Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2024‒25 Budget Estimates

Jess WILSON (Kew) (10:34): Today I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s inquiry into the 2024–25 budget estimates.

A member: Is that a teal jacket?

Jess WILSON: That’s insulting.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Minister!

Jess WILSON: I want to home in on chapter 4.4.1, which covers the Department of Education’s school saving bonus. During the 2024–25 budget estimates held in May last year the committee did hear evidence from the Secretary of the Department of Education that the department was:

… still finalising several parameters for the bonus’ implementation.

I think we all know – and the minister probably knows this as well – that the school saving bonus was a bit of news to the Department of Education; it might have been news to the secretary on budget day that this was going to be a program that the Department of Education needed to roll out. The secretary at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee spoke about the parameters that needed to be put in place. Again I quote:

• how the bonus will be credited

• whether the department, schools or parents will decide how the funds are spent

• whether parents can donate the bonus

• whether unspent funds will be repurposed

• what acquittal processes the department will have in place.

Given the number and scope of the parameters that were yet to be determined at the time the policy was announced, one could be forgiven for wondering exactly how much thought could have been put into this program ahead of the announcement in the budget. Of course it was the government’s signature policy in a horror budget, in a budget that only saw Victorians hit with higher taxes. This was a measure put in place at the last minute to take away from those other hits to Victorians. But it seems as though the policy was very poorly thought through and very little consideration had been given to these critical factors, not just around the logistics of the payment but whether or not the bonus would actually be able to be spent by parents themselves.

It comes as no surprise then to see that the implementation of this policy has caused headaches right across the state, whether that be for parents trying to navigate the system to get voucher codes to use at uniform shops or on the issue of not being able to use the school saving bonus when it comes to purchasing IT equipment. This is very expensive for parents and families, yet it has been specifically carved out of the school saving bonus.

In terms of what the school administrators are trying to figure out when it comes to parents trying to use the school saving bonus, parents are trying to navigate this very difficult system, but sadly the biggest headaches seem to have been created for the suppliers of products that can be claimed under the bonus, particularly uniform shops. No-one can dispute that uniform shops provide a very valuable service to our school communities, but they are also small businesses largely, and we know it is a very tough time for small businesses in this state. In fact a report from the National Australia Bank just last month revealed that Victorian SMEs have the poorest conditions and confidence of any state in the nation.

The Department of Education is not helping these small businesses and is not helping with these poor conditions by failing to pay its invoices under the school saving bonus program on time. At least two businesses supplying schools under the program were last week owed $55,000 by the Department of Education under the school saving bonus. Despite multiple attempts by these businesses to follow up the overdue payments with the department, they remain outstanding. It got to the point where these businesses were facing a cash flow crisis. In fact they had federal taxes due and they could not meet their deadlines, they could not make their payroll, and they were waiting on tens of thousands of dollars from the Department of Education. It took an intervention from the Premier herself to make sure that these small businesses were actually paid under the government’s ill-designed school saving bonus.