Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Bills

Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (18:02): I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024, which will improve how Victorian schools are regulated and run. I welcome the opposition’s support for this bill, because it is, as the member for Sandringham said in his contribution, a very commonsense and sensible bill.

Like so many people in this chamber that have contributed to this debate before me, I too would like to pass on my love and support to the Auburn South Primary School community following yesterday’s tragedy. I offer my deepest sympathies to the principal, teachers, support staff, students, families and everyone impacted by the incident.

As a former teacher and proud Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania member, I would like to thank all the educators across my electorate for their commitment and contribution to high-quality teaching and learning and the huge investment they make every day to support students across Ballarat. Speaking from experience, the job goes well beyond the classroom door and the end-of-the-day school bell, and our government knows this. That is why we are proud to be supporting breakfast clubs, free glasses for kids, prep bags and of course our wonderful Smile Squad. I want to also send my very best wishes to the year 12 students undertaking their VCE exams, particularly the wonderful year 6 students who I taught in 2018 before being elected to this place. They are now completing their schooling, and I cannot wait to see what is next for them and the pathways they pursue.

Our Minister for Education is an excellent minister. He is taking on the portfolio and all its challenges with every ounce of energy and determination, and we are seeing this in the reforms that are coming across. I would really like to thank the Minister for Education, his outstanding ministerial office and the Department of Education, as well as the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions for their efforts in bringing this bill to the house in consultation with stakeholders. This has included the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, which I will refer to a number of times throughout my contribution, the VRQA, whose powers will be improved by the proposed amendments. This bill also includes other educational authorities such as the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the Victorian Institute of Teaching and the new Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership; education boards, including the Adult, Community and Further Education Board and the board of AMES Australia; the Department of Justice and Community Safety regarding updates to particular penalties; and educational peak bodies such as Independent Schools of Victoria and the Victorian Catholic Education Authority.

I am dedicated to ensuring that students at all levels, in Wendouree and across the state of Victoria, have continued access to quality educational opportunities that deliver strong educational outcomes. I recently had the opportunity of joining the Minister for Education at Ballarat Specialist School to celebrate the opening of new buildings at their Gillies Street campus, which was made possible thanks to a $10 million investment by the Allan Labor government. Ballarat Specialist School is just one specialist school amongst every other specialist school across the state that we are investing in and improving. We are also locally funding facility upgrades at the wonderful Forest Street Primary School, which I am going to be opening too on Friday, as well as building a wonderful new senior centre at Mount Rowan Secondary College in Wendouree.

More than two dozen Catholic schools in regional Victoria will also share in $103 million to build, expand and modernise their facilities, including the beautiful school in Wendouree, Our Lady Help of Christians. We are getting a new Catholic primary school in Winter Valley, which will be so well received by the community, when you look at the numbers of people at Lumen Christi as well as at St Thomas More and Siena. The Allan Labor government also provided $2 million to support the construction of the magnificent St Patrick’s College performing arts centre from the Non-Government Schools Capital Fund. This is why we are the Education State.

But there is more, particularly for our amazing teachers and school leadership teams with the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership in our beautiful new state of the art building in Camp Street, Ballarat, which provides our hardworking teachers and school leaders a place to do professional development and further develop their professional practice close to home. Previously they had to jump on a train to Melbourne and jump on a train home. We are shortening their day by about four hours, and they can do all their training right in the heart of Ballarat.

Why are we introducing this bill? We are doing this because we want to ensure that our schools are regulated effectively, and this bill today proposes several amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act of 2006. Together these will work to update the powers of the Victorian Registration and Qualification Authority, the regulatory body for Victorian education and training providers; as well as to improve the regulations surrounding work experience arrangements, thereby easing the administrative burden on our very hardworking principals; and finally, to clarify and standardise other provisions across the act.

One of the core purposes of this legislation that we have before us is to address the VRQA’s ability to act in instances where schools are suspected of operating while unregistered. At present the VRQA may engage and request information from organisations suspected of breaching registration requirements. However, in cases of suspected noncompliance, prosecution is often the only option available. This is a resource-intensive process, which should be the last option, not the primary option. With the proposed changes to the VRQA, the VRQA will be empowered to compel the production of relevant documents and information from suspected unregistered or unapproved providers. Individuals and bodies that require registration or approval by the VRQA may include those operating a school, a school boarding premises or an educational and training organisation, as well as those providing senior secondary qualifications, specific courses to overseas students and student exchange programs.

Under the new framework the VRQA may issue a notice to produce to gather evidence necessary for identifying organisations operating in breach of regulations. They will also have the option of issuing a notice to comply to those which they reasonably believe are operating without the required registration or approval. In cases of noncompliance with these notices, the bill also provides for formal warnings as well as court-issued declarations, pecuniary penalties and injunctions, in addition to prosecutions.

