Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (14:20): I rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. This is a substantial bill that makes amendments across Victoria’s education system. It covers Aboriginal recognition and self-determination; restrictions on student use of personal electronic devices during school hours; reforms to teacher registration and the Victorian Institute of Teaching; changes to the Victorian student register to support national reforms, including the unique student identifier and expanded information sharing powers across the education system; and a number of administrative and technical amendments. There is a considerable amount contained within the legislation, and it is appropriate that Parliament gives these reforms proper consideration.

I would like to acknowledge my good friend and colleague the member for Sandringham Brad Rowswell, the Shadow Minister for Education, who has consulted extensively with stakeholders throughout the development of our position. I thank Independent Schools Victoria, the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, the Victorian Principals Association, the Australian Education Union, the Australian Principals Federation, the Country Education Partnership, the Australian Christian Lobby and others who took the time to provide feedback to the shadow minister on this legislation. Their engagement has been valuable in informing our consideration of the bill.

After reviewing the legislation, receiving departmental briefings and consulting with stakeholders, the Liberals and Nationals will not oppose this bill. While there are aspects of the legislation that warrant further scrutiny and questions that remain unanswered, there are also several measures that are sensible reforms and deserve bipartisan support. One of the most significant changes relates to the Aboriginal recognition and self-determination within the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. This bill inserts a formal statement recognising Aboriginal people as the First Peoples of Victoria and introduces guiding principles requiring decision-makers to consider Aboriginal self-determination when exercising functions of the act. It also broadens the definition of ‘parent’ to better reflect Aboriginal family structures and formalises the inclusion of Aboriginal histories, cultures and perspectives across learning areas consistent with existing curriculum policy. The bill also requires consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders on relevant policies and system targets and provides for cultural understanding and training to be made available across the education workforce.

These provisions have attracted differing views from stakeholders. Some organisations have welcomed the formal recognition contained within the legislation while others have questioned whether the provisions could influence curriculum development beyond what is currently intended. The Australian Christian Lobby, for example, expressed concerns that aspects of the bill may encourage a one-sided historical perspective and have argued that the practical effects of principle-based provisions could ultimately become more prescriptive over time, and those concerns deserve to be acknowledged. However, having examined the legislation itself, our view is that these provisions are largely symbolic in nature. They do not mandate new curriculum content beyond what is already being taught, nor do they fundamentally alter existing operations of Victorian schools.

Given the Victorian government’s commitment to the treaty process, we have sought clarification as to whether these changes were being introduced to satisfy obligations arising from that process. The department advised that these amendments were not developed in response to treaty obligations; rather, they were developed in consultation with the Aboriginal community representatives and education stakeholders independently of the treaty process – and that is a significant point. If these amendments are not intended to satisfy the treaty obligations, it is reasonable to assume that further legislative changes may be required in coming years as the treaty process progresses. I simply place the observation on record because I suspect this Parliament has not heard the last of legislative amendments dealing with Aboriginal recognition within the education system. We will, however, seek to amend the bill to remove new parts 1.1A.1 and 1.1A.2, which are an acknowledgement of the Labor government’s rushed and flawed treaty process and do nothing to further educational outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians and all Victorians. I ask for my amendment to be circulated.

Turning to another area of the bill, one of the reforms that has received widespread support is the requirement for all registered schools to implement policies restricting student use of personal devices during school hours. This reform applies across both government and non-government schools. The opposition supports measures that improve student engagement, reduce distractions in the classroom and lead to the best learning outcomes. What is particularly noteworthy, however, is that many schools did not wait for legislation before taking action. Catholic schools and many independent schools have already introduced restrictions on mobile phones, smartwatches, AirPods and similar devices, because they already recognise the growing impact that these technologies are having on classroom learning. They acted because they understood that education should be focused on teaching, not notifications, social media or digital distractions. They deserve credit for showing leadership before the government intervention became necessary and, to be honest, past time. Their experience also demonstrates that many schools are perfectly capable of making sensible decisions in the best interests of students.

Stakeholders across both sectors have publicly welcomed the government’s decision. Elizabeth Labone, the chief executive officer of the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, welcomed the announcement, stating that measures which improve student engagement and learning should be supported. Similarly, Rachel Holthouse, the chief executive officer at Independent Schools Victoria, acknowledged the government’s efforts to balance appropriate access to technology with the need to maintain learning environments and student wellbeing. These are sensible reforms and we support them.

The bill also contains significant amendments relating to the Victorian Institute of Teaching. These reforms expand information-sharing powers, strengthen interim suspension arrangements, improve disciplinary processes and broaden the public register of teachers to include disciplinary conditions and outcomes. Protecting children must always remain the highest priority within our education system. Parents rightly expect that a regulator responsible for teacher registration has the powers necessary to investigate concerns, share relevant information where appropriate and act swiftly when student safety may be at risk. These reforms move in that direction. However, stronger regulatory powers must also be accompanied by robust safeguards. During the briefing the shadow minister sought clarification regarding the transfer of disciplinary information currently contained within the register of disciplinary action into the register of registered teachers. The department advised that the current register of disciplinary action is maintained manually, while the register of registered teachers is generated automatically from the teacher registration database, and will further advise that the Victorian Institute of Teaching is conducting a comprehensive audit and data-cleansing process to ensure that all relevant information is accurate before the new arrangements commence. That assurance is welcome. However, the shadow minister does intend to follow up in the future regarding the outcome of that audit process. Where sensitive personal information is involved, accuracy is not optional, it should already be expected. If inaccuracies are identified during the audit, Parliament deserves to understand why they existed and what steps have been taken to prevent similar issues occurring in the future.

The bill also introduces reforms to the Victorian student register as part of the national rollout of the unique student identifier. These amendments expand the range of information that may be collected about Victorian students, including country of birth and other prescribed information, to better align with the educational reforms and improve data sharing across jurisdictions. On face value there is merit in ensuring that student records are accurate, consistent and capable of supporting students throughout their education and training. Better data can support better policy decisions, improve continuity for students and reduce unnecessary duplication across government systems. However, whenever Parliament authorises collection of additional personal information, it also has a responsibility to ask whether that information is necessary, how it will be used and whether adequate safeguards exist to protect it. That is precisely the approach the opposition has taken.

Whenever government seeks additional powers to collect information, it should also ask whether the information it already collects remains necessary and useful. If the information is genuinely valuable. are government agencies making the best possible use of it? Distance from school, for example, could assist transport planning, road safety improvements, school crossing infrastructure, footpath upgrades or local council planning. Across government enormous volumes of data are collected every day. The objective should not be simply to collect more information, it should be to ensure that information is relevant, necessary and used effectively to improve public policy. At the same time we should continually look for opportunities to reduce unnecessary administrative burden on families. Parents already complete a substantial amount of paperwork when enrolling their children in school. If there are opportunities to streamline those processes while still ensuring schools receive the information they genuinely need, then government should take them. It is not only good administration, it is common sense.

The bill also makes changes to government arrangements and ministerial appointments. In particular it removes some existing limitations relating to acting appointments. Again, we sought clarification from the department regarding how these powers would operate in practice. The opposition understands that there are occasions when acting appointments are entirely appropriate. Public bodies must continue to function when vacancies arise or when substantive office holders are temporarily unavailable. Victorians rightly expect that appointments to public bodies are transparent, justified and subject to appropriate oversight. The department has advised that acting appointments remain governed by existing appointment and renumeration guidelines issued by the Premier and that acting appointments are generally limited to the period for which a substantive office holder is unavailable. Those assurances are helpful, and on the basis of those explanations we are satisfied that the appropriate safeguards continue to exist.

As I indicated earlier, one of the more significant aspects of the legislation relates to reforms to the Victorian Institute of Teaching. The department advised that there are currently 335 entries on the register of disciplinary action. As part of implementing these reforms, every one of those entries is being audited to ensure accuracy, relevance and compliance before information is transferred into a new system. Again, this process is welcome, but it also reflects why data governance really matters. When government agencies hold information capable of affecting someone’s career, reputation and livelihood, there can be no tolerance for inaccuracies. For that reason, the opposition will be watching closely the implementation of these reforms through the appropriate parliamentary processes and will seek information regarding the outcome of the audit. If inaccuracies are identified, the Parliament should know the extent of those inaccuracies and how they occurred.

The broader reforms to expanding information-sharing powers also require careful implementation. Protecting children and maintaining high professional standards are objectives that everyone in this place supports. Equally, information-sharing frameworks must operate within clear legal safeguards to ensure personal information is handled appropriately and only disclosed where necessary. Getting that balance right is really essential. Throughout the consideration of this legislation the opposition has attempted to approach every provision on its merits. Where reforms improve child safety, strengthen professional regulation or support better learning outcomes we have been prepared to support them.

While this bill contains a number of worthwhile reforms, legislation such as this cannot distract from the broader challenges regarding Victoria’s education system. Today we have seen a new unelected Premier elected by the Labor party room who has a clear track record in the education sector, and that is a record of failure.

A member interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I did say he had a clear track record; I did not say it was a good one. Indeed, it is one of failure. This is a Premier who as Minister for Education botched the VCE exams for two straight years. If he cannot run the VCE exams properly, how on earth can he run this state? Two consecutive years of VCE exam errors jeopardised the results of tens of thousands of students. Four clear errors were detected across general mathematics, mathematical methods and specialist mathematics exam papers; concerns relating to the wording of a further 19 questions were raised by mathematics academics; one error was detected in the chemistry exam; incorrect examination papers were handed out to students at two different schools; and students were given the Chinese second language paper instead of the Chinese second language advanced. You would think after all that happening in 2023 that the Minister for Education would have cleaned up the exams and got it sorted. We rolled around to 2024 and what happened? Sixty-five of 116 VCE examinations had embedded questions and stimulus material contained within sample cover pages, and a total of 24 students received an incorrect exam paper. Again, if he could not get the VCE exams right, how on earth is he going to govern this state? He is the second unelected Premier within three years and was Jacinta Allan’s partner in crime. While he was Jacinta Allan’s partner in crime and refusing to do a royal commission and signing up to every wasteful spending measure that has led to $200 billion of debt and signing up to the Suburban Rail Loop and signing contracts, he was stuffing up the VCE exams.

