Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Ministers statements: schools funding

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (14:43): It is often said that politics is at its most elevated when it is a conversation about the future, and we know investing in public education is the single most important public investment we can make in our future. While our students were enjoying their school holidays over Christmas, the Premier and I were working very hard to make sure our public school kids would get a very big present when they returned to school. It was transformational to be, with the member for Bayswater, out at Boronia Heights last week with the Prime Minister and the federal education minister to announce a record $2.5 billion for public education in Victoria – the most important investment we can make.

We have held the line for a whole 12 months. The Commonwealth were always wanting us to only increase the student resource standard by 2.5 per cent. We held the line, and before Christmas the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, announced that he would give a 5 per cent increase to public education here in Victoria. What that also means is that states around Australia that agreed to 2.5 per cent are also, thanks to Victoria, now going to get the 5 per cent increase as well. That is a really important measure. Going from 20 per cent to 25 per cent is going to be transformational for our public school kids. We know that 73 per cent of disadvantage lies in our public education system. But it does not stop there. The reforms we have made in phonics are going to be embedded in the new national agreement – a phonics check, a mathematics check. The reforms we have made in student wellbeing under that focus on mental health are all embedded in the new national reform agreement.

I want to thank the Premier for her support and her leadership in discussing this with the Prime Minister. This is a big outcome. It builds on the Education State in Victoria, and it just shows why Victoria is leading the nation when it comes to education. We will talk about this reform for decades to come.