Business of the house
Exford Primary School bus crash
Natalie HUTCHINS (Sydenham – Minister for Education, Minister for Women) (10:39):(By leave) I rise to make a statement about the terrible collision yesterday that involved students from Exford Primary School. Our thoughts remain with the students that are currently in hospital, and of course their families, and the staff who were at the scene of yesterday’s collision. Our thoughts are especially with the children that were injured and the families that were affected by this tragedy. We acknowledge the amazing response of Lisa Campo, the principal of Exford Primary School, her leadership team and all of her staff as well as the support provided by Eynesbury Primary School teachers, who were very quickly on the scene and ensured that every child affected by the bus collision was safely attended to until their parents arrived.
Along with the Premier and the member for Melton, I have spoken to the principal. She knows that we are supporting her and her team at the school as they recover today and the broader school community. My department will continue to extend all of the support that they need to students, staff and families, including student support services, on the ground today. Can I also thank emergency services, who were amazing at the scene, and extend my thanks to the Royal Children’s Hospital for their assistance.
During this difficult time I just want to emphasise that it is really important that we request that the local community and affected families be given the respect of privacy. I cannot imagine how parents would be traumatised by this. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to get a call like this – that their child has been involved in such a terrible incident. Our thoughts and prayers from this place go out to them.
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (10:41):(By leave) We join with the Minister for Education in extending our thoughts and prayers to those affected by yesterday’s horrific bus accident; that extends obviously to the young children who were involved. We are hearing about quite harrowing circumstances there, so we wish them all the best through this most difficult time, as we do their families and their parents in particular and the first responders and of course the driver, who also sustained injuries. We hope and trust that the driver is recovering. We extend our thoughts and prayers also to the staff, to Principal Campo obviously, to those drivers who stopped and assisted where they could and to all the first responders who rendered aid and assisted in yesterday’s terrible accident. It is good that the house can come together to extend these thoughts and concerns to those affected, and we stand with the government in ensuring that whatever aid can be provided is provided.
Emma KEALY (Lowan) (10:42):(By leave) I would like to acknowledge from this house the difficult situation that those many schoolchildren are in following the serious school bus crash at Eynesbury yesterday involving Exford Primary School students. I think that for any parent who has got school-aged children – I understand it is grade 3 to grade 6 children who were involved in that bus crash – seeing the images in the media in the past 16 hours or so really has hit all of us very, very hard. I understand that 13 kids and the driver as well have been taken to hospital, 10 suffering from serious injuries and one who is still in intensive care. Of course we send all our care and good wishes to their families for a recovery.
I would also like to thank all of the first responders on the scene: the SES, the police, the fire service and all of the people that stopped. There were tens of vehicles of Victorians who wanted to help out. They were helping to take the children out of the bus. They really stood up when those kids needed it the most, and I do thank them for their work. We also thank the fantastic health workers at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I understand that one child has had a full amputation. There are many other children who have had partial amputations. There are some that will certainly take a long time to recover from this. It is good to hear that the government is providing support to the local school, but we certainly need to see this happen in the long term. It is not just the physical injuries that are going to make an impact on these children, but also this is a very traumatic event. So I do urge the government to ensure that all of the long-term support is provided, including mental health support, for the students involved in the accident but also for the other students at school and the wider family and the educators at the school to make sure that they can have a rapid recovery. We know that it will be a very, very long road to recovery. I know, on behalf of the Nationals and the coalition, we absolutely are giving our full support to everybody involved in that accident. I hope that we can see everybody back at school as soon as possible.
James NEWBURY (Brighton) (10:45):(By leave) I am sure that the house would agree that any tragic incident that occurs is one that we all feel profoundly and touches us all. There are incidents, though, that touch us deeply, and I would say that this is one of those occasions – when people from across this state have been so incredibly moved, concerned and worried for those involved in this incident that occurred yesterday. To hear the CEO of the hospital caring for these children and the passers-by who stopped their cars to get out and help these kids I think has touched people across this state. I know that the kids involved in this crash have been in everybody’s hearts ever since the incident. The incident has clearly been so tragic in nature, and the harm and damage to these kids has been just so moving. I am sure that I speak for every Victorian and every person in this place when I say that we have been so incredibly moved. Today our hearts will be with everybody involved – I want to place that on record, on behalf of this whole chamber – with the families and children, for their absolute best and speediest recovery.
Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Government Services, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Consumer Affairs) (10:47):(By leave) I just want to make a brief comment, if I may. I think as parents we all at different times get the emails coming through from Compass saying ‘Your child is invited to go on an excursion’ and invariably we see that email and just say ‘Yep, that’s fine, no issues’. The night before you will talk to your children and they will tell you about what they are going to do the next day. You always expect that you will have a conversation around the dinner table that night – that they will come home, that they will have had a rich and rewarding experience and they will have learned. So when you have something like what happened yesterday, as a parent you just cannot imagine the grief and the trauma that would ripple through this community, through these families and these children.
The fear those children must have gone through when they realised that they were involved in a major collision – the time between impact and the time when help arrived, even if it was minutes, must have felt like hours. For young children, being exposed like this to that level of trauma and grief would be unimaginable – and for the families receiving that call. Just imagine: you are at work or you are at home and going about your normal daily affairs and you get the call late in the afternoon when you think that they are going to be coming home, or you are at the school waiting to pick them up and you get the call and you hear this news, being away from your child and not knowing what has happened to them, what the impact has been, whether they will be okay or not and if they have been injured, how serious it is.
This is an incredibly traumatic experience. I think it is really important that we as a Parliament have come together to express our remorse and sorrow for this. There is an opportunity to make sure that we provide all the necessary supports to the school and the families. We know that trauma – it can be a moment, it can be instantaneous, but particularly for a child – can last a lifetime. I know that this community is going to need a lot of support and care over the journey going forward to get through the physical injuries which are profound and manifest but to also ensure, going forward, there is that support provided to them. Again, it is important that as a Parliament we come together to acknowledge this. Our thoughts are with the school and the community at this very challenging and difficult time.
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (10:49):(By leave) I rise to make some comments about the tragic bus accident that happened yesterday. I also support what the previous member said on thinking about those children that do travel to and from school each and every day. I was one of them. You just expect that your kids are going to arrive home safely – but to think that 45 children were tragically injured and think about what they are going through and what their families are going through, to think of the trauma that the school will have to deal with, and to think of those first responders that were on the scene dealing with this, as they do each and every day. Our thoughts are with them.
It is a tragedy that we are seeing these incidents happening on our roads. Within the last 24 hours we have also seen two fatalities in my electorate of Caulfield – two deaths – from a BMW speeding. Again, from talking to a first responder who was first on the scene there, I note what the impact is for him and what the repercussions are in terms of what they have to deal with each and every day. I know that our immediate focus should be on everything we can do to ensure that the families get all the support they need and that the kids get absolutely the best health care that they can possibly have, but beyond this we have got to look together as a Parliament at what we can do to ensure road safety is a priority and we do not see these kinds of accidents happen again.
Natalie SULEYMAN (St Albans – Minister for Veterans, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Youth) (10:51):(By leave) I too want to extend my sincere thoughts in relation to the absolutely shocking events that unfolded yesterday in the west. Of course my thoughts are with the kids and all the families, the teachers and the entire Exford Primary School community. As a western suburbs MP, it really struck me when I heard the news yesterday, and driving in today and seeing the front of the Royal Children’s Hospital really made my heart sink. I know many families and parents are all praying and sending their thoughts to the families and in particular the children that are at the hospital receiving the best treatment at this point.
I also want to extend my thanks to the incredible first responders for their diligent work. There must have been some really horrific scenes, but they all united and worked very hard to make sure that the children were safe and were able to be transported in a speedy way to receive the care that they needed. I also want to thank Sunshine Hospital. They were also part of yesterday’s emergency in treating the children. Again, our hearts and prayers go out to the families, the children and the school community at this point. We are here to support them through this process. It will be of course a long process for some of the children, but we are all thinking of the school community and in particular the children and families.