Following a two-year legal battle, the release of the Victorian government school condition report confirmed almost one in five schools are in poor condition under Labor. I will contrast that with the fact that under this government over the next four years one-fifth of the entire infrastructure budget, including what we spend on school and hospital infrastructure, is being spent on the Suburban Rail Loop in the eastern suburbs, which I note the Premier has left open to another day. This means that one in five schools are in poor condition under Labor because they have got no money to invest in our schools. That is a failure of leadership from the now Premier, who as Deputy Premier and Minister for Education could not stand up to the Treasurer or the then Premier Jacinta Allan regarding desperately needed upgrades to our schools for our kids. They were more interested in enabling the CFMEU to have unfettered access to our construction sector and watching $15 billion walk out the door to crooks and criminals instead of properly funding our schools.

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, I just ask that you remind Mr Mulholland, in his contribution, to be relevant to the bill.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I will call the member back to the bill.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I was just speaking about the funding for our schools, which is of course relevant to this bill. I will continue by saying that the now Premier was too weak to stand up to the Treasurer and to stand up to then Premier Jacinta Allan regarding school funding. As we know, through them spending one-fifth of the infrastructure budget on the Suburban Rail Loop and watching silently, saying a royal commission would cost too much and take too much time, watching $15 billion walk out the door to crooks and criminals instead of funding our schools, this now Premier was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan. Instead he stood by Jacinta Allan and looked her in the eye and declared his loyalty, because he was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan to properly fund our schools. Prior to the November 2022 election, the Labor government promised $850 million to upgrade at least 89 schools across Victoria by November 2026; however, years on, the promised upgrades of dozens of schools have been delayed until after the November 2026 election. I will say this again: when you are funding one-fifth of your entire infrastructure budget, including school builds, of course school builds and upgrades are going to be cut to the side and delayed, because the government is spending well over $15 billion over the next four years on one tunnel in the eastern suburbs. This is what we got when a weak Premier could not stand up to then Premier Jacinta Allan. He could not stand up to former Premier Daniel Andrews, and he was too weak to stand up to then Premier Jacinta Allan.

Following more than a year of unsuccessful negotiations, in March 2026 Victorian teachers launched their first pay strike in 13 years over an ongoing pay dispute with the Allan Labor government, but mostly with the then education minister Ben Carroll, who had initially offered a 17 per cent pay increase before increasing their offer to 28 per cent. As of 3 June 2026, 100 per cent of education support employees voted to reject Labor’s pay deal. The dispute has continued, and we see even more strikes planned, with the union and teachers not accepting the government’s offer. That is a failure to sit down with teachers, who do a fantastic job. Teachers would be mortified to think that crooks and criminals dressed up as health and safety reps are receiving double what teachers do. Crooks and criminals who are out of prison and straight onto a construction site thanks to the crooked CFMEU, are getting paid more than our teachers, who work so hard to support our students. That was a failure of the now Premier Ben Carroll to stand up to Jacinta Allan; he was too weak to stand up to Daniel Andrews, and he was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan. This is a dishonest and distracted government and a dishonest and distracted now Premier, who was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan.

We saw that Ben Carroll was the minister responsible when hackers accessed information of current and past Victorian government school students. In a major data breach in January of this year, an external third party accessed all students’ names, email addresses, school names, year levels and encrypted passwords. That is why, as I mentioned earlier, any additional powers to obtain data need to be scrutinised carefully, because you might just have an incompetent education minister – Ben Carroll – who lets these things through, who stuffs up VCE exams, who is responsible for data breaches, who cannot organise a pay offer, who was too weak to stand up to Daniel Andrews and who was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan. In every portfolio area he has ultimately failed, and as education minister he has been responsible for some of the biggest scandals we have seen in the education sector in a very long time. As I said, he said that a royal commission would take too much time and cost too much. Now he has changed his mind, but he was too weak to stand up to Jacinta Allan, stand up to Daniel Andrews and actually properly fund our schools. Again, about 29 different school builds that were promised by the Labor Party at the election, promised to the Victorian people, have been pushed back to after this election. All the while you have, just during this term, the North East Link blowing out by $10 billion. Over the next four years they are spending about $15 billion on the Suburban Rail Loop – one-fifth of the entire infrastructure budget, including school builds. That is a failure of this now former education minister.

As I said, the Liberals and Nationals, after extensive consultation with stakeholders, will not oppose the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill. I understand the minister will have an amendment seeking some clarification in the way the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority is aligned with Victorian law. We will not oppose those amendments either. I will seek to move my amendment as well.

 Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:47): It gives me pleasure to rise to make a contribution on this bill, the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I trust that most of my remarks will be actually relevant to the bill, unlike Mr Mulholland’s, which contained a lot of irrelevancies to the actual matter before this chamber. Perhaps he did not read it because, as we know, it is only a Labor government that actually cares about public education and funds it appropriately. We only need to reflect on the legacy of the Kennett government that closed 300 schools and sacked thousands and thousands of teachers. We will never forget that, because that is a disgraceful legacy that those opposite have, yet we are lectured to by Mr Mulholland, who clearly does not understand how budgets work. We have got funds allocated to all sorts of program areas that the government is responsible for. But you can just see that those opposite are really not ready to govern anything. It is an embarrassment really for them to come into this place and try and talk about all manner of things that are not even relevant to the bill and clearly demonstrate they do not understand budgets.

As I said, it does give me great pleasure to talk about this bill because there are some very important amendments in this bill that are going to make improvements to our public education system. The bill will amend the act to, first of all, strengthen First Nations recognition and self-determination in education, including early childhood education and training systems, in order to improve cultural safety and responsiveness and support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations learners. This is very critical, because we know if we can provide cultural safety and be more responsive to the needs of our First Nations people, those things are going to translate to improved outcomes for our First Nations people. I could not think of a better mechanism to do it than our public education system.

Also, we are going to require that schools, as a prescribed minimum standard for registration, have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones, wearable devices and audio devices, during school hours. We all know the distractions that personal devices cause for children and sometimes for adults too. We know there are a number of adults, even in this chamber as we speak, who are welded to their mobile phones and looking at all manner of things. But these devices are a distraction, particularly for children who are trying to learn at school. I know a number of schools have moved on this, and our government has. Sorry, Acting President, it was not aimed at you; I looked across the chamber and saw a number of people with their phones in their hands. Nevertheless it is distracting, with the constant notifications that come up. Like I said, a number of schools have already implemented policies restricting the use of personal devices. There is research that supports the idea that the use of personal devices – you know, the sort of quick grab of social media – is reducing our capacity to focus on things. We are seeing some impacts that devices are having on learning and learners. This policy will restrict student use of electronic devices such as mobile phones and wearable devices during school hours.

The amendments will also improve the teacher registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching and enable country of birth data and other information specified in the subordinate legislation to be recorded on the Victorian student register so that Victorian students can be assigned a unique student identifier, or USI, by the end of 2027.

If I can go into a little bit more detail about the first issue that I mentioned, which is strengthening our First Nations people’s recognition and their right to self-determination, the bill before us, the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, will amend the act to strengthen First Nations recognition and determination. It will introduce a statement that acknowledges the unique status of First Nations people in Victoria, and it will outline historical and ongoing factors that impact First Nations learning and wellbeing outcomes. As I said before, if we target these things, we will continue to work towards improving and lifting outcomes, whether it be health or education outcomes, for First Nations people, and that is critically important. The statement will also confirm First Nations histories, culture and perspectives, forming part of the learning areas that are subject to free instruction in schools; it is also critically important that First Nations history, culture and perspectives are taught in schools and understood by students, because it is part of our history. Despite some people – those opposite – wanting to deny that, we know that thousands and thousands of years of First Nations history exist. It is a welcome change to ensure that that now will form part of the learning areas that will be subject to free instruction in our schools.

The bill will also introduce a new duty on the responsible department secretaries to ensure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training is made available to anyone working in support, learning or wellbeing across early childhood education – our schools, our TAFEs and adult community and further education providers, as well as state-funded registered training organisations. This is really important. We are seeing professional development being made available to anybody who works in early childhood education right through to adult education, making sure that every aspect of our education platform clearly enables people to be supported professionally and that we then roll out important curriculum that gives voice to these important areas. This aligns with key elements of recommendation 48 made by the Yoorrook Justice Commission in 2025 as part of our recognition of First Peoples as our first educators. I might say that I could not be more proud to be speaking today on these changes in this bill. It is only a Labor government that makes sure that these things become reality. Further, it is part of our ongoing commitment to treaty and ensuring that our First Nations people’s status in our communities is equally recognised.

I move to the second issue I raised, which is the restriction of personal devices in all Victorian schools. As I noted earlier, these devices can be a distraction not only for students or young people but also for adults. Nevertheless these changes are aimed squarely at Victorian students and Victorian schools, and they will be rolled out to both public and non-government schools in the form of a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices during school hours. What we want is for students to be focused on their learning as much as possible without distraction. We have seen how this has been in public schools across the state to date, and many non-government schools are already doing this as well, but including these amendments will only strengthen this. As I said, removing distractions from students in the classroom across all schools in Victoria will ensure future Victorian students have improved learning, engagement and mental health outcomes.

The other issue that I touched on, the third issue, which is improving the teacher registration framework, is also critically important. We want to further strengthen the teacher registration framework, which is administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. The changes include increasing the efficiency of the institute’s operating processes and procedures with respect to interim suspensions, information-sharing powers and health assessment processes for teachers. These amendments are aimed at allowing for greater flexibility as to who may impose interim suspensions so that the Victorian Institute of Teaching can respond to serious cases when the Victorian Institute of Teaching’s CEO is unavailable due to unforeseen illness or absence. Again, that gives greater flexibility to be responsive to these things.

