Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into the State Education System in Victoria

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:34): I rise to make a statement on the report from the Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry into the state education system in Victoria, which was tabled in the Parliament in this chamber on 15 October last year, a very detailed report. I have spoken about some of it in the past. In my contribution today I particularly wanted to talk a bit about chapter 7 in that report, which talked about funding of state schools. When it was written, the report included recommendation 54, which was that the Victorian government continued to advocate to the Commonwealth for the Commonwealth to step up and fully fund government schools here in Victoria. I am very pleased that an agreement has been reached between the Victorian government and the Commonwealth to ensure that Victoria’s government schools are fully funded under the National School Reform Agreement over the next 10 years.

The report of a committee back in October noted that there had been a 41 per cent increase in state government funding to government schools in the last decade – from $8.4 billion in 2010–11 to $11.9 billion in 2019–20, which the state has been investing in our government schools – compared to a 31 per cent increase in the rest of Australia. So a 41 per cent increase in the time period here in Victoria and 31 per cent around the country.

We have seen a commitment from the Victorian government to fund 75 per cent of the national schooling resource standard by 2028, but there was a gap. After consecutive terms of the Liberals in Canberra, Victoria’s public schools were not being funded, and it has taken a Labor government in Victoria and it is has taken a Labor government in Canberra to make sure that Victoria’s public schools are fully funded for the first time ever. The agreement that was reached between the Victorian government – with the negotiations led by the Deputy Premier, Minister for Education Ben Carroll – and the Commonwealth represents the largest investment by the Australian government in public schools in Victoria ever.

Bev McArthur: You are meant to fund state schools.

Ryan BATCHELOR: An interesting interjection from those opposite who do not think it is the federal government’s role to fund government schools. Well, I can tell you this: Labor always backs public schools, whether it is the state government or the federal government. If you going to the ballot box anytime soon in Victoria, you are going to have a choice between parties that support public education, the Labor Party, and those that do not support public education – that is the Liberal Party.

This investment is long overdue and it is welcome. But I will end just on this point: funding is a means, not an end, and a record investment in public schools should not be the end of our ambition. What we want to see in Victorian public schools is a continued pursuit of excellence, and that is what this Labor government is delivering. From this year we are rolling out structured synthetic phonics programs to better help our kids read and write – 25 minutes in prep, 1 and 2, to be fully implemented in the next couple of years starting this year.

There is absolutely more that we need to do. It is a point I made in my inaugural speech. There is always more to do in supporting high-quality education and high-quality schools in this state. You can only do that if you have got the resources, and only under Labor at a state level and a federal level are those resources for our public schools being delivered.