Motion: Education Policy

MOTION

‘EDUCATION POLICY’.

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (23:07):

At the core of this motion the Government is seeking to congratulate itself for the provision of services to schools, no matter their circumstances. I start by saying that the Minister for Education has not yet spoken, but he is here in the Chamber. I feel confident that after I speak, he will reply. He will reply and he will take the opportunity to speak to an Education Motion about the portfolio that he represents. He certainly would not want a Motion about his own portfolio to be considered by this Parliament without taking the opportunity to speak. I feel certain that after I have spoken, he will speak next. In doing so I will raise a number of things for him to respond to which go to the point of the Motion about the Government providing funding no matter the circumstances. Well, ‘no matter the circumstances’ – isn’t that interesting.

In my community the Government at the last election committed, three years ago, to fund – and we were surprised; I will say we were surprised – two schools. We were surprised that they found some schools in our electorate to provide a commitment to. I do not know how they found them – it might have been by luck. I am sure it was my advocacy. But they found, finally, two schools and committed funding to them. The funding was committed three years ago, for three years ago, and guess how much money has been delivered of that commitment three years ago? I am taking punts here. How much money? Zero dollars. Can you believe it? Who would have thought that before an election Labor would promise little children money.

Ben Carroll interjected.

James NEWBURY: The Minister just said, ‘What was your margin?’ It was close, and that is the point. At the last election the Labor Government promised money because they thought it would impact the vote. And guess what happened? It certainly did not work for them, so after the election, as the Minister has just admitted – no money for the schools. Can you believe that a Government would promise little children funding and then deliver nothing? Can you believe it? How could you possibly do that to children? There are not just two schools that have been ripped off, there are 29. Twenty-nine schools have been promised money, and money has never been delivered. To be frank, I think it would have been more up-front for those schools to not have been promised money than to not tell the truth to them when that promise was given. I do acknowledge that it was not the current Minister who made the promise. But he has inherited this portfolio, and I would say the least he could do is live up to the commitment to those little children.

Let me tell him about those schools, because he has not yet visited a school in my electorate. I can tell him about Hampton Primary School. Hampton Primary School – $9.8 million. Not real money, of course, because it has never come, but that was the election commitment back then.

Richard Riordan interjected.

James NEWBURY: That amount of money was going to be a game changer for my school, Member for Polwarth, and build a fantastic facility at the front of the school and also help with the growing population of the local community, because Hampton is an area that the Government has prioritised to densify. Now it is one of the 20-storey tower locations for this Government. None of the schools in the area have had an upgrade. Like everything else this Government does, they promise towers for my community and then not one dollar for infrastructure, not one dollar for schools. Hampton Primary, as I said – $9.8 million – a promise that has not been delivered and one of the 29. The other one is Gardenvale Primary School – $11.7 million. It is a significant commitment but not real.

Tim Richardson interjected.

James NEWBURY: We matched it, Member for Mordialloc, of course we did. And we would have delivered it, Member for Mordialloc. I feel very confident that the Minister is going to respond to me and talk about those 29 schools and talk about the money that will flow to those schools and the commitment that will be delivered to them, because a promise made should be delivered, especially when it comes to kids. My schools know that this promise will be drawn out till the next election and the Government will not live up to that commitment. They might promise another fake announcement at the election, but there is nothing worse than promising little children money and then not delivering on it.

If I can also mention, while I am speaking about the schools that have been promised money not delivered, one particular school that is in desperate need, while the Minister is here, Brighton Primary School. Brighton Primary School has never had money. No-one in living Memory can remember the State Government providing proper capital funds to Brighton Primary School, and in Brighton people live a long time. At Brighton Primary we have more than half the school in demountables, and the Independent Federal Member and I have campaigned together, which I appreciate is rare, on this particular issue, because at that school we have children with hearing deficiencies. It is one of the rare schools in the metro area that have kids with hearing deficiencies, and those demountables are next to the train line. These kids, who have serious hearing deficiencies, are being put in demountables next to a train line. You cannot tell me that if you are looking at schools that deserve infrastructure upgrades, that would not be at the top of your list. Set aside any promises made at any other school. This is one of the rare locations in metro Melbourne that specifically houses and looks after and teaches kids with hearing deficiencies. The teachers at the school do an incredible job, and kids from the whole region who have hearing difficulties go there because they know they are going to a school with fantastic teachers who do a really great job, but they are in 50-year-old demountables directly next to a train line. The Federal Member and I did a video to illustrate the noise next to those demountables, and the noise is unbelievable. To think that these kids have not had the opportunity of infrastructure they deserve, especially when it is a school that provides a specialist hearing difficulty unit, is just appalling.

I know the Minister is here. I am glad to know that he is, I take it, going to next speak on this Motion, because I am sure he would not let this Motion go without speaking on it. I mean, it is on his portfolio area, but 29 schools that were promised funding three years ago have been strung along for three years. The measure I hope of this Minister is that he sets aside the poor decisions that were made previously and does the right thing by those kids, that he does the right thing and lives up to the commitments made, shows that they were not hollow commitments, they were not political, as the Minister said before, but that they will be delivered, that they were not just about margins and that this Government will deliver them. I invite the Minister to now speak.