Wednesday, 13 November 2024

 Tim READ (Brunswick) (10:46): I rise to speak on the report of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee published in October this year titled 2024–25 Budget Estimates. I thank the committee for their work, and I especially want to acknowledge my Greens colleague from the other place Aiv Puglielli for his excellent minority report.

Today I would like to comment on the section of this report titled ‘School upgrades and maintenance’. All students in Victoria should have access to a high-quality, genuinely free, safe and well-maintained local public school, but right now it is not the experience of many Victorians, including those in my own electorate. The unfortunate reality is that here in Victoria, the so-called Education State, our public schools are the third-lowest funded schools in the country. At the same time, Victorian private schools are currently receiving more public money than they require and are funded to 102.9 per cent of the schooling resource standard. This equates to almost $150 million of public funds per year going to oversubsidise private schools. The mind boggles at this blatant inequality and particularly given that teachers in Victoria are among the lowest paid in the country. It certainly is an issue of inequality. Public schools educate the majority of young people in our state, including the vast majority of students who experience disadvantage or disability, but the government seems happy to leave many of these students in deteriorating and sometimes actively unsafe physical learning environments in the form of ageing and neglected school buildings.

This committee report recommends that the Victorian School Building Authority publish regular reports on the results and findings of the rolling facilities evaluation program. It also recommends that the Department of Education develop performance measures in the budget papers to monitor the condition of school buildings and other infrastructure assessed through the RFE program. I support these recommendations, but as the evidence from my own electorate clearly demonstrates, they will not solve the problem of chronic underfunding.

In my electorate of Brunswick we are lucky to have a number of grand old buildings serving as our public schools. Some are well over 100 years old. Each is unique. But these old buildings take a lot of work and, importantly, a lot of money to maintain. One example I am thinking of is Brunswick East Primary School, which was established in 1893. Since I was first elected, in 2019, they have been raising the issue of their deteriorating roof with me. It was in dire need of expensive repairs then, and I flagged this with the government at the time. But the problem was ignored, and it is not surprising that five years later it has only become worse. I am told the roof is collapsing in parts of the building upstairs, there was a major water leak and three of the upstairs classrooms have had no lights for 12 ‍months. Paint is peeling everywhere from rising damp, and when there is heavy rain there are leaks everywhere. I understand architects came out to the school months ago to put together a plan, but after a whole day at the school they were overwhelmed by everything that needed to be done, including replacing all of the windows. The school is in a financial deficit and cannot afford to cover any of the works itself, and this deficit is made worse by the fact that enrolment is declining due to the terrible state of the school building. There is even a no-go zone in the kitchen area upstairs due to the risk of falling debris.

Meanwhile down the road Brunswick North Primary School is similarly overdue for an upgrade and is not able to maintain its crumbling heritage-listed buildings on the base level budgets it is given. It would be wise for the government to consider that this school in particular will serve as a catchment for many people who will move into the new dense housing that is being built in the area, and they expect their enrolment numbers will increase as a result.

As we infill our cities with high-density housing, it is crucial that our government support and adequately resource essential community infrastructure, including public schools, and ensure that these school buildings are maintained to the safe and secure standard that we want for each of our own children. Frankly, it infuriates me to think about the neglect of these wonderful public schools in my electorate, only two of which I have named here today, and the safety risks that students and staff are expected to put up with, especially when nearby private schools have so much cash they are putting in ballrooms, polo pavilions and Olympic-sized swimming pools. It is long past time that the Victorian state government properly funded its public schools so that all students can have a safe, free and world-class education.