Currently the Victorian Institute of Teaching under the previous provisions is required to review the basis of an interim suspension 30 days after the original decision and then every 30 days thereafter regardless of whether it has received any new information or not. Many reviews result in a continuation of the interim suspension where the Victorian Institute of Teaching has not received any new or additional information which is relevant to its opinion as to whether an interim suspension continues to be necessary to protect children. The need to review interim suspensions every 30 days even without any new or additional information creates a resourcing burden on the Victorian Institute of Teaching, which needs to support the council or the CEO under delegated authority to make a review decision. These are resources which the Victorian Institute of Teaching has indicated would be better directed to address other high-risk regulatory matters. Again, it is an unfair burden, and it is resourcing that could be better directed elsewhere. The amendment will also expand the information available about teachers on the register of registered teachers, otherwise known as the RRT, and enable the removal of obsolete or unnecessary information from the register of disciplinary action as well as widen the pool of eligible candidates for chairperson of the Victorian Institute of Teaching council board of directors. That was very pedestrian and ordinary but nevertheless important. It is very machinery-type stuff but critically important.

The last point is about information to be recorded in the Victorian student register. The changes will expand the information that must be collected and retained on the Victorian student register to include country of birth data and any information prescribed by the regulations. Under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement 2025–34 heads of agreement Victoria is required to implement and contribute to the national schools unique student identifier number for Victorian schools and students. The aim of this is to create a lifelong education record for students across educational institutions across the country. No matter whether you are a young student just starting out or you are on your education journey right throughout the course of your life and as an older adult, you should be able to continue to access high-quality education in Victoria. The student identifier number just makes it a little bit easier for you to do that. There is a consistent record of your educational pursuits and activities. Only a Labor government will remain and retain the very important title of the Education State. No other Labor government has done more for public education than successive Labor governments in Victoria. Education is the most important public investment we can make in our future. The Carroll Labor government has set a strong foundation for education in this state. It is something that we are immensely proud of, and we will continue to build on the previous reforms and initiatives that we have delivered on.

I know those opposite will not like hearing this, but for example, we have invested an additional $38.6 billion in our schools and have grown the teaching workforce every year we have been in office. That is a consistent track record that our government has. The key reforms we have delivered on are as follows: we will have the best paid teachers and principals and education support staff in the country; Victorian students have the best NAPLAN results in the country, better than at any other time on record; over $4 billion has been invested in our nation-leading disability inclusion program; and Victorian public schools are seeing enrolment growth, one of only three jurisdictions to see this. That is a ring of confidence and a vote of confidence in our public schools. Phonics is a really critical change that we brought into our curriculum, and it is really delivering results for our youngest learners – updating the Victorian teaching and learning model to embed explicit teaching at its core, including the use of systematic synthetic phonics. That is such a welcome change and so many people have talked about how critically important that was. Mental health practitioners, again, are making sure our students are able to be supported and have any concerns identified early. We have the Schools Mental Health Fund and the Head Start apprenticeships and traineeships. We have been supporting disadvantaged students through the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund and affordable uniforms. The list goes on and on and on.

I know I am running out of time, but in the last 20 seconds I have available I just want to say this: $20.1 billion delivering on our commitment to build a hundred new schools by 2026, including 19 new schools opened this year in our growth suburbs. We funded over 2400 school upgrades at more than 1250 government schools and invested $294.8 million to upgrade and modernise 31 existing schools. As you can see, we are building schools faster than ever before, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (15:02): I am pleased to rise to make a contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. As a former teacher – and I have now been in Parliament for 11-odd years – mobile phones were certainly on the rise when I was teaching. There was a level of frustration back in 2015, when I left, that students were not keeping them in the lockers as they were supposed to do but sneaking them in and having a chat or playing games or whatever. Some of these amendments through this bill are certainly wise, and we accept them wholeheartedly. I am sure, in the last decade, with the advancing technology and many, many extra things that can go on to a mobile phone or an electronic device, that it does impact educational opportunities. It can make it much more difficult for teachers and/or schools to do the very core work that they do, which is creating active minds, hopefully encouraging intelligent thought from inquiring minds and putting down a very strong framework for a lasting success in life. I am looking across at my colleagues here, and I know Mr Welch’s father was a principal at a state high school and another colleague Ann-Marie Hermans was in education as well – a very important area.

There are important and quite reasonable amendments in this bill, and we will not be opposing them. The general purposes will be to strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across the education system, and I will have more to say about that in a moment; to require all schools to implement policies restricting these personal devices – let us keep them where they need to be used, not as a distraction from the great education happening in our school systems; and to reform the teacher registration and regulatory processes through the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT).

I know when I started, again if we go back another 20 years before that, I was appalled that, after going to university and acquiring a degree and a diploma in education – so I was perfectly qualified – and after working for myself for 10 years, I could write to the VIT at the time, provide $66, and they would provide me with a licence to teach. I certainly always felt that that was too easy on me, but I also accepted the challenge and taught myself how to teach in school, with fantastic mentors and colleagues in my regional schools – and I am forever indebted to them. This amendment also looks to expand the Victorian teacher registration to support national data reforms, including the USI, the unique student identifier, and other amendments.

I do want to say that, as I have indicated, we are not opposing the bill. We do have an amendment which is consistent with our position. One of the things that I think is really important, having read the bill and seen the clauses that relate to the recognition of our Aboriginal people and embedding self-determination, is that recognition is important, respect is important and cultural understanding is important. Indeed I only yesterday had a meeting with Reconciliation Victoria and want to say a thankyou to, among others, Aunty Gina Bundle. She grew up in Orbost, which was a great place to be, and like me loves the Snowy River and had been down there only recently. There were many things that we had furious agreement on, and some of that furious agreement looked at ensuring that when there is recognition, when there is cultural understanding, they are actually really embedded through a process that all students can embrace, so that all students can have understanding.

I will give you an example of one such tremendous lady in my electorate, called Aunty Cheryl Drayton. I mentioned her to Gina, and she was aware, as Gina has done herself, of sitting down with students, young students in primary school everywhere, and having those really great educational experiences of what culture means to Aunty Cheryl Drayton, what it means within community but how there are connections and experiences that everyone can value. This is an area that I would like to see encouraged and facilitated in our system, and I am going to put a ‘however’. However, no amount of recognition, no amount of embedding something into a curriculum, is of any greater importance than actually making sure that all of our children, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and every single child in our education system, are able to read and write and count and complete school to the level that they want to attain.

What we have seen over the course of a decade under the Andrews–Allan and Carroll government now is that Closing the Gap has not worked. The other day when we were talking about the budget I asked the Treasurer specifically about this. I was asking about various elements within the budget, and she said, ‘Yes, we acknowledge it hasn’t worked for a decade, so we’re trying something new.’ You can go and check Hansard – these are very similar things to what the Treasurer has said. My concern is that there has not been that investment and that targeted approach in school readiness, in attendance, in literacy, in numeracy, in year 12 completion, and this is across all the years but indeed particularly for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, in pathways to employment, training and university. This is not a great track record: ‘We haven’t made improvements, so we’re trying something else.’ Well, the Liberals and Nationals have a separate policy, a First Nations policy for First Nations Victoria, where the buck stops with the minister about channelling and poking holes through silos to actually try and achieve outcomes that align with Closing the Gap targets, because we all universally – people in this house, in the federal sphere – agree that these are important initiatives. But unless you actually make headway, they are just rhetoric, and that is not good enough for students in my Eastern Victoria electorate and right across the state. I put that to the government. We are trying something new. For 10 years it has not worked, and I believe there must be a better way to achieve these outcomes. There is nothing more liberating, in my humble opinion, that would stimulate self-determination than being able to excel at school, get a job and have a career that you want, whatever that career looks like. It is opportunity and options, and that is what not only our Aboriginal students but all Victorian students need. I put that on record as the shadow minister.

We also want to talk about rural and regional Victoria. I should not be up here if I did not talk about students in my electorate. We in 2022 had an inquiry into the education sphere. We moved it, and I thought it was really important to have that inquiry because there was significant pressure in our school system. We do see teachers that are leaving in frustration. We heard it. We went to Bairnsdale and heard about the pressures that are on teachers: the churn and the difficult nature of trying to attract new teachers to the regions and provide that face-to-face, very important, critical work that teachers do.

I was speaking last week when Jess Wilson was down in the Latrobe Valley. She came out to a function that Martin Cameron held, and there was a principal there from the region, an outstanding principal who has been in the system for over 20 years. I will not say his name, but he has written to me and provided some context, and he was happy for me to share the generalities of it. The system is not supporting not only our teachers but our principals. There are very important things like disability inclusion funding – the model is there, but educators are sharing with me that the funding model has significantly increased the administrative workload and schools are often expected to provide supports before funding decisions are finalised. That creates financial uncertainty.

The other day he was physically hurt – I will not say how – by a student. They are being asked to manage these severe and sometimes violent, in this case it was, behaviours of students in our classrooms. This is dangerous. This is the unfortunate thing. If you have been in the classroom, you will understand this. He says there are students who really, really need support but for a raft of reasons they are not getting that support. They end up sucking up over 90 per cent of the time and focus of the classroom teacher and/or the principal and/or our very valuable – we do appreciate them – classroom support educators. They take all that energy, and the resources are not there to support those principals and teachers.

The other thing he said that was quite alarming to me is that there is a system where students can turn up potentially one day a month and still their parents acquire and are able to receive all of the benefits. When a student can turn up one day a month to the education system, whether it is primary school or secondary college, and qualify for benefits and their family can get those benefits, what sort of education are we providing in this state? These kids and their parents know the system. That is unacceptable and needs to change. I am very thankful that we have some outstanding work being done by our shadow minister Brad Rowswell. I want to put on record my humble thanks to him and to recognise his work in the past. Indeed successful school starters is a policy that the Liberals and Nationals have put forward as a commitment to early intervention in our school system for our students. If they can get that assessment very early, if they can get that functionality in the programs around them, then their trajectory into success is far greater. This gentleman, this valued teacher, has said to me that there are great flaws in our current system.