At the same time this bill also proposes to increase the maximum penalties for conducting an unregistered school or school boarding premises. Currently this sits at 10 penalty units, equating to less than $2000, which is inadequate as a deterrent and insufficient to justify prosecution. The proposed penalties are better in line with comparable offences with a maximum of 120 penalty units for an individual and 600 for a body corporate.

By increasing penalties and therefore better incentivising registration, in addition to broadening the VRQA’s ability to compel information this bill will further ensure that Victorian schools are providing a quality education to students in our state, which we would all agree is what is most important.

The bill also further clarifies the information-sharing provisions in the act and removes the onerous expectation for requests to be made in writing. The VRQA may share information with specified persons or bodies such as government departments and agencies, public sector bodies and municipal councils. This will facilitate important communications concerning the performance of educational entities. The proposed amendments will not substantively change the scope of this information sharing but will rather clear up potentially confusing elements within the current provisions.

Whilst I was going to go into procedural fairness and stuff like that, I did just want to mention the importance of work experience, which is another core improvement of this bill – how schools organise work experience and structured workplace learning placements. My daughter Johanna, who is in year 10 this year, had a fantastic opportunity to do work experience at the Ballarat art gallery. It really opened her eyes to creative industries and future pathways into creative industries in Victoria, and that is what work experience is all about. Over the last six years I have welcomed the opportunity to have work experience students spend a week in the electorate office and here at Parliament, although I do feel that often I learn more from the students than they learn from me in those weeks. I look forward to welcoming another work experience student next month and really encouraging their love of civics and the important role of Parliament and government.

Currently our hardworking principals are personally required to make these arrangements, which can impose a substantial administrative burden. The proposed amendments lay out an alternative where a principal may nominate another member of staff to take on this responsibility instead, which is really important for building relationships with careers counsellors and encouraging vocational discussions with students. In closing, I welcome the introduction of the bill and commend it to the house.

Pauline RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (18:12): I am very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024. But before I do, as I think nearly every speaker has done, it is appropriate for us to reflect on the extraordinary sadness that I think has enveloped the conversation we are having about education today in the context of Auburn South Primary School. I think we are seeing the best of ourselves and the best of each other when we do stop and reflect on what education means and how educators are reflecting on the impact that such a tragedy has. For that school community and Auburn High School, which is directly opposite Auburn South Primary School, it is going to ripple across our community, because a young person has lost their life in tragic circumstances.

I do want to commend this house and the way people are acknowledging that and using this bill to just stop for a moment to reflect on how we can make sure that we are acknowledging this pain that is experienced. I commend not just the Leader of the Opposition but also so many people on our side who have got that very close connection to the Hawthorn East community. It has given us pause for thought, and it has also given me pause to reflect on the role that principals play in so many ways.

I was very pleased to follow on from the member for Wendouree, as one of the many educators we have who has made a contribution on this bill, and I know you, Acting Speaker Walters, also made a terrific contribution and have a very important role in informing all of us about the role that education has in making sure that we are responding to disadvantage.

I do always take the opportunity to reflect on our principals. I know that I personally often call my principals when I am trying to make sure of those elements of social cohesion that we need to be alive to in a really complex world. They are the people I turn to and often call first and just check in with and see if there is anything additional that we need. I am often surprised at their insight, but also they often provide some information that I had not thought of or reflected on. I often jokingly call our schools the village well, because of that role that they play.

Back to this bill – of course I am pleased to hear that the Liberal–National parties are not opposing this thoughtful and commonsense piece of legislation.

I do want to, though, just quickly make a rebuttal as a point of debate in response to the member for Eildon’s contribution wherein she reflected that the curriculum was overfull. I do note that it is not the role of members of Parliament to set a curriculum, because if I were to set a curriculum and those opposite were to set a curriculum, or the Minister for Veterans at the table, I imagine we would have very different ideas on what the values are, and not just that but what the best approach should be to educating our children. I am not an educator. There are some people in here who are, but I know that as a government we allow experts to advise, and we listen to experts. That was just a quick pointer as well to the previous debate on the matter of public importance. We have to listen to experts and reflect on how they advise governments, so I did just want to get on the record that that is important for us to reflect on.

