborough Secondary College was closed in 1992 by a Labor government. These poor members – Mr Berger and Mr McIntosh – having to come in here and defend a $2.4 billion cut to education. Who did those two members annoy this week to have to get that gig? I mean, really. Mr McIntosh came in here and talked about that terrible Kennett government and what the Kennett government did that he might be able to remember, or perhaps he was just given some talking points and they tried to set up this caricature of someone most people of voting age do not even remember and how terrible the Kennett government was for eastern Victoria.

Members interjecting.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I remind Mr McIntosh and the members of this house for their reference that it was the Kirner government that did sell the state-owned Bank of Victoria, did sell off trains and trams here in Victoria and did sell off 51 per cent of Loy Yang B, beginning the process of electricity privatisation here in Victoria. He talked about Eastern Victoria and how bad the Kennett government and the 1990s were for Eastern Victoria. The Kirner government dramatically reduced staffing levels in the public service and government businesses, especially the SEC. Terrible for Eastern Victoria, Mr McIntosh, were those 1990s, with significant job sector eliminations and a huge reduction in public health services under the Kirner government.

On education, the Kirner government closed approximately 100 schools, which was often framed as a reorganisation rather than an outright closure. They like to blame Kennett. It was the Kirner government that set up the ratios and frameworks for the criteria for school closures or mergers. They did not get going with one or two after that framework; they got going on 100, and the Kennett government used that exact same framework. Mr McIntosh and members opposite might want to take a trip across the hall to the parliamentary library to find out for themselves what the 1990s were actually like and the devastating consequences when you cannot manage money. You send the state broke, and Victorians pay the price. If that side of the chamber want to talk about the 1990s, they need to go look in a mirror at Labor Party history.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Jeff Bourman): Order! There is enough shouting. Mr Mulholland to be heard in silence, please.

Evan MULHOLLAND: The Kirner government literally set up the framework and criteria for all the cuts and closures that that side of the chamber talk about: 100 school closures under the Kirner government, who literally set up the framework and criteria for closures. As I said, it was 100. That is not a small amount. It is not like they just had to do one or two. They did 100, including in Mr Berger’s electorate. He talks about closures under the Kennett government. We know that they occurred under the Kirner government rather than the Kennett government, who were simply following the footsteps and the framework set out by a Labor government. It was similar to the process of privatisation, whether it be Loy Yang B or trains and trams – privatisation that Joan Kirner did. Those in the transport unions from across the chamber decry privatisation of our public assets in transport and then forget to look at Labor history. The one thing that the Labor Party seem to forget is that privatisation is actually deeply rooted in Labor Party DNA, whether it be shares at federal level in Telstra, whether it be flogging off the state bank to Keating, who then flogged it off to the Commonwealth Bank, VicRoads licensing assets or –

Richard Welch interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Yes, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria – all sorts of things were privatised under a Labor government. Privatisation really is in their DNA. They seem to decry this side of the chamber for cuts, closures and privatisation and forget the history and whitewash the history of Labor governments. We should not whitewash former Premiers; we should actually remember them, so I suggest the members across the chamber go to the parliamentary library and remember them fondly. They named a hospital after this Premier, but they are not willing to state publicly what this Premier and this Labor government actually did. They like to gloss over it. So I would like to thank Ms Gray-Barberio for bringing forward this motion, my colleague the Shadow Minister for Education Jess Wilson and also Dr Tim Read for their cooperation in putting together this very important motion for referral to the Legal and Social Issues Committee.

Let us get the facts on the table. Labor secretly cut $2.4 billion from public school funding by delaying the rollout of the Gonski education reforms in Victoria. Victoria had pledged to fully fund schools to meet the schooling resource standard by 2028. This target has now been pushed back under a revised timeline, meaning Victorian schools will, between now and 2031, receive $2.4 billion less in government funding than they otherwise would have. It also means Victoria will receive less in federal funding as the Commonwealth’s increased contribution is contingent upon states meeting their funding commitments. The AEU has called this a disaster for public school staff and students. Many who are in school today will completely miss out on receiving their full funding because they will have finished school by the time that Victoria meets the full SRS funding amount. Victoria delaying the Gonski reform agreement puts us three years behind Queensland and six years behind New South Wales. This is what happens when you cannot manage money: Victorians pay the price, and in this case we have had a savage cut to education.