We have a new Premier today – out we walk Jacinta Allan and in we walk former Minister for Education Ben Carroll. Well, let me say, in my Eastern Victoria Region under Ben Carroll we have got 19 schools listed as being in poor condition by the school condition report. Nineteen of them are poor in my electorate, and 26 of them are rated average. It would not take too long to wander around our schools and see the lack of that care and the lack of that quality. A school’s condition does matter. There is no doubt about it, it does matter. We talk about education, and we have heard from those opposite and the minister in the lower house about improving education. Here we have got a minister who oversaw the debacle – there is no other word for it – of our VCE examinations. For my sins I taught year 12 general maths and chemistry when I was in the system, and I know how hard not only students but families work to make sure that they are exam ready. And then lo and behold, here we have got a debacle of a minister, now at the helm of Victoria, who oversaw a department that was clearly dysfunctional. I put it to this house that we have had an exams debacle and we have got a pay debacle. Indeed speaking to the principal again, there was a high level of frustration in and around those learning support teachers in terms of this pay debacle. He has left our schools to fall apart. This is the minister, now Premier, who will lead us to, I know, the loss of this government and the return of sanity and the return of the Liberals and Nationals and the leadership of Jess Wilson and Danny O’Brien. I will allow, certainly, this bill to go through.

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:18): I rise to make a short contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026 on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands throughout Victoria and pay my respect to their elders and the children and young people of past, current and future generations. Education in all forms is highly valued by First Nations people. First Nations education is being connected to country, lore, culture and the wisdom of the elders that is passed on to younger generations.

Let us be frank, the Victorian education system has previously failed First Nations people. Aboriginal children and young people in out-of-home care often face multiple and compounding disadvantages, including the impacts of intergenerational trauma, family separation, racism, colonisation and frequent placement changes that disrupt their education. The Yoorrook Justice Commission found that Victoria’s education system fails First Peoples children and called for systemic reform to ensure Aboriginal children receive an education that is culturally safe, trauma informed and grounded in self-determination. The legacy of the White Australia policy continues, where First Nations children were barred from attending local schools, forced to travel long distances or attend underfunded schools focused on manual labour. The current school curriculum was designed at a time when First Nations history, culture and language were being erased. This bill is an opportunity to right this wrong, to embed self-determination and truth-telling in our Victorian education system.

This is also an opportunity to address the longstanding inequalities that have failed generations of Aboriginal children in Victoria’s education system. Too many of these kids have experienced poor school attendance, low academic results, exclusion through suspensions or expulsions and reduced rates of year 12 completion compared with their peers. These are failures of government, not of these young people. In a time of treaty, this bill is a step in the right direction in addressing these failures. These legislative changes are an important first step, but they are only the beginning, particularly for First Nations children.

I would like to acknowledge that Victoria led the country with the phone-free policy in public classrooms and by introducing restrictions around devices within classrooms. Technology has many benefits, but the balance was definitely off. This bill will help address some of the negative impacts that technology has had on students’ learning. Research shows that screen time can have negative effects on the health, cognitive development and, most importantly, psychological wellbeing of children and young people. While devices can help enhance learning, excessive social media and the use of these devices can negatively affect the health of children and young people. Evidence shows that for many kids spending too much time on screens can increase their risk of anxiety and depression. This bill is a mechanism to encourage healthy screen time, with limits for children and support for their learning and wellbeing. Legalise Cannabis Victoria is proud to support this bill in the hope that this opens the dialogue for a more inclusive education system for all of our children.

 Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (15:21): I have taken the time this morning to really reflect upon the bill before us, and I have got to say I am really delighted to have the opportunity to make a contribution on this because, to my mind, this is a bill worthy of celebration and praise. I join with my fellow colleagues in speaking in strong support of the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. This is a piece of legislation that goes right to the very heart of what our government is all about. It is about fairness, it is about opportunity and it is about doing the hard and practical work required to make sure that Victoria proudly remains the Education State. Education is the most profound and important public investment we can make in our state’s future, and this bill introduces vital, long-overdue improvements across our entire system.

I want to start by talking about something deeply important to me, to our government and to First Nations communities across this state. If you look at our current Education and Training Reform Act 2006, you will find a glaring omission. As it stands today, our core education legislation does not make a single reference to First Nations people or learners – not one. This lack of visibility and recognition reinforces the historical exclusion of First Nations people in the education system, and it is a reality that this bill finally and decisively changes. During the Yoorrook Justice Commission hearings commissioners rightly challenged us to increase the rate of system change to support improved First Nations outcomes in education. They highlighted that current-day educational inequality is part of a pattern of inequality that has been a feature of life since colonisation. We listened, and we are acting.

This bill introduces a formal statement of recognition into the act. It acknowledges that Aboriginal people have a history of practising education on the land now known as Victoria for more than 60,000 years. It explicitly recognises the deep wrongs perpetrated through the education system since colonisation, including cultural dislocation, oppression, intergenerational trauma, lack of healing, systemic racism, institutional inequality and the devastating loss of land, lore and language. It formally acknowledges that these historical wrongs continue to harm Aboriginal people in Victoria today and that the lack of access to culturally safe and inclusive learning environments continues to impact education and life outcomes. We are making sure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training is rolled out to staff right across the board. This bill places a duty on the secretaries to make this training available to anyone working to support learning or wellbeing in early childhood services, schools, TAFEs, adult education providers and state-funded training organisations.

This training will cover crucial areas, including precolonial, postcolonial and contemporary Aboriginal history, cultures and perspectives, including working with Aboriginal people and supporting self-determination and cultural rights. This means that whenever First Nations people interact with our education system, whether as a learner, a parent or a staff member, they can be confident that the people they interact with have access to high-quality information about how to undertake their role in a way that is culturally safe and responsive.

In addition to this restorative work we are making highly practical changes to the daily environments in our classrooms. We all know that personal electronic devices can be a massive distraction for young minds, and the Victorian teaching and learning model emphasises the critical importance of attention, focus and regulation for effective learning. When students bring their devices to school, it fragments that attention and opens the door to a range of health, safety and privacy risks. Back in 2020 our government led the nation by introducing a policy requiring student mobile phones to be switched off and securely stored during the school day in government schools. The results of that policy have been absolutely fantastic. Independent evaluations have shown a significant increase in focus on learning, far greater student socialisation and physical activity during breaks and a reduction in the incidence of cyberbullying during school hours.

This bill rolls that exact standard out across the entire state. It introduces a new prescribed minimum standard for school registrations that requires all Victorian schools, both public and non-government, to have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices during school hours. Importantly, this goes beyond just mobile phones. As technology evolves, we are seeing increasing issues with wearable devices like smartwatches and personal audio devices like earbuds, which can be just as distracting and can covertly capture images and footage – quite worryingly so. You see, this legislation ensures that all future Victorian students, regardless of what school they attend, will experience improved learning and engagement and better mental health outcomes free from addiction to our devices.

We are also doing the necessary regulatory clean-up to back our teaching workforce and to keep our students safe. Supporting our teachers means having a strong, efficient and responsive regulator, and this bill makes sensible, much-needed improvements to the teaching registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Right now, if the VIT CEO is unexpectedly sick or away, time-critical decisions on imposing an interim suspension on a teacher to protect child safety can be dangerously delayed, because a full meeting of the VIT council must be convened. We are fixing that dangerous inflexibility by empowering the VIT council to specify skilled employees who can be authorised by the CEO to exercise interim suspension powers on their behalf. This guarantees that someone is always available to make those time-critical safety decisions.

We are fundamentally improving how these suspensions are reviewed. You see, currently the VIT is forced to review the basis of an interim suspension 30 days after the original decision and then every 30 days after that, regardless of whether any new information has been received. This repetitive 30-day cycle creates a massive unnecessary resourcing burden on the VIT, tying up staff in administrative reviews that simply result in a continuation of the suspension. The bill before us extends the period between a subsequent mandatory periodic review from 30 days to 90 days, and this will free up the institute to focus its vital resources on other high-risk regulatory matters. But let me be absolutely clear: it does not mean that teachers will be suspended for longer than necessary. A companion amendment in this bill explicitly puts that the VIT must immediately consider any new information relevant to a suspension as soon as practicable, meaning a suspension will be revoked the moment the institute no longer reasonably believes there is an unacceptable risk of harm to children.

We are also expanding the VIT’s information-sharing powers so it can collect and disclose information regarding applicants for registration. Currently, the institute is limited in how it can gather information about someone applying to be a teacher, often having to rely solely on the account of the applicant. These changes ensure the institute has access to verified third-party information to make a safe, evidence-based decision about who is suitable to stand in front of a Victorian classroom.

Furthermore, we are increasing transparency by requiring that the publicly available register of registered teachers includes information about whether a teacher’s registration is subject to any condition, limitation or restriction and whether the teacher has been subject to any caution or reprimand. Previously this low-level disciplinary information was only required on the separate register of disciplinary action, and this created a genuine child-safety gap where a prospective employer or community member might miss important information if they only checked the main registration register. By aligning these registers we are closing that loophole and ensuring full transparency, and at the same time we are granting the institute the sensible discretion to remove obsolete information from the register of disciplinary action. We are also allowing the institute to withhold details of an interim suspension if it was imposed solely due to a teacher’s medical impairment and publication would cause unjust reputational harm without improving child safety.

Additionally, the bill cuts frustrating red tape in the health assessment process by allowing an investigator to directly provide a health report to a nominated practitioner without first having to report back to the VIT, saving crucial time. We are also widening the talent pool for the VIT council chairperson by removing the restrictive requirement that they must be a registered teacher or principal, allowing us to attract candidates with deep experience in board governance and strategic oversight, in what is really an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. On top of all of this, the bill prepares our educational data systems for the future by expanding the information collected on the Victorian student register to include country of birth data. This is a direct requirement to meet our obligations under the National Better and Fairer Schools Agreement. By collecting this data centrally, Victoria will be able to implement the national unique student identifier for all our students by the end of 2027. This identifier will seamlessly create a lifelong educational record that follows a student through primary school, secondary school, VET and university across all jurisdictions and sectors. It will ease the administrative burden on schools and be particularly vital in helping identify and track our most vulnerable students who move between states and might otherwise be at risk of disengagement. I will just take a moment to say that as somebody who switched schools a number of times during my childhood, the amount of time it took for catch-ups to happen, waiting for records to come from other schools, I think this will make a real difference in the educational experience of students. I am so delighted to see that lifelong educational record.