This bill actually gives me a wonderful opportunity to first of all congratulate the department, the ministerial staff and the Minister for Education for bringing forward a piece of legislation that will make the lives of principals easier. Many of us as members of Parliament take on work experience students, and the thought that there was an onerous additional administrative burden that fell to principals when we could perhaps legislate to allow others to take that on in our very busy school environment is a very welcome change for our principal class.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

I am going to take the opportunity to perhaps reflect on the extraordinary, fresh perspectives and enthusiasm that have inspired me when I have taken on work experience students. Not only have I had topnotch work experience students who of course are typical of the topnotch students of Cranbourne, but two of them have been school captains. I think it is no coincidence that they might have done work experience with me when they were in year 10 and they have gone on to be school captains at their respective and different schools, but they are also just completing VCE. I am going to start by saying how terrific Vassou Karshal and Iman Hadari were – both are school captains of their respective schools and both right now are deeply conscious of the exam tasks ahead of them. It was always wonderful to have these clever, sparkling and thoughtful students in the office. But with those two I have really enjoyed watching their growth. Sarah Moore, Olivia Prasad, Asher Chu, Lakshi Laurenston, Sarah Brown, Oslim Corick have all come from a rich tapestry of backgrounds that has really reflected the culture of Cranbourne, and they have brought their unique perspectives to our team. I think others have also acknowledged that although they came in to do work experience in my office, we learned so much from our students, not just the burst of enthusiasm that they brought, but also the way that people from a young generation think about things and the knowledge they have about the community that they live in is well worth listening to.

The quite-young staff in my office often set them up a project. The key focus of their work experience is to work on a project that is aligned with their interests and to the community. Then they make a proposition to me and put the proposal to me, and these are topnotch proposals. They also really help my office with constituency support. With their authority, constituents sometimes are willing to allow our work experience students to sit in on meetings as we work through how to support them with whatever issue it is, recognising that when they are work experience students we have to be mindful of the types of issues. Office administration – these students have been involved in really important daily operations. They have all had a day in Parliament, and they have all particularly enjoyed the social media content that they have provided to me. Initiatives like this legislation are going to make that type of process easier for our school principals.

I am going to make sure that I do acknowledge and recognise the school principals in Cranbourne. Rob Duncan is at Cranbourne West Secondary College. I was there only last week because we are putting in some fantastic three-storey modular classrooms, and that is all really exciting. It is a four-year-old school. There is Michael Sweeney, Cameron Heath, Garry Rolfe and Ros Carlson, who is one of the people I often call when I need to think about how to resolve a complex problem. Lachlan Yeates was the first person to take forward any opportunities for his students.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Chris Murray, Liam Mara and Liz Davey are at one of the other brand new schools in Cranbourne. Adriana Allen, Tina Clydesdale – I get the opportunity to thank Sally Webb, who is finishing up her role – Christian Woodcock, Ben Vivas, Fiona Williams and Chris Black at St Peter’s, with Julie Banda and Jeremy Wright, who is the reason my daughter is a teacher because of the role he played in my own daughter’s education, Michelle Brooksman, Jacob Matthews and of course Lisa Vanderbosch – these terrific leaders are the lifeblood of our community.

I also have a brand new Catholic primary school coming on board next year, St Josephine Bakhita, named after a Sudanese saint. That will be a terrific addition. I do welcome Kathryn Pepper to the community and look forward to working with her as the principal of St Josephine.

Our future is bright with the extraordinary students we have in Cranbourne, the extraordinary students we have in Victoria. This legislation makes the role of educating and leading our educators so much clearer. But I do want to finish by saying that my oldest daughter as a schoolteacher is a source of great pride to me. The passion that she puts into the role – the care and consideration she has for the students in her care – is really emblematic and typical of what we see across the state.

Our educators are our future and our children are in safe hands. The future is bright, and I am very much looking forward to the passage of this legislation. I commend it and wish it a speedy passage.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (18:22): I too rise to speak in support of the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024, and in doing so, with a little bit of indulgence, I would just like to convey the thoughts, prayers, sympathies and condolences of the Pascoe Vale community to the Auburn South Primary School community. The devastating events of yesterday are an absolute tragedy, which my community very much sympathise with, particularly for the young student who could not, sadly, be revived and for those students who remain injured in hospital. Our thoughts and prayers are very much with you all.

I would like to just also acknowledge and wish all of our VCE students all the very best as they kick off their 2024 exam season as of yesterday through the English exam. Whether students are aspiring to reach university or TAFE, join the workforce, start a business or do something entirely, entirely different – maybe have a break year – in wishing students all the very best I just remind them that VCE is not everything and that it is not the end. It is just the beginning, in fact, of a lifelong learning journey.

It is in that context that I now turn to the substance of the bill. In doing so I want to commend the Minister for Education on bringing this bill before the house, but also particularly the Minister for Youth, who is at the table as well, because just like the Minister for Education, she is also absolutely committed to supporting the health, wellbeing and socio-economic outcomes of all young people in our community. I thank the minister for having visited the Oxygen youth space previously in my community, which I was the proud founding advocate of many, many years ago now, and I look forward to working with both the education and youth ministers respectively to continue progressing those opportunities and outcomes across the north and north-west – and my parliamentary colleagues, including the member for Greenvale and others.

