Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Education system

Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (17:43): It is with some interest this afternoon that I rise to make my contribution on the Allan Labor government’s real approach for delivering for the people of Victoria, versus the very fake approach adopted by John Pesutto and his Liberal Party cronies –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member knows to use correct titles.

Darren CHEESEMAN: by the Leader of the Opposition and his cronies when they are given that great gift of government. With the Allan Labor government, every single Labor MP, every single day, lives their values. I am particularly passionate about the values that we bring to the debate when it comes to public education in the state of Victoria. We know that every single child in Victoria deserves the very best education, and the reason why every single child deserves the very best education is because it lifts the productivity of our community. It lifts people out of poverty. It gives every single Victorian the opportunity to achieve with their life. That is why, when we are given that great gift of government, the Allan Labor government go about investing in our public schools. That is why we have set a very bold agenda of delivering more than 100 new schools for the people of Victoria.

When you contrast that record of achievement since 2014 and we look at what the Liberals did when they were given that great gift of government, what we saw is only one new school opened. What we saw is them going after TAFE after TAFE after TAFE in the state of Victoria, denying Victorians the opportunity to get the skills that they need for our growing state.

This fake opposition leader stands for nothing. He has no spine. He is not Tony Abbott. Tony Abbott at least knew what he stood for. This opposition leader stands for nothing. He represents fakeness at every single opportunity. I must say I was somewhat amused when I picked up a copy of ‘Backroom Baz’ in the Herald Sun last Sunday. That very esteemed political commentator made the observation that the Liberal Party had had a love-in in Bendigo. He made the observation that perhaps they now stand for something, but it was a bit unclear in his writings what they actually stand for. Well, I can assure Backroom Baz they stand for nothing. They stand for division. They stand for only the elites in our community. They certainly do not stand up for public education at every opportunity. They do not stand up for the TAFEs that are so vital for the people of Victoria.

If we look at, say, the budget handed down seven months ago, last year’s budget alone had $3.8 billion of investment made by our government into the people of Victoria. We are delivering those 100 schools in the growth corridors of Melbourne and in the growth corridors of our regions, and we are doing that because we believe that no matter where you live, which corner of the state, you should have the opportunity of a great government school. Great education should not just be delivered by the elite private schools where the Liberal Party members and their cronies in this place went.

The Allan Labor government believes that every single child in the state of Victoria deserves to have a great public school in their backyard that they can go to to get a great education. That is why at every single opportunity government MPs, Labor MPs with their values, go out and visit their schools. They champion the needs of their schools and the investments those schools need, because they know how important those schools are for their communities. They know how important those schools are to give every child the opportunity to be lifted out of poverty, no matter the socio-economic background of those families from those communities.

I must say I have had some pleasure in the last week or so in watching the Premier of Victoria and the Deputy Premier of this state, who is also the Minister for Education, getting around with Labor colleagues to brand new schools and opening those schools. I am pleased about that because that is testament to the hard work of those MPs in championing the needs of those communities, no matter where that community is – whether it be in the south-east, whether it be in the western suburbs or the northern suburbs, whether it be in the regions.

Our education system is so precious to our communities. Our communities engage with Labor politicians on it. The reason why they do it is because they know we lead and live our values at every single opportunity. The Leader of the Opposition is no Tony Abbott. He does not stand for anything at all. He is not even a fake Malcolm Turnbull in a vinyl jacket. That is certainly not him either. He stands for nothing when it comes to education.

Labor’s values say not only that we need to invest in the schools and the TAFEs in our state in every single suburb and every single town but also that we need to invest in our very youngest. That is why in childcare drought areas we are investing in new childcare centres. That is why we are making those important investments for three-year-old kinder and for four-year-old kinder, because we want to give every child in the state of Victoria that opportunity to get the start that they need. We are co-locating them. We are co-locating our kinders where we can with our schools. The reason why we are doing that is because we know how busy mums and dads are in the state of Victoria, and we want to make sure, where we can and where it makes sense, that we co-locate kindergartens with our schools. We want to make sure that every single Victorian is given that great start.

From our perspective it is not about the postcode you live in. It is not about the wealthy suburbs. Those families inevitably have options – that is, those options come because you have privilege more often than not because you come from those wealthy suburbs. From our perspective, for the communities we represent it is about giving them a great local school, because that is likely to be the only choice those families have. That investment will not only benefit those individual students, those families, but ultimately lift the productivity of this state. It will provide the state of Victoria with the workers of the future that we need to continue to make sure Victoria is a livable state and that we have the set of skills that we need in this economy and a future labour economy in the state of Victoria. That is why we make these investments. That is why we have identified so many priority areas for free TAFE. We want to create that incentive, that opportunity, for people to get a set of skills that our economy needs, and we value that so highly that we are willing to ensure those students who pick those priority areas for their futures get those skills for free, because that is how important it is. It is important for them, it is important for the jobs that we need right now and it is important for the jobs that we need to build our state. That is why we are making those investments.

As I say, and I have said this on numerous occasions, we live our values, and we do that every single day here. We do that every single day in our community. I think the Liberals live their values when they are given that great gift of government. What we saw when they were given that great gift of government in 2010 was them living their values, going after our TAFEs and not investing in the growth corridors of Melbourne and regional Victoria to provide those kids with that opportunity that they need for a great public education system. What we also saw was fake qualifications. We saw fake qualifications. We saw the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party claiming and professing to be a professor, and that was fake.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member on his feet at the moment, given his history in the federal Parliament and the state Parliament here, should know that accusations such as that can only be made by substantive motion.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member does know that imputations on members are disorderly. I ask the member to refrain from that and continue without them.

Darren CHEESEMAN: I will more than happily move on, and I might move back to Backroom Baz. Reading the article, it went a little bit further and suggested that maybe the opposition leader had found a bit of a spine. Well, I think that is actually fake news. The Leader of the Opposition has not found a spine. He continues to stand for nothing. He continues perhaps to stand occasionally for something at best.

The Andrews Labor government and the Allan Labor government of course are committed to and passionate about education in this state. It is not surprising a significant number of my colleagues are educators. In fact I am looking at the member for Wendouree – a very good educator with a fantastic reputation as an educator in the Ballarat community and now a fantastic reputation as a legislator representing that fine community in that seat.

From my perspective, from the perspective of my colleagues, we will continue at every single opportunity to invest in education for the state of Victoria. We do that for young people. We do that for their families. We do that for the economy. We do that for the jobs that we need to fill. We will continue to make those investments into our schools, into our kinders, into our childcare centres and into our TAFE colleges, and we will do that because we know the importance of what education does for people. We know what that means for their communities. We know what that means for their families. We know what that means for employers in this state. That is why we will continue to target it. That is why we will continue to be focused on delivering that.

It was mentioned right at the start of this grievance debate that we have got a massive infrastructure agenda underway and we have got a massive health reform program underway, and when you look at the education needs of our state, we will continue to invest in those students to give those people the opportunity to connect with those opportunities, because that is Labor living its DNA, living its values. We will continue to be focused at every single opportunity and at every single budget on investing in the young people of our state, because that is what makes Victoria so great – it is a place that values education.

Question agreed to.