This bill is just the latest step in our government’s support for our education system. We have invested an extraordinary $38.6 billion into our schools since coming into office, and we have grown the teaching workforce every single year. We are delivering on our commitment to build 100 new schools by 2026, including 19 brand new schools that opened just this year in our booming growth suburbs. We funded over 2400 school upgrades, and the fact is 50 per cent of all schools built across the entire nation of Australia in the past 10 years have been built right here in Victoria by our government. Our investments are undeniably working.

I am going to take a moment to give my respects to the Victorian students who achieved the best overall NAPLAN results in the nation in 2025, securing the highest or second-highest median scores in 18 of the 20 measures. It is hard proof that our evidence-based reforms, including explicit teaching and systematic synthetic phonics, through the updated Victorian teaching and learning model are genuinely delivering world-class outcomes for our kids. This bill is about ensuring that our regulatory and legislative frameworks match the excellence happening in our classrooms every single day. It protects student wellbeing, it streamlines critical safety processes and it takes the historic, necessary steps towards First Nations justice and self-determination in education. I proudly commend this bill to the house.

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:35): I am very, very pleased to speak today on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. It is no secret that I have a background in education, and it is one that I am very proud of. I want to commend Victorian teachers and even the Victorian teachers union for their hard work in standing up, holding the line and holding their ground to make sure that in the state of Victoria our teachers, our teacher aides and our learning support workers are properly remunerated for the very important work that they do, because it is a profession that is incredibly difficult at this time. There are unprecedented levels of violence in schools and unprecedented levels of pressure on teachers, and unfortunately this bill is going to add to the administrative burden on teachers. That is a concern for many people in the teaching profession, and I think it needs to be noted. There need to be ways to roll this out such that it does not put additional pressure on teachers.

Having said that, there are a number of amendments in here – some of them have been discussed – in terms of Aboriginal recognition and self-determination. I want to say this: it is already a requirement for teachers in their training and in their professional development to undergo training in Aboriginal studies and understanding Aboriginal perspectives. That has existed for some time. The difference is the degree to which that training takes place. I do feel that we need to be looking very closely at Closing the Gap. Whilst that is perhaps not as relevant to Victoria as it is to some other states, it is still an issue and it is something that is not being effectively addressed necessarily through this legislation. I think that that should be understood, and that will be a focus of a Liberal and Nationals government: to make sure that we are following through on closing those gaps and allowing every young person to have not just the right but the opportunity to read and the opportunity to do basic maths. I am very, very pleased to see the rollout in many schools and the improvement in the teaching of phonics, bringing that back. It just horrified me to think that there was no phonics being taught in some schools for many, many years. In fact many teachers have not even been trained in it.

Getting back to the issues in the bill, one of the things that this bill is looking at is the use of mobile phones. Whilst the use of mobile phones has been restricted in government schools, it has been up to every non-government school to determine how that rolls out in the context of their school. I have been very fortunate to work in some exceptional schools. In the one that I was working in prior to coming here it was a student-led operation that came up with how they were going to make restrictions on the use of their technology, particularly their phones, and it was a very, very effective ruling because it came from the students and was implemented and overseen by the students along with the teachers. The teachers did not have to do an awful lot to make sure that the students were using technology appropriately.

There probably should be some understanding of why we are needing to have restrictions on the use of phones. It is not to make young people feel unsafe or to go backwards in how we do education but to understand that the overuse of screen time in schools is definitely impacting learning. It is reducing what we call deep comprehension and causing constant distractions, which overstimulate the brain. Young people are not able to engage in their learning in the classroom if they are constantly flicking through these devices and things like phones. I think that that is important to understand. There is also a lot of skimming that takes place when we do the reading through devices, and that, as I said, prevents that deep analytical process from taking place. Some would argue that multitasking does not even exist. There are education professional developments around the world that say multitasking is not a real thing, because by trying to do more than one thing you are actually not doing anything particularly well. They have also found in many studies that there is classroom disruption, with a high percentage of students being distracted by digital devices, and that can actually cut down instruction time. It causes attention exhaustion and can also, surprisingly, lead to poor physical health from extended use of eyes and poor posture, so causing eye strain and disrupted sleep patterns, and it can actually interfere with even next-day performance. I just want to bring those to the attention of the chamber, because that is why that particular specification has been put in there. And as I said, it has not been in Victorian legislation as it is about to be, because it has allowed the non-government schools to be able to have the freedom to work out the context of the students with which they work.

I find it astounding to listen to some of the people across the chamber in the things that they say. In fact I would like to actually read a quote, which is a wonderful quote. I think it really applies to the Liberals and the Nationals, but it was given by a Labor government spokesman in February 2026 and was recorded in one of the newspapers – I think it was the Age:

“Our priority is – and has always been – that every child, no matter where they live, has access to a world-class education for free in a Victorian government school backed by full and fair funding …

I do not think you are going to get that under this government, unfortunately. We have seen that the new Premier has come from education. I think the largest teachers strike in the nation has taken place in Victoria this year, and I commend those 35,000 teachers that came out, because they are standing up for all Victorians when they stand up for education. We have a situation where our schools have not been properly funded. It is all very well to be putting restrictions on devices, but there are plenty of schools that do not even have decent devices, and in fact that is the least of their worries.

When we look at how many schools were supposed to be funded, there has been a massive reduction. There was an $850 million upgrade that was promised to at least 89 schools, and that has now been delayed until after the election. We find this constant tokenism by this government, where it says things like – I think it was in the 2024–25 budget – that they were going to do capital upgrades to 25 schools and that they were promising $227 million, and that has now grown to 29 schools in the 2025–26 budget, and we know for a fact that 28 schools are not going to get their upgrades until, at the very least, 2027 at the earliest. This is simply not providing that world-class, fair and reasonable education and funding that this government has promised. We are seeing larger classes. We are seeing fewer learning supports and teacher aids. We have not seen very much in the way of the Gonski reforms. When we have a debt that is reaching $194 billion by mid-2029, with interest payments that are going to exceed $29 million in the same period – and we can spend $589 million on Commonwealth Games that we do not even have in our own nation – it seems to me that what the educators are asking for is just peanuts, and they deserve to be listened to, they deserve to be heard and they deserve to be reasoned with.

We see that the schooling resource standard, the SRS as it is called, was promised to be 75 per cent funded by this government, but that has been pushed back to 2031. It means that we have schools that are actually below the minimum standard. And for Labor to cut $2.4 billion – billion! – from public schools in last year’s budget means we see ourselves in this situation with the lowest paid teachers and underfunded schools. So it is all very well to be doing some reforms in things like personal electronic devices and the use of them, which is part of what this bill is all about, and then the Victorian Institute of Teaching teacher registration and regulatory reforms to streamline things like health assessment and investigative processes, but it is not going to change the fact that it is very, very difficult for teachers right now and that administrative tasks continue to grow without any sense of how they are going to continue to do their everyday jobs of teaching and balance these administrative tasks that continually grow under the red tape.

Victorian student register reforms – this bill is going to be looking at expanding the type of data that it is collecting, including country of birth and prescribed information. It is going to support the implementation of the national unique student identifier system, which students that have done year 12 will be very familiar with from their exam period. There are a number of concerns too that have been raised by this increased administrative burden by a number of different groups that were consulted. I think that the rollout for teachers, when they are in the process of simply trying to negotiate for fairer pay and improved pay so that they are no longer the worst paid teachers in the nation, needs to also consider now the additional burden of additional administrative tasks that are being relayed through this particular bill. Nevertheless, we are not going to be opposing this bill. Any reforms to improve things are going to be a step in the right direction. I think the buck does stop with the minister in terms of Closing the Gap, and I do feel that this bill is only providing tokenism in that area. It is nice to be saying you are ticking a box, but in actual fact what are you doing through this bill to improve literacy, to improve numeracy, to improve the educational system for teachers and their teaching conditions – absolutely nothing.

I am so pleased to be able to also add that the Liberals and Nationals have brought in, as part of their policy going into the election, successful school starters. This is going to allow assessment in prep. We are going to provide $156 million to embed speech pathologists and occupational therapists into primary schools and allow them to be observe students for signs of autism and ADHD, starting in term 1. There will even be a bursary provided to families who need that additional help. Having access to speech pathologists in schools is something that took place many, many decades ago. My mother, after originally being a primary school teacher, actually became a speech pathologist and worked in primary schools. Later on the funding was changed again, but it is good to see that we are going to be providing that if the Liberals and Nationals are elected in 2026. I do want to commend my colleague Brad Rowswell for the great work that he has done as Shadow Minister for Education in ensuring that these sorts of policies are coming to the forefront.

In conclusion in terms of this particular bill, the Liberals and Nationals are more focused on trying to close the gap than providing tokenism when it comes to the learning and the understanding of Aboriginal studies. As I said, already in schools an awful lot of that takes place. The streamlining of it is perhaps inconsistent across schools, and it can be more extreme in some than in others. I do think that we need to understand that we are talking about different world views and that that needs to be also communicated when it is being taught. In conclusion, we will not be opposing the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill. It remains to be seen how our new Premier is going to fix up the mess that he has allowed to take place in terms of education. As I said, the worst paid teachers are in Victoria, the worst funding for schools is in Victoria, and now we have Ben Carroll, who has been the Minister for Education, leading the state. Let us see what gets done.

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:49): I am also pleased to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. I will say from the outset that the Libertarian Party will be opposing this bill. There are two main areas of concern, and I will lay out now the reasons why we will be opposing it. The first one is around government-mandated policies on technology devices. It is my view, and it is the Libertarian Party’s view, that education should be as decentralised as possible, and that involves allowing schools to make up their own policies on this sort of thing, on whether or not they allow devices in the classroom in schools. As has been pointed out by many, this is already the status quo in most schools, that they do prohibit these things. What I am concerned about with this law, and with any law, is that technology changes, and the law sets in stone our thinking at this point in technology today without taking into account how things may change in the future. Ultimately, I think that schools are best placed to make these decisions and policies, and therefore I object to what the government is doing here.