It has been since 2014 that the Victorian Labor government has remained absolutely committed to building the Education State, because we have long understood that education is the most important public investment we can make in our future. This Allan Labor government have set strong foundations for education in Victoria, and this bill builds on those previous reforms and initiatives that we have proudly delivered. Just some of those key reforms to touch on include phonics, updating our teaching and learning model to embed explicit teaching at its core, including the use of systematic and synthetic phonics; the introduction of mental health practitioners; the Schools Mental Health Fund; the doctors in secondary schools program; the $400 school saving bonus, with credits to hit family accounts later on this month; out-of-hours school care; the active schools program and so much more. Introducing free kinder for three- and four-year-olds of course is also a landmark reform that will continue to reap benefits for many years to come. There is also our record capital investment to deliver the Education State, with $14.9 billion invested across the state to upgrade almost every school facility and resource across Victoria.

Fifty per cent of schools that have been built across the whole of Australia in the past 10 years have been built right here in Victoria by this government. This has included record investments for local schools in my community, particularly high schools, which I will touch on very shortly. This bill will build on those investments and those record reforms.

The bill provides the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority with sufficient powers to counter the increase of unregistered schools, which may not be providing high-quality education and a safe environment, and reduces the unnecessary administrative burdens caused by redundant and inefficient processes. The bill does make a number of changes and amendments to strengthening VRQA’s compliance and enforcement powers to address gaps and inconsistencies in their powers and of course to reduce those unnecessary burdens. There are quite a number of reforms contained that are minor in substance but quite important in terms of the context of improving the capacity of VRQA’s work. I refer to other members’ contributions for the detail on those reforms, but fundamentally as I said this bill will help us continue delivering a better, fairer and more inclusive education system for local principals, teachers, students and families alike.

It is in this context that I turn to the release of my community’s first-ever dedicated education plan. Secondary schools in Merri-Bek North are now joining forces to maximise student outcomes, engagement and inclusion thanks to our Labor government. The Minister for Education, the Deputy Premier, on Thursday 24 October – just last week – launched the Merri-bek North education plan after a thorough consultation and partnership-building process to identify community needs and the unique challenges and strengths of our school communities. The schools involved in the plan include Coburg High School, Glenroy College, John Fawkner College and Pascoe Vale Girls College. The top priorities identified in the Merri-bek North education plan are: excellence in teaching and learning, because we know supporting our teachers from the outset will be crucial to supporting those outcomes for young people; a greater focus on student wellbeing and inclusive behaviour and positive behaviours; as well as providing for a diverse and high-quality range of subject offerings and learning opportunities for all students regardless of which Merri-bek North high school they attend.

The consultation and engagement also found that students in the area need individualised support and pathways, which is exactly what the Merri-bek North education plan will deliver on. The plan will transform education in the area over the next 10 years, creating more opportunities for students and building stronger connections between schools and our local community. Schools involved will be able to share resources and expertise, giving students more opportunities to take classes and participate in activities that may not have been available to them previously. The plan will allow our local secondary schools to leverage their shared vision to establish strong partnerships with tertiary education providers as well as promoting vocational pathways in local growth industries such as advanced manufacturing, science, health care and education.

We will also continue to assess the buildings at each of these local high schools to ensure they continue to be up-to-date, maximising learning opportunities for all students. This will be supported – which I was very happy to see the minister commit to and announce – by a $50,000 update towards the development of the new master plan for Glenroy College, which will ensure the buildings at that school will also continue to meet the needs of the community.

These initiatives through the plan will build on that record investment I was referring to earlier that we have delivered since 2014 to upgrade all of our local high schools, including the $14.5 million towards John Fawkner College for a new science and visual arts building and a new food technology building and $17.8 million towards Coburg High School to deliver a new two-storey technology building, creating space for 250 additional students. We have just recently appointed the builders, and works are now well and truly underway at the school. There was $11.9 million towards Pascoe Vale Girls College to build a new arts and technology centre, which has been in operation since the start of term 4 and which we are officially opening later on this year. I would love to have you, Acting Speaker Walters, member for Greenvale, in attendance at that with the minister, hopefully. There was $9.2 million budgeted towards Glenroy College for their new senior and junior school learning resource centre, admin centre and staff hub, which is now well and truly open.

Our government recognises the unique strengths and characteristics of each of these local high schools across Merri-bek North, and this plan ensures our community proudly will have our localised vision for excellence and wellbeing in education for the first time over the next decade to come. By investing in and supporting our local teachers and offering that broad, engaging and diverse learning environment through the plan and improving infrastructure, we will be able to deliver on each of those outcomes over the next 10 years.

