Tuesday, 14 November 2023

Middle East conflict

Jess WILSON (Kew) (14:08): My question is to the Minister for Education. With tensions high in the community, is student attendance at the school strike for Palestine on 23 November appropriate?

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for Medical Research) (14:08): Can I say at the outset that many in our school communities are very much affected by what is occurring overseas. I think that is some context to the answer that I want to provide the shadow minister, because on this side of the Parliament we are the ones that have invested in our multicultures and our multifaiths. Indeed we have invested in Holocaust education, I remind the opposition leader, with the support of the member for Caulfield – we have been dealing a bit with each other, the member for Caulfield and I, lately.

But the integrity to the answer is that, as I said to the media this morning, the best investment any young person can make – and it includes on 23 November – is to attend school. That is the best investment they can make in their future. If you want to change the world, you attend school – get educated. That is why we have done things like embed Holocaust education in our curriculum for years 9 and 10, because we know that makes a real difference. It is why we are providing a range of language classes right across different faiths. It is why at the election we took a $30 million commitment to our Islamic schools, and at the moment we are sitting down with our Islamic schools. Some 19,000 kids go to Islamic schools right across Melbourne. So it is a range of investments we are making. The federal minister has also said in the past 24 hours that it is his expectation that students attend school. It is my expectation that students attend school, but I also take the idea and know that schools are governed by principals and school councils. They have a lot more policies than the Liberal Party, most schools, I have realised, and they get on with doing the job that is needed.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (14:10): This morning the minister said in relation to school attendance at the school strike for Palestine ‘the expectation is that normal attendance will be required’. What action will the minister take to ensure that schools comply with this expectation regarding school attendance?

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for Medical Research) (14:11): Action has been taken, I will inform the shadow minister. Indeed, the words I used today were also the words already sent to all schools by the education department, that it is our expectation that normal attendance requirements are adhered to on 23 November. So action has been taken; indeed action has been communicated to the schools.