On the second part, another thing that this bill does, which is quite significant, is embed specific ideas about Aboriginal culture and how it should be integrated into the curriculum in schools. My concerns here are similar to what my concerns were about treaty: we are effectively undermining the principle of equality under law by having specific racial groups singled out for special treatment. I can give you some examples of what we are talking about here. This bill effectively redefines the term ‘parent’ to be different based on your race. This is something that is redefining the English language and what it means. It also seeks to embed Aboriginal lore throughout the entire curriculum, which is specified in schedule 1 of the regulations. It does not mandate that it is in every subject – and indeed it would be ridiculous if it was in every subject, because we are talking about things like maths and science and information technology. I do not know, maybe there is some relationship to Aboriginal culture, but personally I do not see what that relationship is. Again, embedding this stuff deep within the law and deep within our education system rather than seeking to create an equal society where all Australians are equal seeks to create a separate class of people within Victoria, which I just find totally incompatible with the principle of equality under law, where we are meant to see everyone the same under law.

Some of the other things include: we have these undefined references to recognition of customary kinship structures within our education system. Is that even appropriate for what we are meant to be teaching in school? I have no objection to teaching about Aboriginal culture and the history of precolonisation and postcolonisation – I mean, these are parts of the Australian story – but it is trying to embed these things, and some of these are controversial as well. We are legislating things about claims on Aboriginal history, and some of these things are disputed. Some of these things are not held as universal truths by archaeologists or historians. The idea that we would just accept this without appropriate evidence is something that should be concerning to people who care about the truth. The truth is really important.

Ultimately what it comes down to is, again, that we are embedding these ideological things into our education system based upon race, which is an extremely dangerous thing. This has backfired spectacularly. Whenever the government tries to do this sort of thing, what ends up happening is that there is a backlash and people who are racist within our society see this as justification for special treatment. People question why the government talks about equality under law and yet does not practise it, and then people feel entirely justified engaging in their own identity politics, which is what this is – identity politics. As I stated in my inaugural speech when I came into Parliament, identity politics is a cancer. What the government are doing here is justification – their motives are not bad, but the outcome here is a bad outcome, because we are going to set the precedent of having race-based separation of our students and of our education system, which is not just dangerous, it is plain wrong. Therefore the Libertarian Party will not be supporting this bill.

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (15:55): I am very pleased to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. Because this bill includes elements consistent with the treaty and other First Nations elements, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that we are standing on at this point in time and in this chamber. I am very, very happy to support this bill. It introduces several important reforms to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. They fall under four main headings. It introduces Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across the education system; it restricts student use of personal electronic devices in all schools; it improves the teacher registration framework – as my colleagues have mentioned already, there are just a couple of minor glitches in the procedural continuity there that are being tidied up; and it enables the implementation of the national unique student identifier, which of course is a very logical thing.

I want to speak mostly about the important changes that include Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across our education and training system. The intention of these changes is to improve cultural safety and support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal learners. That is a very important principle and a very important intention. What sits behind this intention is Aboriginal children feeling bullied and teased, feeling unsafe in classrooms and not feeling that their history and their cultural uniqueness is recognised in any way.

The act does not currently include any reference to Aboriginal people or culture, or the unique circumstances and experiences of Aboriginal learners. This lack of visibility and recognition reinforces a historical exclusion of Aboriginal people in the education system. The bill will introduce a statement of recognition to the act formally recognising Aboriginal people as the First Peoples of Australia. It acknowledges the historical and ongoing factors that impact Aboriginal learning and wellbeing outcomes.

The bill creates a new duty to consult with the Aboriginal community on anything that directly affects them – this is that notion of self-determination again. It introduces the principles that anyone making decisions in Victoria’s education and training system must take into account. These cover important issues such as self-determination and its centrality in improving outcomes for Aboriginal people, cultural safety, reclaiming and revitalising Aboriginal languages, making Aboriginal histories and cultures core to the curriculum and prioritising the prevention of racism, as I mentioned earlier. These principles are aspirational and directory as well. They are intended to help guide those involved in the education system towards delivering the best outcomes for First Nations people. They are not symbolic. They are practical measures that put substance behind Victoria’s commitment to self-determination. Embedding these obligations directly into the act means Aboriginal communities have a legislated say in how early childhood, school and vocational education systems affect their children. These changes arose from the evidence given at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, where we were rightly challenged about the pace of change to improve learning and life outcomes for Aboriginal students. It is also an important part of the truth-telling and redress process that underpins treaty. Education is one of the clearest areas where the promise of treaty becomes real for families. Self-determination in curriculum and cultural safety and understanding of Aboriginal history, culture and language are exactly the kinds of structural changes that treaty negotiations are designed to deliver. This bill is a demonstration of how we honour the treaty process in practice, not just in principle. The duty to consult, the emphasis on cultural understanding and the recognition of Aboriginal histories and languages in the core curriculum are necessary elements of the structural reform that Statewide Treaty negotiations are working towards.

This is where I think we have perhaps not a generational divide but a generational line. When I went through state primary school and Catholic secondary school there was almost no education on our First Nations people, and the education that was provided was breathtakingly brief and incredibly incorrect. It was a complete misdescription of Aboriginal culture and had absolutely no reference to the local culture and tradition of where I came from, where I went to school, which was on Gunditjmara land in south-west Victoria. There was absolutely no local reference whatsoever, so there is a generation of people for whom it is not their fault. As an adult, having curiosity and interest and empathy to understand Aboriginal culture and the wonderful people who are leading the First Nations assembly, for example, has made engaging with First Nations people a joy for me and also enabled me to understand how important inclusion is for everyone.

In contrast, a while back – I think it might have been last year sometime – I visited a kindergarten at a school in Portland that our government had built, and it was terrific, because we talked about child care and we talked about early learning, but the very first thing that the children did was they sang an acknowledgement to country. These were four- and five-year-old children. They sang an Acknowledgement of Country, and it was an action song as well, perfect for their developmental age. I just want to share the very short little song that they sang. They taught it to me, but I will not sing it and nor will I act it out:

Gunditjmara people of the Maar nation.

Thank you for sharing your land and your sky.

We will care for the animals and the people.

Ngatanwarr animals, ngatanwarr people, ngata me.

That means welcome animals, welcome people, welcome me. This is an action song that the children sing every morning. I was struck by the contrast in their experience and their automatic acceptance that this was the First Nations of the Portland area and that they got to share the joy of that small piece of culture every morning at kinder.

I will leave my contribution there, but it just goes to show how important it is to keep updating pieces of legislation like this – that if we did not update it and include the First Nations reference and acknowledgement it would be exclusionary of us. I think it is an absolute shame that an amendment will be moved to remove reference to treaty from this bill, because I just shared the joy of a little piece of cultural messaging that would be excluded based on that. I think it is incredibly disappointing. It shows the kind of tone and personality that a One Nation–‍Liberal government in this state would have towards not just First Nations people but anybody that is different – in fact towards everybody, including women. It is really important for us to read the intimidation and the tonal messages that we receive when we have amendments like those that have been circulated today to a piece of legislation like this. It is absolutely shameful. I absolutely support this bill.

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (16:06): I rise to join the debate on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026. The Liberal Party will not be opposing this piece of legislation, but we will be moving amendments to improve the legislation. The government can have their views on things, but the opposition are also entitled to a view, except that is not the view of the left. The intolerance of the left is that they are correct and nobody else can have a view.

This bill will amend the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to recognise First Nations people and increase the level of Indigenous self-determination in the Victorian education system. It requires schools to implement policies restricting personal electronic devices in schools. It updates the teacher registration framework and information sharing, and it will also support national data reforms by expanding the Victorian student register and introducing unique student identifiers. As I said, the Liberal Party will not oppose the passage of this bill, because the expansion of the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) powers that strengthen teacher registration and regulatory settings will improve oversight and reinforce child safety protections, and we believe these are positive reforms. The restriction on electronic devices also has strong support across the education sector. Both Catholic and independent school representatives have welcomed the ban on mobile phones.

The bill will make several changes to the governance framework and powers and functions of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Clauses 6 to 18 reform how VIT evaluates applicants for teacher registration, maintains oversight of teacher status and handles information about disciplinary action. Clause 8 will amend section 2.6.21B of the principal act, which currently provides that the institute may only collect and disclose information about existing or former registered teachers. This clause will ensure that the institute can also collect necessary information when they are deciding whether or not to grant registration under part 2.6 of the act. Clause 9 substitutes section 2.6.24(d) of the act and provides that the register of registered teachers must detail whether a teacher’s registration is subject to a condition, limitation or restriction. New subsection 2.6.24(db) provides that the register of registered teachers must detail whether the teacher has been subject to any caution or reprimand.

While we are talking about teachers being subject to caution or reprimand, I want to talk a little bit about bullying in schools. I am not talking about bullying between students, I am talking about the bullying of teachers by other teachers. I want to address something that I think needs to be emphasised in this current climate where we are going through a teachers dispute with the government. What is happening in our schools is not appropriate, where some teachers are being bullied by other teachers. Membership in an education union is not a requirement to be a registered teacher. The days of closed shops of compulsory unionism are long gone, and aggressive recruiting has no place in 2026. Freedom of association is a core principle of modern liberal democratic Australia. Union membership should be voluntary, and if anyone chooses not to take up membership in the union, that is their choice. Teachers who choose not to be union members should be treated with the exact same fairness and respect as those who are union members. Union membership or not should never be the basis for any discrimination or harassment by fellow teachers or school leadership, and yet I have received reports during the recent phases of negotiation and industrial action over teacher pay and conditions that Australian Education Union organisers have been bullying non-union teachers in Victorian schools.