I particularly want to thank all those who were involved in and consulted in putting the plan together. The plan apparently had the highest level of feedback of any education plan that the Department of Education have conducted across the state, so quite comprehensive consultation and feedback has been incorporated. To all of the school communities, parents, families, students and stakeholders who participated I say thank you, and also to our local principals: Brent Houghton from Coburg High, Kay Peddle from Pascoe Vale Girls, Dr Lisa Vinnicombe from John Fawkner College and Andrew Self, the deputy principal, who is a Coburg North resident, and Andrew Arney, the principal of course at Glenroy.

As I said, underpinning all this will be the school staff, including the teachers, and implementation of this plan will occur in stages so that schools are not overwhelmed. Staff will have those opportunities to deepen their skills and benefit from the training and personal development as the plan is rolled out over the coming years. But I am pleased to say quite a few of those initiatives are already well and truly underway, and we look forward to confirming and announcing those over the coming months as they get finalised and as they roll out.

With the time I have, in the spirit of this bill, I would like to also congratulate the Pascoe Vale South Primary School community on having celebrated their 70th birthday last week. It was a pleasure to attend and cut the cake to celebrate, highlighting the Victorian Labor government’s record $5 million-plus investment towards upgrading the school’s facilities since 2014, the biggest level of investment the school has ever received in its 70-year history, with new classrooms, learning and indoor spaces, and a new school indoor multipurpose space. It was also a pleasure to highlight my ongoing support for the school’s continued advocacy around the need for a new covered outdoor learning area, a COLA, with the school having collected a 1400-signature petition that I have sponsored and look forward to tabling here in Parliament I believe potentially tomorrow, and ongoing advocacy for a new 40-kilometre school speed zone on Coonans Road and the introduction of a school crossing supervisor, which I also encourage council to support. Commendations to Carmel Lancuba and the school community.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (18:32): It was wonderful to hear about the member for Pascoe Vale cutting the cake at his local school, because on this side of the chamber we cut cakes and on that side of the chamber they cut everything else. So I was glad to hear about the cake cutting. But what we did not hear about earlier today from those opposite was their policy agenda for education. We were subjected, shall I say, to 10 minutes from the member for Sandringham, a senior member of the Liberal Party and a named contender for leadership. He had 10 minutes to speak about education in this place, and he did speak about some numbers. He spoke about 825 – that was the bus route which he spent the entire 10 minutes talking about. When he could have been speaking about quality education for children, he focused solely on an issue with a local bus. I am sure it is an important issue, and I absolutely think all children should have access to accessible public transport to get to school. But what about the rest of the day? But what about the rest of the students’ day at school? What about access to education? What about quality of education? What about support for children with disability to have the same opportunities as all students? None of these came from the lips of those opposite, because they simply do not have a policy agenda about education. They do not think about education except when it relates to private school fees and payroll taxes. That is all we ever hear about from them in regard to education. I do not hear them come in here with big ideas or even being particularly critical of our ideas; they do not seem to notice education at all.

We on this side have the newly released excellence in every classroom guide, which is demonstrating our commitment to education across multiple spectrums. I am really proud to be part of a government that is so focused on education. It is a massive focus of this government, and talking about accessibility of education, I think that is really well demonstrated through our free TAFE and free kinder initiatives.

We spoke about mechanics institutes here a few months ago. It was a revolutionary concept that everyone should have the chance to access books and to learn. It came from Scotland. That sort of approach to education – education for the everyman and everywoman – is what this government has continued the tradition of.

Free kinder, we know, is helpful for children in their development. It means that we are helping to close the gap caused by disadvantage. Getting kids stimulated and into play-based learning from a young age is just fantastic for them to help to overcome difficulties they may have had earlier. It is great for mum and dad, who might want to get back to the workforce or quite frankly might have had enough of their kids – and I certainly commiserate with families on that – but it is also good for the economy. These big-thinking policies from this side are sorely lacking from those on the other side.

Speaking of quality – not just accessibility but quality – this bill really speaks to that. We want to make sure that education providers in Victoria are providing proper, quality education. The best education should not be reserved for those who have money to pay for it; the best education should be for all Victorians. So this bill seeks to make sure that there are no unregistered schools that will not have a focus on providing that high-quality education, unregistered schools that might have a focus on profit. For us education is not about profit, it is about the quality outcomes for students.

How could we ever not talk about phonics? This has been a huge game changer for schools in our state – an absolutely fantastic evidence-based approach to literacy and classroom teaching. I was lucky enough to have my daughter at a fantastic state school which already had a focus on phonics. I have seen how amazingly that has helped her learn to read and write, and I am so excited for all the families across Victoria who will get that same access to quality education. It means that literacy, books, the magic of learning and access to knowledge will be unlocked for children. To think about children who struggle to read and write, what an unnecessary barrier that places on them, locking them out of the wonder that comes from learning about the world around us, the wonder that comes from reading a book under the quilt with your torch at night-time. A love of reading is the foundation for everything in education, I am sure you would agree. A love of reading is all I ask for for my children. I think it makes a great difference, and our fantastic Minister for Education is making that possible for children across the state, and I could not be more proud.