Even I was shocked when I read that cabinet subcommittee documents were leaked. They are meant to be secure classified cabinet subcommittee documents. Someone is clearly trying to do a hit somewhere, and we see the Premier in waiting Ben Carroll was rolled by the Premier and the former Treasurer in that cabinet subcommittee, which was a test of his authority – and this whole debacle is a test of his authority. I think the Legal and Social Issues Committee should actually invite Mr Carroll over to this inquiry. We have a bizarre situation where the Treasurer in this house is able to freely stroll over to the Legislative Assembly to give a budget speech but the Premier cannot do the same for our committees to explain her role in the torching of $600 million on the Commonwealth Games, so it clearly does not go both ways. When Labor wastes money like $600 million for us to go and watch the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, somebody has to pay for that, and in this case, it is our school students that have paid the price –$2.4 billion – because Labor cannot manage money.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:57): Goodness – I am going to need a moment. I am thankful for the opportunity to get up today and speak in opposition to the motion moved by the Greens calling for yet another inquiry, this time into the impact of the government’s contributions to education. As I am sure has been said by those on this side before me, this is not a cut to education funding; this is a government clearly delivering staged and sustained investment into public education. There have been no cuts. In fact under the Allan Labor government education funding in Victoria continues to grow year on year, and the most recent state budget reflects that, with $2.9 billion more in education investment, including a $1.5 billion investment in school infrastructure alone. The motion is misleading. I believe it is unnecessary, and it is a duplication of work that has already been undertaken by this Parliament.

I will take a moment to acknowledge the enormous work of the members of the Legal and Social Issues Committee. I know that today we indeed moved to add new members to that because the workload is so big. In fact only a few months ago that committee in all their work delivered a thorough and comprehensive inquiry into the state education system. That report and inquiry covered funding issues in detail, and the government has already tabled its response in fact, including a clear commitment in that to lifting Victoria’s contribution from 20 to 25 per cent of the schooling resource standard. We are absolutely not here to play politics with schools; we are here to build a better education system, and that is exactly what the Allan Labor government is doing.

The facts are that education funding in Victoria has not been cut since 2014–15, the Victorian government has increased real recurrent funding per student in government schools by 34 per cent, the highest increase of any state or territory – that is not a reduction, that is sustained investment – and since 2015 we have opened 123 new government schools. In the next year alone that will be added to by 19, a record for any Australian state in modern history. This is an addition to the more than 2300 school upgrades delivered on top of the $18.5 billion invested in capital works for schools since 2014. Victoria is absolutely leading the nation in infrastructure delivery for public education, not just in the quantity but importantly in the quality, and we have done that without the Commonwealth government, well, frankly, pulling its weight. 99 per cent of the capital investment in our public school system is borne by the state, and members on this side know that the Commonwealth government contributes just 1 per cent; that is the imbalance, fair and simple, and that is what we have been working so, so hard to fix.

The path to 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard is now locked in. In January this year Victoria signed the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement with the Commonwealth government. As part of that agreement the Commonwealth will lift its funding share from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the SRS for government schools, and Victoria will do the same, lifting our share from 70 per cent to 75 per cent. That agreement puts every Victorian school on the pathway to full and fair funding. Let us not forget this agreement only happened because of relentless advocacy here in Victoria, led of course by this Labor government.

The Commonwealth government actually first put forward a 2.5 per cent growth cap on education funding. Victoria firmly said no. Our Deputy Premier joined other state education ministers on the lawns of Parliament House. I had the good fortune of actually being in Parliament that day, and I saw just how riled up he was – the Minister for Education in our state was not going to take no for an answer. He went up to Canberra to make firmly known the views of Victorian parents, Victorian educators and the Victorian school community. It is something that very rarely happens, but when it did, my gosh, he was heard. It was Victoria’s advocacy that led to the revised 5 per cent offer. It was Victoria that signed the agreement to ensure that funding flows in an orderly, staged and responsible way. That is how we get results: not by stunts, not by empty motions and certainly not by reheating issues that have already been through a committee.

I have heard the arguments. I hear them repeated by those opposite, and I have got to say it is extraordinary for me to see the Liberals and the Greens and their work around championing public education, because I am reminded so much of what happened under the Kennett Liberal government and the closure of 350 public schools, the sacking of thousands of teachers, the stories of which I could have told time and time again. They ripped a billion dollars out of the education budget. Something that I am often reminded of as I visit schools that enjoy the free breakfast program, a very well-loved program in our schools, is the scrapping of Free Fruit Friday. These are real cuts that hurt kids, and they are remembered.