One teacher at a government school in my electorate alerted me to emails being sent out by union organisers making threats that non-union members could suffer punitive placements or be forced to go to other schools. Non-union members have been targeted by unionised teachers with a campaign of harassment, belittling, snide comments and scaremongering. It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway: this sort of behaviour has no place in government or independent schools. The classroom is a professional workplace where hardworking and highly trained teachers use their skills and expertise to educate Australia’s children to take their place as responsible citizens who are ready to contribute to society. Every worker should be free from intimidation at work, and that includes schoolteachers who have a right to feel safe at work and not be scared of bullying, recriminations or adverse work decisions because they happen not to be union members. In Victoria unions are out of control. For my constituent, the very union representatives, who should be protecting a fellow teacher from workplace bullying, are actually the ones carrying out the harassment.

As Robert Menzies said in Forgotten People, it is one of the ironies of history that the trade union movement, which represented a struggle for freedom of industrial association, should now have taken a new turn so that it desires not that there be freedom to associate in trade unions but that there should be no freedom not to associate in trade unions. Menzies was right: it is not right that people are bullied into being members of a union. It should be their individual choice. I realise that this bill is not about unionism, but when we are talking about improving any aspects of education, the respect and freedoms of individual teachers should also be considered.

I just want to talk also about education in this state and the commitment from this government that we would be the Education State, that we would have the best resourced schools and that no school would be in poor condition, and where we actually are now. Just recently the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report Delivering School Upgrade Projects revealed that, of among 18 government schools in the Macedon Ranges, 11 are in poor condition, four are in worn condition and only three are in good condition. The VAGO report also confirms that decisions relating to schools receiving upgrades are not always made in line with the existing prioritisation guidelines. The VAGO report reveals that across Victoria 29 per cent of school upgrades have suffered cost blowouts, 25 per cent of school upgrades have been delayed and the number of schools in poor condition rose from 182 in 2022–23 to 221 in 2024–25, so our schools are getting more and more run down as this government moves on in its term of government. The Victorian government has also pushed back its target of having no school in poor condition from 2030 to 2034, so it is accepting that it is not actually contributing to improving the position that schools are in but that it is actually getting worse and that it needs more time for that to happen.

The continued decline in the condition of Victorian government schools follows the Labor government’s failure to deliver dozens of promised school upgrades and their decision to callously cut $2.4 billion in education funding in the 2024–25 state budget. As I said, in the Macedon Ranges, of the 18 schools there, 11 are in poor condition. I was at one of those primary schools on Monday morning looking at the condition of that school. The lack of maintenance there is just incredible. In fact there were some serious trip hazards and things that were dangerous for students and for the staff. Eleven schools out of 18 in the Macedon Ranges are in poor condition and four are in worn condition, so that is 15 out of 18. Only three schools in the Macedon Ranges could actually be classified as being in good condition.

In Greater Shepparton we have two schools in poor condition, 19 in worn condition and only seven schools out of 28 that can be considered to be in good condition. In the City of Whittlesea – once again a very poor outcome there – they do not even know the results of the audit for four of the schools. There are nine that are in poor condition and 12 in worn condition. So here we are talking about 25 schools in that region that are in poor condition, worn condition or an unknown condition. There are 17 there that are in good condition, and that is lucky for the families who attend those schools in the City of Whittlesea. But as we are seeing, the vast majority of our schools are not – and this goes for right throughout the Northern Victoria Region. I could talk about all the other regions, but I just chose to use those three when talking about the condition of schools.

This government is not investing in maintenance. I discovered this when I took over as housing minister, and there was a Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report that said 10,000 of the public housing properties were about to end their usable life span because a Labor government had not invested in maintenance. It is not about building brand new shiny schools all the time, it is about keeping the schools that we have in good condition for the families that use those schools as well. We need to be balanced in the approach to education. There need to be new schools where they are needed, but the schools that we have already need to be maintained so they do not fall into such a state of disrepair that they become unusable. It is an insult to the families who are zoned to those schools that a government does not invest in the maintenance that is needed to provide decent educational facilities for their children. I urge this government: look at your maintenance schedule to make sure that these schools are brought up to scratch and to make sure that there are no safety hazards, no trip hazards and no other problems that could be dangerous to students, teachers and families in these schools.

This government has failed this state when it comes to education. They try to claim that they are the champions of education, that this is the Education State, but we see every day education standards falling in this state, whether that be student outcomes or whether that be the quality of the schools that are being delivered. Education outcomes have declined under Labor, and they will continue to decline as long as Labor ignores Victorian schools.

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (16:19): I also rise to give my contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, and I will not be supporting this bill. It is obviously logical that I would not support it, because I voted against the Voice, I voted against the treaty, and no matter what name you call this bill, it is the same kind of thing. It is a divisive, racist self-humiliation ritual and a redistribution of income and rights on the basis of race. Not only that but it has got the usual ridiculous virtue signalling. What this bill is going to do is funnel taxpayer funds into consultants and professional development days – which is a real insult to teachers, by the way. Teachers in Victoria do not need to be told to stamp out racism in schools.

I do not know what year you people think it is. We do not allow bullying of kids on any basis. That is ridiculous. Nobody gets away with that. Nobody tolerates that. It is not promoted, it is not overlooked – except, I have to say, in some recent incidences of really obscene antisemitism, just shocking things I could never imagine happening. I have seen those kinds of things being reported, and they have been dealt with by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, belatedly. The VIT needs some more looking into – that, I can tell you.

Then obviously it has a focus on personal electronic devices, as if schools do not already have their own policies to cover that – so bizarre. When we are talking about child safeguards and the VIT, if we are going to talk about how this is going to somehow stop bullying and that it is all about getting rid of racism, why does it only seem to care about one race? What about our Indian students? What about our Māori students? What about our Anglo-Celtic students? This is so internally incoherent. The most clear thing that this actually changes in law is that pipeline of funding to bloated, unrepresentative spokespersons or representatives that the government chooses to speak on behalf of Aboriginal students – who may or may not actually exist in the school, by the way. It is ridiculous.

If we want to talk about parents and the definition of ‘parent’, well, who is famous for undermining parental rights in Victoria? It is Labor, and it is Ben Carroll. Ben Carroll presided over the education portfolio and was quite happy to tell me that it is part of the school policy to lie to parents and withhold from them crucial information about psychological conditions their children might be undergoing which could lead to medical interventions, all behind the parents’ back, with lifelong consequences and against their will. And if the parents object to it, those are the people who could be subjected to action against them, even though they are just being loving parents. It is absolutely outrageous to even think that the Labor Party care about parental rights or student outcomes or racism when all this bill does is funnel money into some corporations and groups that say they represent what is best for Aboriginal families. You ask the kids in your school, you ask their families and you ask them directly. You allocate funding on the basis of merit and need. You do not divide people and hand out rights and taxpayer funds on the basis of diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense. That is actually how you create racist divisions in the classroom. That is how you create resentment, because suddenly they are seeing each other divided on the basis of race. You have to teach them to do that. That is what you are doing with this bill, and it is outrageous that anyone would vote for it. I will not be voting for it.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) incorporated the following:

President, I rise to make a contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026.

And in doing so I would first like to thank my good friend the Minister for Education in the other place, Minister Carroll.

Our record on investment into education is second to none in Victoria.

Whether we’re concerning early years education, school years, or tertiary and technical education, this Labor Government has been investing in these for over a decade.

Not only have we made record investments into our public schools, we have also made many reforms in the way the classroom works and is conducted, to ensure the next generations always have the best start.

And this bill follows that record with more reforms aimed at improving outcomes for our littlest Victorians, and modernising our classrooms to changing times and to ensuring inclusivity.

First, President, this bill will strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the our education system, including early education.

This is involves the improvement of training systems to improve cultural safety and responsiveness, and support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations learners.

It will then also require that schools, as a prescribed minimum standard for registration, have a policy in place that restricts student use of personal electronic devices during school hours, an important point that I will touch on later.

That is in reference to devices such as mobile phones, wearable devices and audio devices.

The bill also contains reforms to the Victorian Institute of Teaching to improve the registration framework for teachers, as administered by the VIT.

And the bill also allows for country of birth data and other information specified in subordinate legislation to be recorded in the Victorian Student Register so that Victorian students can be assigned a Unique Student Identifier (USI) by the end of 2027.

This is important reforms designed to build up on our continuous improvement of our education system.

In the first instance, President, I would like to speak on the changes to the use of mobile phones and other similar smart devices at school.

What we are trying to achieve as a state, is a scenario where we capitalise on the benefits that technology can bring to the classroom, while balancing it out as to eliminate distractions and keep the focus on learning.

Removing distractions for students in the classroom across all schools in Victoria will ensure future Victorian students have improved student learning outcomes, better engagement with the classes, and better mental health outcomes.

We have already committed to several changes in this area.

Victoria led the nation by banning mobile phones in public school classrooms in 2020, and the effects were noticeable.

An independent evaluation found students were more focused in class and more social during breaks, playing outside and seeing their friends more often.

Schools also reported fewer critical incidents involving phones.

By introducing this ban into non government schools, we’re ensuring consistency across the board.

It is not fair on one set of students if another student has access to those devices, just because one’s in a public school and one isn’t.

This consistency and uniformity will ensure the same conditions and regulations on this matter across all schools in Victoria.

Earlier this year, the Minister also announced that from Term 1, 2027 all secondary schools will be asked to include planned device-free time in their learning.

We have already limited digital devices to 90 minutes for Years 3–6 and minimal use in Prep to Year 2, to ensure that kids are not hooked on to, or reliant upon devices from an early age.

It meant that students could use devices intentionally, but not as distractions.

Device-free time meant time away from the screens and time spent using physical materials, such as pens, papers, whiteboards, and so forth.

Critical skills to know.

And now, President, we build upon that with this latest expansion of the policy.

Under the current system, students must have their phones in their locker or storage area, switched off, from the first bell to the last.

Expanding the ban to wearable and personal audio devices further limits distraction in classrooms and keeps students safe.

In that spirit, notifications, cellular connection and recording functions on wearable devices must also be switched off.

We understand how wearable devices that capture photos, video or audio can pose risks to students and staff, and as such those will be barred from the classroom.

Though of course, exceptions will apply for students that require devices to monitor health conditions.