I visited lots of schools in my electorate last week and spoke with principals David Jovanovski, Kathy Mourkakos, Anthony Oldmeadow, Kristin Hankins, David Williams and John Metcalfe – fantastic principals that we have in our area. We are so blessed to have such upright, dedicated, passionate education leaders in our area. I want them focused on the children and I want them focused on their schools and not having to spend their time on administrative tasks that could be better handled in another way or by someone else. So I am glad that this bill amends the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to allow school principals to nominate other persons or classes of persons to make work experience arrangements and structured workplace learning arrangements.

I think that is eminently sensible. We do not want to stop work experience. We had fantastic Liam doing work experience in my office from Mernda Central College. He was an absolutely fantastic example of the types of students they produce there and a fantastic representative of the school. He helped us immensely. He had a lot more knowledge of social media than I do, and I definitely benefited from that. I think I learned more from him that he did from me.

But some people, bless them, are called to teaching. My sisters are all teachers. We have got fabulous former teachers here in the chamber. Teachers from all walks of life and with all experiences are what we need. There should never be a barrier to someone becoming a teacher. I was speaking with a man in Wallara Waters estate in Wallan. His wife is a teachers aide at one of the local schools. She wanted to study teaching but was concerned about the student placement. I was so excited to explain to him about the paid placement for student-teachers available in regional areas and for special developmental schools, because having people who might be maturely coming to teaching or who have not had the chance to go straight into university from school to become teachers I think is really important because they bring life experience and a different view of the world to the classroom. We can only benefit from that. Victorian families can only benefit from the government on this side of the house because we cut the cakes, we do not cut the schools. I commend this bill to the house.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (18:42): It is my pleasure to rise today and speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024. This important piece of legislation is yet another example of the priority that our government makes education in this state. I would like to thank the Minister for Education and his team for the tremendous work that they have done with this bill and right across their portfolio to ensure that Victoria remains the Education State.

This bill aims to strengthen the regulatory framework of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority and to improve the efficiency of administrative processes for the VRQA, other organisations in the education and skills and TAFE sectors, the entities under its regulation and school principals. The bill aims to amend the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 by increasing penalties for unregistered schools, expanding the VRQA’s authority to accept enforceable undertakings and allowing consideration of compliance with child safe standards for registered training organisations registrations. It also enables the VRQA to issue compliance notices, removes certain procedural requirements for voluntary school registration cancellations, clarifies information sharing powers, allows principals to delegate work experience arrangements and standardises board appointment and resignation processes. Lastly, the bill amends the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to allow school principals to nominate individuals or groups for work experience and structured learning arrangements. It also streamlines the appointment processes for education and skills and TAFE portfolio entities and reduces the administrative burdens for the authority, other entities and school principals.

We all have incredible schools in our community, but I think the local schools in the Lara electorate are some of the best. As a local member of Parliament, visiting schools, engaging with students and learning from them is one of my favourite things to do. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting two schools in my electorate. First, I visited Northern Bay’s Peacock campus and spoke to year 7 and 8 students from Peacock and Hendy campuses. Unfortunately members in this place may have heard that we had a terrible fire at the Hendy campus at Northern Bay a couple of weeks ago, and the year 7 and 8s are still studying with their fellow students on the Peacock campus. So I want to say a big thankyou to all of the staff, students and families at Northern Bay, who have been incredible during this time in supporting students to continue with their education while the school is out of action for a little bit.

I spoke to the group of year 7s and 8s about careers and my career journey, and we had some fantastic questions. One of the questions that the students had for me was, ‘Who is a member of Parliament, and what kind of career do members of Parliament have before entering this place?’ I took them through some of the former professions in this place, from police officers to firefighters and lawyers, and I said, ‘Actually, I think the number one former profession in this place is teachers.’ We have so many teachers in this place, and I think it really says something about our incredible teachers in Victoria that we actually have quite a few of them ending up as members of Parliament.

Later in the week I had the opportunity to visit North Geelong Secondary College for their annual multicultural festival, an incredible annual event that brings together communities from Geelong’s north. We had all of the local primary school students, staff and principals come along, and of course the North Geelong Secondary students. Firstly, can I say well done to principal Paul Dawson and well done to the school captains, who organised this incredible event while they are also juggling their studies for year 12 exams. It is an amazing, amazing event and celebrates the culture and the diversity of the North Geelong Secondary College community.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

While I was there I also had the opportunity to visit the human stories project. This is a project that is led by CatholicCare Victoria and their school leader Nestor Estampa. It is an amazing project that supports young Victorians to tell their stories of migration to Australia, often from a refugee background. These are stories that really open our eyes to the experiences of other young people and everything that they have gone through to come to our state, to come to our country and start their lives here. There were some remarkable stories in the room. One student, Gloria, said that her story was a love letter to her mother. I also heard from Abby and Zena; they took me through their stories. Zena in particular, from an Afghan background, had lived in a number of other countries, and if my memory serves me correctly, English is actually his fourth language. It is really remarkable that as a teenager he is fluent in four languages – I think that is pretty incredible. As I said, we do have some incredible local schools in the Lara electorate, and I am really proud to get out there and visit them and do what I can as a local member of Parliament to amplify their incredible work and share their stories of their achievement.