And let us not forget: when the Liberals had a chance to lock in the Gonski reforms federally they scrapped the Commonwealth debt cap and gutted future education funding. These are the same Liberals now calling for debt caps and pretending to care about our schoolkids. We cannot have it; it is not okay. I have got to say, when the education minister did go to Canberra and met with other education ministers to make the case, there he was with a sea of other Labor MPs. Were there MPs from other parties, including the Greens? Well, no, they were not there, because in this term alone the Greens, I think it is worth reinforcing, have not asked the Minister for Education a single question during question time – not one – yet now they are putting this inquiry referral right above us. Because we are doing the hard yards of government, it is common for members to ask questions of ministers in the other place; I understand and respect that. In fact only today we had members of the crossbench asking questions of ministers in the other place.

In this year’s budget alone we are delivering millions of dollars, including $133 million to improve learning outcomes, including through early numeracy checks and improved literacy support. We are investing in our teachers, with $158 million to attract, retain and support the workforce, including through programs like Teach Today and Teach Tomorrow, mentoring for our graduates and grants for regional placements – and it goes on. Only last week in the budget there was the incredible announcement of the $400 payment per student from 2026 for the Camp, Sports and Excursions Fund, one that I know will be enormously popular with students in the Northern Metropolitan Region. This is to complement the existing suite of programs being offered to support students in state education, including free school breakfasts, glasses being available through the Glasses for Kids program, dental check-ups, swimming lessons and sanitary products in schools. They all go towards helping with the cost of living for families. What we are doing is committing to free, accessible, world-class public education, not just in words but absolutely in action.

We have had an inquiry. The Legal and Social Issues Committee produced a detailed report last year on the state education system, including on the issues now raised in the motion before us. The government has responded. Next week the minister will be in front of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and that is the proper forum for budget and funding scrutiny. I will certainly take my opportunity to tune in. To reopen this for another committee process would be wasteful. It would tie up valuable parliamentary resources on a matter that is already being addressed through government policy and through ongoing negotiation with the government and the Commonwealth. Let us use our committee time for what it is meant for: issues that have not already been investigated. Let us not double up. What we hear time and time again is that the work of that committee is enormous, so let us respect our colleagues who have already contributed to a prior inquiry on this matter.

I say that we are absolutely, without doubt, proud of our record. We are the only state where vocational education is growing every year. We are leading the country in the rollout of three-year-old kinder, in school upgrades and in new school delivery, and we are doing this while pushing for a fairer deal from Canberra – not just for ourselves but for every child in a government school. Can I just say that we will not be lectured by those who abandoned public education when they were in government or ignored it when they had a chance to show leadership. We are going to stay the course each and every day. We will deliver on our commitments and will always fight for what is full and fair funding – not through motions and not through stunts but through sustained investment, effective advocacy and always standing up for the Victorian education system and the children within. I strongly oppose this motion, and I urge others in this place to do so as well.

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:07): I am pleased to stand and speak to this motion, which we will be supporting. I guess the real problem is when you talk the talk, but you do not walk the walk. Certainly in terms of a commitment to education in this state, the Labor government has abandoned it. You do not rip $2 billion out of a sector and not expect that there are going to be significant consequences. We already know that schools are underfunded. When the government talk about investment in schools, sometimes they are describing investment as actually making the toilets hygienic. They call that investment. It is basic plumbing. Basic plumbing in a school is an investment.

Sonja Terpstra: When have you ever set foot in a public school? Like, never.

Richard WELCH: I will take up that interjection. When did I? Well, I went to a country state primary school. My father was a principal. He committed the whole of his professional life to public education. I grew up in a household that knew intimately what the value of education was to our community –

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Ms Terpstra, please.

Richard WELCH: The whole idea was that we must educate our children because they will need the skills that create wealth for the next generation and for their own families. Do not lecture me on the importance of public education. I was there in 1990 when the Kirner government closed down schools. I was there when the money disappeared because of the Labor government’s mismanagement. There is a human consequence to these cuts, a human consequence that you wanted to hide.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

Richard WELCH: On a point of order, President, I am only shouting because I feel I have to.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Ms Terpstra, can you please desist in interjecting. Mr Welch, can you direct your contribution through the Chair, please.

Richard WELCH: I will endeavour to do so. Thank you for that. Education is an investment in the future. If you take the investment away now, then it will have an amplified effect going forward in the future. Mr Batchelor, I believe, in his contribution said that by simply highlighting this we are sowing fear and division in the community. No, it is not fear. People know. They know what is happening, and it is not division. People are actually solidly united in their concern about these cuts.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

Richard WELCH: Far from it – knowledge and united on what is actually happening here. Because you can only do creative accounting for so long. You can only hollow out state institutions’ and bodies’ internal funding for so long before the cracks begin to show on the facade. This is certainly one where it has been revealed as a betrayal of our next generation.