This all goes towards building a better school environment free from distractions, which is consistent across the state and can help deliver stronger outcomes from our newer generations.

President, this Labor Government is also wanting to further strengthen the teacher registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

There are some glaring inefficiencies we hope to rectify with this bill.

For example, the VIT is currently required to review the basis of an interim suspension 30 days after the original decision and every 30 days thereafter.

This is done continuously irrespective of whether it has received any new information.

That is why we are introducing new reforms to the VIT in this bill.

It includes changes that aim towards increasing the efficiency of the Institute’s operating processes and procedures in regards to interim suspensions, information sharing powers, and the health assessment process for teachers.

It provides for more flexibility on who can impose interim suspensions so that the VIT can still respond to cases when the Institute’s CEO is unavailable.

But on the point of the inefficiencies stemming from the routine and regular revision of the suspensions, irrespective of new information, there is a new fix in this bill.

Fixing this flaw will ease the burden on the VIT, and frees up resources which the VIT would be able to better direct to address other high risk regulatory matters.

President, a critical change in this legislation is the Strengthening Aboriginal recognition and Self-Determination.

It’s first change is the introduction of a Statement of Recognition, that acknowledges the unique status of First Nations People in Victoria and outlines historical and ongoing factors that impact First Nations learning and wellbeing outcomes.

It will also confirm Aboriginal Histories, cultures and perspectives forming part of the learning areas that are subject to free instruction in schools.

In doing so, we are strengthening Aboriginal recognition and Self-Determination in The Education and Training Reform Act 2006, by embedding avenues for better outcomes for understanding.

The Bill will also introduce a new duty on the respective Departmental Secretaries to ensure that Aboriginal cultural understanding professional development training is made available to anyone working across early childhood, schools, TAFEs, adult, community, and further education providers.

This aligns with recommendation number 48 from the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

And finally President, this bill will also expand the information that must be collected and retained on the Victorian Student Register (VSR) to include country of birth data and any other information prescribed by the regulations.

Under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, Victoria is required to implement and contribute to the national Schools Unique Student Identifier (USI) for Victorian schools and students.

The aim of this is to create a lifelong education record for students across educational institutions across the country, integrating our state systems with a national body and ensuring seamless transition of information from one institution to the next, and one state’s regulatory framework to the other.

President, we are a government committed to putting education at the forefront of our priorities, and we have demonstrated our commitment to this time and time again.

Education is the most important public investment we can make in our future.

We have set out our vision for education as one not dependent on someone’s postcode, or how wealthy their parents are, and instead ensuring all students get the quality education they deserve.

Every Victorian, whether well off or struggling, regional or metropolitan, deserves the very best start to life.

It why we have invested an additional $38.6 billion for our schools, and the results speak for themselves.

Victorian students having the best NAPLAN results in the Country and better than at any other time on record.

Victoria is one of only three jurisdictions in Australia to see growing enrolments in public schools.

We took the leading step of updating the Victorian teaching and learning model to embed explicit teaching at its core, including the use of systematic synthetic phonics.

All these reforms and investments into new programs and overall changes to the structure of the classroom, and how we teach our children, has led to demonstrably positive outcomes.

And that doesn’t just stop at the organisational changes.

Since coming into Government we have invested $20.1 billion to our education system with regards to upgrading existing schools and building even more.

We had set out a target of building 100 new schools, and we smashed that target.

We now have 19 new schools opened this year, all in our growth suburbs.

We allocated $294.8 million to upgrade and modernise 31 existing schools.

And that builds on the progress we’ve made by funding over 2400 school upgrades at more than 1250 government schools.

We’re building schools faster than ever before, and modernising school facilities so that students from across the state can get a world class education with the best facilities.

Over 50% of the schools that have been built across the whole of Australia in the past ten years have been built right here in Victoria, by this Labor Government, and that is something we should all be proud of.

President, these changes are the result of years and years of hard work.

We’ve been building up our education system to ensure it is modern and delivering outcomes for students.

It requires continuous investment, and continuous reform as times change and we gain the capacity to enact further change.

That’s what this bill is building on.

We have a strong record of building a strong and robust education sector which is delivering strong results for students and for the community at large.

And we do not intend to stop that at all.

We want schools to continue delivering strong outcomes.

This bill’s changes to the use of technology, particularly of wearable devices and phones in non government schools, is another step towards getting the balance right.

The balance between technology as a distraction, and technology as a tool of stronger productivity.

We already know the success we have had in government schools thus far on this policy, and it’s time we extend its application, to ensure consistency and equality across the system.

That goes to the heart of this Labor Government’s philosophy and it’s been delivering results since we came to office.

I mentioned earlier that we have the best NAPLAN results in the country.

This was the first or second highest mean scores in 18 of the 20 NAPLAN measures.

It’s proof that our changes to the VTLM 2.0, and the shift towards evidence-based best practice, particularly with respect to explicit instruction, is working. 

These are changes to the classroom aimed at better outcomes, and the ways we can do this is not just by investing in resources and changes in the tools at people’s disposal to teach but also protecting the classroom from distractions.

This is what happens when you take Education seriously, and invest in it consistently over a decade.

President, Victoria is home to the most talented teachers in the nation.

We have invested over $1.9 billion in school workforce initiatives since 2019 with around 14,000 more registered teachers in 2025 compared to 2020.

That includes the Start Program, which is helping making sure graduate teachers across the state get dedicated mentoring and professional learning in the early years of their career, setting them up for a good career trajectory with proper mentoring.

The Pre-Service Teacher Placement Grants will see over 7000 students be supported to take placement at a rural, regional or specialist school in 2027 and 2028.

And the Today and Teach Tomorrow programs, which will support up to 1,600 Initial Teacher Education students to work in schools while studying at Victorian ITE providers. 

We are a government that has backed teachers all the way.

This bill’s reforms around the Institute is designed to reduce the administrative and bureaucratic burden on the entity to ensure more efficient outcomes.

It means more swift resolutions, particularly on the matter of suspensions, which can be dynamically managed without needing the repetitive procedures which yield no changes in status due to a lack of new information.

And of course, President, this bill does the very important task of bringing in another recommendation from the Yoorrook Justice Commission into effect, upholding our commitment to the First Peoples of this state.

It enshrines our commitment to self determination for our First Nations communities and adds the histories and perspectives of First Nations peoples into the learning areas that are subject to free instruction in schools.

That means students can be taught a greater amount of our rich history, culture, and traditions that constitute the oldest continuous culture on Earth, stretching over 65,000 years.

This is a commitment this government has continued to push, with truth-telling through the Commission, our commitment through the historic signing of Treaty this year.

We will continue to pursue justice and the elevation of First Nations voices in our understanding of history and how it is taught to our youngest Victorians, so that we can always learn about the past, and strive to be better in the future.

President, this bill is extensive and delivers essential reforms.

It makes amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to put in place improvements to our education system by strengthening Aboriginal recognition, restricting student use of personal electronic devices in all schools, both government and non-government, reforms the teacher registration framework, and expands the Victorian Student Register to be in sync with interstate systems.

They are not only common sense changes, but essential changes to continuously modernise our education system for the better.

And for that, President, I commend the bill to the chamber.

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (16:23): Can I acknowledge and thank those who have contributed to this debate. This, despite the contributions we have heard in the chamber today, is actually a very straightforward bill and seeks to amend the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to make improvements to our education system. The bill will amend the act to strengthen Aboriginal recognition and self-determination in the education, including early childhood education, and training systems to improve cultural safety and responsiveness and support improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations learners. It will require that schools, as the prescribed minimum standard for registration, have a policy that restricts student use of personal electronic devices such as mobile phones, wearable devices and audio devices during school hours. It will improve the teacher registration framework administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. It will enable country of birth data and other information specified in the subordinate legislation to be recorded in the Victorian student register so that Victorian students can be assigned a unique student identifier by the end of 2027, and it will amend the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 to make a statute law revision amendment.

I want to briefly speak to the amendment in my name and ask that this now be circulated. This is a short, straightforward technical amendment, and I thank both the shadow minister’s office and Mr Mulholland for their engagement with my office on this amendment. This amendment merely ensures that the provisions within the bill before us regarding the ability for the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority to publish information can be operationalised effectively. This specific section relates to the override of the national law as it applies in Victoria, which we all agreed to in the reforms at the end of last year, and ensures that this provision is operationalised effectively. I am pleased to commend this bill to the house.

Council divided on motion:

Clause 1 (16:33)

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: I move:

1.   Clause 1, page 3, lines 8 and 9, omit “statute law revision amendment” and insert “technical amendment in relation to the publication of information”.

This is really a technical amendment that helps give effect to the changes that were passed in relation to the national law late last year.

Amendment agreed to; amended clause agreed to; clauses 2 to 4 agreed to.

Clause 5 (16:34)

Evan MULHOLLAND: I move:

1.   Clause 5, page 7, lines 1 to 10, omit all words and expressions on these lines.

Aiv PUGLIELLI: The Greens will not be supporting this amendment.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: The government will not be supporting this amendment.

Council divided on amendment:

Clause 31 (16:43)

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: I move:

2.   Clause 31, line 3, omit “Statute law revision” and insert “Publication of information”.

3.   Clause 31, line 6, before “that subsection” insert “subsection (5) of”.

4.   Clause 31, line 7, omit ‘“that section”;’ and insert ‘“subsections (5) and (6) of that section”.’.

5.   Clause 31, lines 8 and 9, omit all words and expressions on these lines.

Amendments agreed to; amended clause agreed to; clause 32 agreed to.

Long title (16:43)

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: I move:

6.   Long title, omit “statute law revision amendment” and insert “technical amendment in relation to the publication of information”.

Amendment agreed to; amended long title agreed to.

Reported to house with amendments, including amended long title.

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (16:44): I move:

That the report be now adopted.

Motion agreed to.

Report adopted.

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (16:44): I move:

That the bill be now read a third time and do pass.

Council divided on motion:

The PRESIDENT: Pursuant to standing order 14.28, the bill will be returned to the Assembly with a message informing them that the Council have agreed to the bill with amendments.