On this side of the house we recognise the importance of legislative changes that work to uphold the high standards of education that we have here in Victoria. We have an education system to envy in Victoria. And this is not by chance; it is thanks to investments made by successive Labor governments that recognise the crucial role those significant investments in education have for the whole state. We have delivered key reforms and initiatives that have set a strong foundation. Not only have we delivered record investments into infrastructure development – which I will touch on further in a moment – we have prioritised initiatives to drive real reforms such as teacher training and support, curriculum enhancement and early childhood education. I have said this many times in the house before, and I will say it many, many, many more times: my mum was a teacher, and when I was growing up she taught me the value of having great teachers to support children throughout their educational journeys. School is so much more than just what you learn in the classroom. It is about all the support that goes around that entire experience. My mum is an incredible role model to me, and she was an incredible teacher.

On this side of the house we can really hold our heads high. Our record speaks for itself when it comes to building the Education State. We have invested $14.9 billion into funding 122 new schools, 2200 school upgrades and 66 school expansions, and I am so proud that many of these are in the Lara electorate. I know that the benefits of this investment are certainly appreciated by the residents of the Lara electorate, particularly in our school communities. In fact I was recently joined by the Minister for Education as we officially opened the brand new learning spaces at the Libau Avenue campus of Nelson Park School. The school received $6.4 million to build new learning spaces for students and staff, office spaces, an incredible art room, a sensory room and STEM room, and a standalone year 9 learning space. Students from the school spoke about how much this investment in the new spaces meant to them. I have mentioned to this house before the words of Tyson, a grade 5 and 6 student, who said that:

We have gone from 1 to 100.  Our new buildings are comfortable and we can learn.  We have new furniture and our teachers have places to meet.  We have a great deck and a beautiful view.  We are able to put our art work up and it is like a gallery.

But that is not the only amazing local school we have officially reopened in the electorate. Just recently the Premier joined me at another school, Northern Bay Goldsworthy campus. We toured the $17 million upgrade at this school, which has seen a brand new performing arts centre, administration buildings and classrooms built. I have also mentioned in this house previously that Western Heights Secondary College was allocated $7.5 million in the 2023–24 state budget for construction of a competition-grade gym to complete the works there at their incredible school. This funding will complement the amazing programs that school is running, supporting talented football, basketball, netball and soccer athletes with the necessary skills to achieve their goals, both academically and athletically.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

There is one area of this bill that I would like to delve a little deeper into with the time I have left, and that is the power for principals to delegate work experience arrangements. I got my start in politics when I did work experience with my local MP, the former member for Mordialloc Janice Munt, an incredible local member. In fact I probably would not be here today without that week of work experience. It opened my eyes to the world of politics and government. Since becoming a member of Parliament I have offered work experience to a number of local students, and they have all been incredible weeks of learning for both the students and for me. As a member for Yan Yean said earlier, and I echo her comments, ‘I have probably learned more from the students than they have from me.’ Just recently I had two work experience students, Paris Genomena from North Geelong Secondary College and Roqya Hosseini from Northern Bay College. They are incredible young leaders in their school communities who are currently undergoing year 12 exams, and I wish them the very best of luck with their exams and whatever is next. I know, Paris and Roqya, that you both have bright futures ahead of you, and I cannot wait to see what you do.

This government is all about education. We are building the Education State right here in this place, and this bill is another piece of that puzzle. I commend the bill to the house.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (18:52): It is always great to follow on from the member for Lara. I would like to begin by passing on my thoughts to the Auburn South Primary School community. It is obviously really terrible what happened yesterday. I take it from the member for Hawthorn that it is a good, strong school community who will look after each other, but I know everyone in this chamber has been thinking about that school community and the effects that this will have.

As a former teacher, I love speaking on education bills, and this one, the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2024, really does hit some of the targets that I think we have been talking about for some time and that we really need some reform on. The first reform that I would like to speak about is that this really strengthens the compliance and enforcement powers of the Victorian Regulations and Qualifications Authority. We have heard these stories about rogue operators and rogue schools. When I found out about this the first time and read the first story about this I actually could not believe what I was reading, so it is great that they will have more powers and strengthened powers to actually deal with this issue and stamp out this threat to a good education in a lot of ways. We are making it harder for unregistered, noncompliant schools to fall through the cracks and getting students to the safe, quality education they deserve.