And it is I think typical of a state government that has forgotten that as a state we need to compete. We need to compete with the other states in Australia. We need to compete in the world. Now, our funding is the worst. The state of our schools is the worst. How can you describe yourself as the Education State if you are at the bottom? It is reflected in the data, too, because NAPLAN shows us that 30 per cent of students are failing to meet basic standards in English and mathematics and overall outcomes are ranked 11 out of 20 categories, down 16 from the previous years. We fail our disadvantaged students. We expect our teachers to take on more and more responsibilities every year in the classroom to manage a whole different range of students and tasks they were never previously required to do. But we are doing that with one hand, and then we are yanking out $2 billion from them with the other. Parents are paying more in public schooling. Parents are paying more and more for extra fees – you take $2 billion out, and then you graciously hand $400 in excursion fees back.

Tom McIntosh: What are you going to offer people, Mr Welch?

Richard WELCH: Why? Why was that necessary? You, Mr McIntosh, you constantly ask us what we are going to cut. Why was this necessary in the first place? Why did you need to cut? Why did you cut? The question goes back to you. Of course if we needed to save money in the education system, surely we could have looked at the Victorian School Building Authority. Surely, that train wreck of an organisation that every school principal I have spoken to has said is an obstacle to what they need to do – but of course it is a choice, because when you needed to fund the SRL, when you had a choice between funding the SRL and funding education, this government chose the SRL. Every area it cut was a choice between the people of Victoria, the students of Victoria, and the SRL, and they chose the SRL.

Members interjecting.

Richard WELCH: You are the government. Have you forgotten?

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, I just remind Mr Welch again to direct his comments through the Chair. He is directly addressing Mr Berger over here. Also, the second point of order is the SRL has nothing to do with this motion.

The PRESIDENT: I reckon let us just move on for the 24 seconds Mr Welch has got.

Richard WELCH: All cuts are the choice of government, and the government has made a very conscious choice not to fund schools but to fund the SRL. That is a choice that the next generation now lives with.

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (17:13): I would like to say thank you to everyone in the chamber for their contributions on this notice of motion. I would like to emphasise that this referral to the Legal and Social Issues Committee is not a duplicate of what has already been done; this is to address the delayed school funding of 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard as well as cutting $2.4 billion from the public education system. Now, the implications of these cuts and delayed fundings – we know exactly the communities and the cohorts of children, teachers and schools that are going to be directly impacted by these decisions. The budget is about decisions. It is about choices. This government has chosen to cut $2.4 billion from public school education system. And what is the fallout of that? Well, we are also saying to the younger generation, our young students who deserve a fair go, ‘Your education is not that important, not right now.’ What we are also saying is ‘We’re not going to invest in the public education system. We’re not going to invest in your future, because what’s more important to us are things like the grand prix and like the prison system.’ My colleague Rachel Payne has already stated that we are moving further away from being the Education State and moving into the dangerous territory of being known as the prison state, and that is shameful. We cannot go down that pathway.

We need to invest in our public education system, and by investing in our public education system we are also investing in a stronger intergenerational outcome for families and communities. What we are saying to disadvantaged students is that we are going to concentrate disadvantage in public schools. That cannot be okay. This is not a matter of grandstanding or a grab at cheap headlines. No, this is about the future of our children, who are cherished members of our society. Any implication or inference that it is beyond that – we care. The Greens care. Everyone that has spoken to this motion in support of it cares. We have heard from Ms Bath, who is a former teacher with lived experience about what is happening on the ground. Funding in capital works is not enough; we need to be funding into curriculums. You only need to go 10 kilometres north into my Northern Metro electorate, where you have got students that are being shipped around from one high school to another because the curriculum is getting more and more narrow in their schools. What does that mean for the future? There is economic cost and risk when we withdraw constantly from the public education system.

I urge this Labor government to come to the table. Do you want to speak about your delivery? Then stop taking away from the kids that really need it most – Indigenous kids, kids with disability, kids from lower socio-economic status. The Gonski reforms are all about addressing equity and quality. That is something that we need to be thinking about when we are thinking about public education systems. Investing in our public education system goes beyond capital projects. It is about our teachers, it is about our communities and it is about our younger generation and the message that we are sending to them.

Motion agreed to.