The bill also allows principals to nominate others to make work experience arrangements and structured workplace learning arrangements as well, easing the admin burden on them and their staff and allowing them to focus their energy on running schools. I certainly remember – it would have been in the same year as the Member for Monbulk, 2021 or 2020 – when I did my teaching rounds. Mirboo North Secondary College was one of them, and it was pretty hard at the time. Now we are introducing paid placements for teachers doing their teaching rounds. I think it is a game changer. I think most people in this chamber know that I probably was not brought up in the most luxurious and wealthy family. Certainly when I did my teaching rounds I took a little trip to the op shop to get a suit – I reckon I looked pretty snappy; I ironed it even – and then I went out to do my teaching rounds. Those teaching rounds meant that I could not bring in a wage for two to three weeks. That was the first round, and then there was the next round and those following years. I know the member for Narre Warren South would have would have done those teaching rounds as well.

That I guess led me to becoming the MP for Frankston and really maintaining that growth that we have had over 10 years in our schools but also being a little bit cheeky, I guess, and having a play on words with the ‘education electorate’ and making sure that people know that Frankston is in the Education State.

We had a principals morning tea only last week where I was able to thank those principals for all the hard work they do in Frankston. In some areas of Frankston it is the principals that provide the foundation for children and youth to eat and to have that positive social contact and role modelling, and there is really some pastoral care in there as well and some mental health care. They do such a great job. It reminded me though that you can kind of forget sometimes, in the context of getting so much done, what some of your schools have achieved. The Frankston North Education Plan with Mahogany Rise Primary School, Aldercourt Primary School and Monterey Secondary College has actually transformed an area which was the fourth in the dropping-off-the-edge list nationally – so the fourth most disadvantaged postcode nationally, with a fairly, I would say, non-apparent school community – into a school community where these principals are winning national awards and the schools are winning state awards and national awards as well. So they have come along way.

I notice that the member for Mornington lately has been – well, I think I have been living rent-free in his head, which is okay with me. He tends to talk a little bit about a school called Mount Erin College, and they are a great school. At one stage they needed a hockey ground – just from memory I think we built them their hockey ground – but there is a new project in the works for that school as well. Even though it is not in his electorate, he does take an interest in it, and I love that – that is great. But I think he is doubting that we would do this, so I would like to put his mind to rest and reaffirm why Frankston is the education electorate. So I am just going to – off the top of my head – think of what we have done in the last 10 years, just to ease the member for Mornington’s mind that we will actually get the job done, because that is what we do.

Frankston Primary School – from memory I think we built a new junior wing at Frankston Primary School. At the David Scott School they have a new refurbishment and redevelopment underway at the moment. Frankston High School – the member for Dunkley and I just opened up their brand new wing. It is two or three storeys from memory – not quite like the Frankston Hospital, which you can see from the moon, but is still pretty big and I know they appreciate it. Frankston Heights got a new wing recently. Overport Primary School has been funded for its new oval. I remember taking the Treasurer out to Overport Primary School, and he looked at some of the holes in the oval and he said, ‘No, no, we can do better than this.’ We have finally got the funding for that.

Of course there are Monterey Secondary College, Mahogany Rise Primary School and Aldercourt Primary School. Those schools have literally been rebuilt. In almost all of those schools, every wing has been rebuilt. And that is not just infrastructure – the way they do education and work with that community has been rebuilt. McClelland College has got a new hall. Kingsley Park got a new wing. Ballam Park has got a new wing, which has really changed and transformed the look of that school, and I note that today Ballam Park Primary School changed their Facebook picture to be the new wing of their school, which just lets us know they are so proud of that. Frankston Special Developmental School has two new wings.

Naranga School at the moment is building a new wing as well, and I spoke about that in a members statement this morning. I did a little visit, and you could see all these kids looking through the hoarding, through little portals of perspex, seeing all the diggers and everyone working on it. They line up and they are crawling on top of people to see these people at work; it is quite wonderful. We have also got Karingal Heights. Derinya – a three-storey wing right there in Frankston South, which is much needed, as they are a bit landlocked. They asked for it – we delivered. Kananook Primary School – we just opened a new garden there. The Nepean School – they have had lots of refurbishment in that school, including new lifts. When I used to work there as a CRT, casual relief teacher, in probably 2000, we were still changing kids in Tyvek suits on the floor with no lift for kids with special abilities.

We have also got the kinders as well. Almost every kinder has had an upgrade of course with the state government’s mandate, and there is one I go past all the time. Baden Powell has had a full rebuild. It looks amazing, and I know the member for Mornington must be going past it quite often and he can see what we have done as the Education State, in the education electorate. So I really, really want to ensure that we commend this bill to the house.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.